Everything You Need To Learn Hindi
Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language native to India and spoken by roughly 500 million people, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is one of 22 official languages of India, and is also the language of the Indian film industry, Bollywood.
Derived from Sanskrit, it is closely related to the languages of eastern India, such as Bengali and Assamese, and is mutually intelligible with Urdu. Hindi also has some Persian influence due to the proximity of Iran and India.
In writing, Hindi uses Devanagari, a Sanskrit-derived script that, just like European languages, is written from left to right.
Learning Hindi means that you can communicate with more than 5% of the global population, and enjoy entertainment from the world’s second largest film industry.
Luckily, there just so happens to be plenty of resources to learn this beautiful language, some of which we’ve listed below.
Hindi Language Learning Books
For beginners, learning Hindi with Hindi course/study books is a great place to start, as you’ll develop a solid foundation in the language, and learn how to use it properly from the get go. Things like grammar, pronunciation, and sentence building will all be covered in depth.
Your collection wouldn’t be complete without a concise English-Hindi dictionary, preferably one with transliteration. That way you can look up words and check their pronunciation, as well as learn what they mean and see how they’re used in different contexts.
If you want to test your knowledge with practice exercises, a Hindi workbook might be worth taking a look at also. Practice makes perfect, after all.
As Hindi uses a non-Roman script, getting a Hindi writing practice book that teaches you how to write and read the Hindi alphabet will be invaluable.
Hindi Children’s Books
Hindi children’s books are great for any beginner trying to learn and familiarize themselves with the basics of the Hindi language. Hindi books written for children are designed to be easy-to-read, fun and colorful, and they often use repetition in order to aid in memorization.
As a new Hindi reader, you’ll not only build your confidence when reading children’s books, you’ll also become familiar with the Hindi script, which you’ll find is super helpful when it comes to reading more complex material.
Hindi Fiction
Once you’ve developed your reading skills with children’s books, it’ll be time to start exploring more advanced level material. Hindi books written for adults cover a wide range of topics, are more relatable to older readers, and use more complex but natural language.
You’re also likely to encounter lots of colloqualisms in adult Hindi stories, so being able to pick up on these will only help you when it comes to understanding everyday spoken Hindi.
Hindi Digital Courses
When learning Hindi, a digital course provides a veritable treasure trove of benefits. You can learn at your own pace and on your own time, access the material from any device, and learn how to actually communicate in the language in a relatively short space of time.
Hindi e-courses use either audio or videos to teach you, and are great for those who are audiovisual learners.
Udemy offers several Hindi courses that are both affordable and comprehensive. The one we thought ticked all the boxes comes with an impressive 7.5 hours of video instruction, plus plenty of downloadable materials to aid in your study.
Rocket Languages Hindi also has an extensive, varied, online Hindi course that features a staggering 120 hours’ worth of language instruction.
HINDI UDEMY COURSES
HINDI AUDIO COURSES
Hindi Products
Learning Hindi isn’t just about books and digital courses. There’s also a whole range of Hindi products on sale that can help you learn the language in different ways.
For example, if you have trouble memorizing words, Hindi flash cards are a great tool to have in your arsenal.