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Word frequency is steep in every language: the first two hundred words carry a startling share of ordinary conversation. Learn those before anything more interesting, and check first which ones Japanese has already given you.
Looks like: tea — familiar as チャイ. In practice: in India चाय means tea in general, not specifically the spiced milk tea sold abroad as chai. Ordering chai in Delhi gets you tea.
Three structural gifts, and they are large. First, the word order above. Second, particles: は, が, を and に do the job Hindi's ने, को, से and में do, in the same position, after the noun. Third, grammatical politeness — Japanese encodes respect in the verb form, and so does Hindi. The आप/तुम/तू distinction is the です/ます versus plain form distinction, and you will handle it more naturally than any European learner.
This matters practically, not just as a curiosity. If Japanese has given you a few hundred half-recognisable Hindi words, a beginner course that starts you at zero is wasting weeks. Find out first, then start where you actually are.
Not a random fifteen — these are the ones that appear in almost every first conversation, and several of them keep a conversation alive when you stop understanding it.
| English | Hindi | Sounds like | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello / greetings | नमस्ते | namaste | Neutral and safe with anyone. Not used between close friends, who mostly just say hi or the person's name. |
| Thank you | धन्यवाद | dhanyavaad | Formal and sincere. Between friends and family Hindi often uses no thank-you at all; that is not rudeness, it is a different norm. |
| Yes | हाँ | haan | |
| No | नहीं | nahin | |
| Please | कृपया | kripaya | Formal and mostly written. In speech, politeness is carried by the verb ending — कीजिए rather than a separate word for please. |
| Sorry / excuse me | माफ़ कीजिए | maaf keejiye | forgive (me) |
| My name is … | मेरा नाम … है | mera naam … hai | |
| What is your name? | आपका नाम क्या है? | aapka naam kya hai | |
| I don't understand | मुझे समझ नहीं आया | mujhe samajh nahin aaya | |
| Please speak slowly | ज़रा धीरे बोलिए | zara dheere boliye | |
| How much is this? | यह कितने का है? | yeh kitne ka hai | |
| Where is …? | … कहाँ है? | … kahaan hai | |
| I am hungry | मुझे भूख लगी है | mujhe bhookh lagi hai | hunger has attached to me |
| Water, please | पानी दीजिए | paani deejiye | |
| I am learning Hindi | मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ | main hindi seekh raha hoon | A woman says सीख रही हूँ (seekh rahi hoon). Hindi verbs agree with the speaker's gender. |
Prices, ages, times and phone numbers are most of what a number is for in conversation, so these ten are worth more than the next ninety.
| Number | Hindi | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | एक | ek |
| 2 | दो | do |
| 3 | तीन | teen |
| 4 | चार | chaar |
| 5 | पाँच | paanch |
| 6 | छह | chhah |
| 7 | सात | saat |
| 8 | आठ | aath |
| 9 | नौ | nau |
| 10 | दस | das |
Never a bare noun. Store a short phrase that carries the gender: not किताब but यह किताब अच्छी है. The adjective ending encodes the gender, so recalling the phrase recalls the gender — and you practise the agreement at the same time.
Say it aloud before you check. Recognition and production are different abilities and only one of them is worth having. A deck reviewed silently builds the one you need less.
Ten a day, daily. Twenty minutes every day beats three hours on a Sunday by a wide margin, because memory consolidates between sessions and there is nothing to consolidate if they are a week apart.
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.
About 500 for everyday survival, 1,500 for comfortable conversation. The first 200 do most of the work, which is why they are worth learning before anything more interesting.
Often yes. in India चाय means tea in general, not specifically the spiced milk tea sold abroad as chai. Ordering chai in Delhi gets you tea.
Phrases, mostly. A bare noun teaches you a translation; a short sentence teaches you the word doing its job, including its gender and the postposition it takes. In Hindi the gender is not optional information.
Reading gets you the grammar. Speaking is the part that only happens with another human. EkGuru tutors are native Hindi speakers in India who teach one to one over video — no group classes, no subscription.
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