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Autos, trains, bargaining and the phrases that change how you are treated.
A traveller needs a small, specific set of Hindi, learned to the point of reflex rather than recognition. Recognition is useless at a ticket counter.
The core is: यह कितने का है (how much is this), … कहाँ है (where is …), मुझे … जाना है (I want to go to …), and the numbers to a hundred so you can catch the answer. Everything else can be pointed at.
For autos and taxis, मीटर से चलिए — go by the meter — said first and calmly, changes the negotiation before it starts. सीधे, बाएँ, दाएँ handle directions. यहीं रोकिए stops the vehicle.
For bargaining, थोड़ा कम कीजिए (make it a bit less) is the polite standard opening and बहुत महँगा है (that is very expensive) the standard response to a first price. Bargaining is expected in markets and not in shops with printed prices; doing it in the wrong place is awkward rather than offensive.
The largest single effect is not any phrase. It is attempting Hindi at all. A visitor who says नमस्ते and तीन चाय instead of pointing is treated measurably differently, and the effort registers long before the grammar is right.
| English | Hindi | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| I don't understand | मुझे समझ नहीं आया | mujhe samajh nahin aaya |
| Please speak slowly | ज़रा धीरे बोलिए | zara dheere boliye |
| Say it again, please | फिर से कहिए | phir se kahiye |
| Do you speak English? | क्या आप अंग्रेज़ी बोलते हैं? | kya aap angrezi bolte hain |
| What does this mean? | इसका क्या मतलब है? | iska kya matlab hai |
| How do you say this in Hindi? | इसे हिंदी में क्या कहते हैं? | ise hindi mein kya kehte hain |
| Help! | मदद कीजिए! | madad keejiye |
| I need a doctor | मुझे डॉक्टर चाहिए | mujhe doctor chahiye |
| Where is the toilet? | बाथरूम कहाँ है? | bathroom kahaan hai |
| How much is this? | यह कितने का है? | yeh kitne ka hai |
| That's too expensive | यह बहुत महँगा है | yeh bahut mehanga hai |
| Please reduce the price a little | थोड़ा कम कीजिए | thoda kam keejiye |
Devanagari is easy to get slightly wrong when it is typed by hand — a missing matra, the wrong nukta. If something here looks off to you, trust a native speaker over this page and please tell us so it gets fixed — it takes a moment and a real person reads it. Romanised spellings are a guide to the sound, not a standard: there is no single official way to write Hindi in Latin letters.
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