Hindi grammar
Hindi sentence structure — building a basic sentence
Hindi follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. Adjectives come before the noun, and postpositions come after it.
I eat rice
मैं चावल खाता हूँ
maiṁ cāval khātā hūṁ
Literally "I rice eat" — the verb always comes last.
The big house
बड़ा घर
baṛā ghar
Adjectives precede the noun, same order as English.
to the market
बाज़ार को
bāzār ko
Postpositions follow the noun, the reverse of an English preposition.
She is reading a book
वह किताब पढ़ रही है
vah kitāb paṛh rahī hai
Subject → object → verb, in that fixed order.
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More Hindi grammar lessons
Hindi personal pronouns
Hindi has three formality levels of "you" — तू (tū), तुम (tum), and आप (āp). Picking the right one matters socially.
Hindi present tense verbs
Hindi's habitual present combines a verb stem ending in -ता/-ती/-ते (-tā/-tī/-te, agreeing with the subject's gender and number) with a form of है (hai, "is/are"). Conjugated here for करना (karnā, "to do").
Hindi negation with नहीं
नहीं (nahīṅ) is Hindi's everyday negator, placed before the verb it negates — the opposite position from English "not."
Hindi postpositions
Hindi uses postpositions — small words placed after the noun — instead of English-style prepositions placed before it.
Hindi question words
Hindi wh-questions use a fixed set of question words placed where the answer would go; क्या (kyā) can also mark a plain yes/no question at the start of a sentence.
Hindi numbers 1–10
The Hindi numerals 1 through 10.