Everything You Need To Learn Gujarati
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by over 45 million people worldwide, most of whom live in India. It is the 6th most widely spoken language in India. Most speakers are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking languages like Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil etc. alongside Gujarati.
Gujarati is written using an offshoot of the Devanagari script, and is linguistically similar to other North Indian, Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi and Urdu, with the languages having almost identical grammatical structures. This means that if you learn Gujarati, you’ll get a “language discount” on some of the other languages spoken on the Indian subcontinent.
While resources for learning Gujarati are somewhat scarce, there’s still enough for any learner to get a firm grasp on the language.
Gujarati Language Learning Books
If you want to learn Gujarati, one of the best and most affordable ways is to get your hands on a Gujarati course/study book. The beauty of language books is that their structured approach ensures smooth progression and covers all the bases, like grammar, pronunciation, sentence structure etc.
Another must-have is a good, solid English-Gujarati dictionary, preferably one with a Gujarati phrasebook included. A large part of studying a new language involves frequently looking up words you don’t understand, so having a Gujarati dictionary to hand will make your life a whole lot easier.
Gujarati Children’s Books
Another way to ease yourself into the language is to read Gujarati books written for children. These can be a great source for learning new words and improving your Gujarati vocabulary, as they’re written with simpler sentence structure and more basic vocabulary than regular fiction or non-fiction.
Some of the Gujarati kids’ books on our list are especially helpful in that they’re dual language stories, and include both the English and Gujarati text in the same book. Helpful for those who like to understand what they’re reading without having to constantly reference a dictionary.
Gujarati Fiction
Studying Gujarati with children’s stories is one thing, but reading content written for an older, native audience is a whole different ballgame.
For more advanced learners of Gujarati we recommend reading Gujarati books written for adults to level up your skills and get used to the language in its more organic, “real” form. Not only is Gujarati adult fiction/non-fiction more relatable to older readers, it will challenge you more.
Gujarati Digital Courses
Another great way to learn Gujarati is with a digital course. These are designed for those who wish to start speaking the language early, and introduce learners to a more conversational approach to language learning.
With a Gujarati audiovisual course, you’ll also learn correct pronunciation, and things like grammar and sentence structure will be infused in a more natural way.
Udemy’s Gujarati course is both affordable and packed with useful videos that will take you from absolute beginner level to conversational in no time. With over 6 hours of video instruction, lifetime access, and availability across almost any device, there’s lots to love about this course.