Product Description
The newest addition to the Visual Bilingual Dictionary series, this title will help the international visitor-whether business or recreational-absorb essential vocabulary in Hindi. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Pretty, but...
Anyone serious about learning Hindi should avoid this book. Hindi has gender, meaning all nouns are either masculine or feminine.Many, though not all, adjectives in Hindi agree in gender/number with the nouns they modify...This book, although pretty to look at, doesn't indicate gender at all.So, it's useless unless you want to cross-reference it with a dictionary which indicates the gender of the noun. It would also be helpful if the book would indicate irregular plurals, or show the plural word along with the singular form...

I like the pictorial aspect of the book, and the layout. That is why I gave it one star. But it is mostly useless...Had I realized that the gender wasn't indicated, I would never have purchased it.

small typeface difficult to read
Although there are things to recommend this book, I believe most people over 40 will have difficulty reading the tiny typeface. It really strains the eyes. I'm sorry I bought it.

missing gender for nouns - and English-biased
I have 2 significant beefs with the book. Though it could be really useful for its thematic organization and visual cues (I'm a visual learner), ultimately I think it was not a good buy.

1) There are a lot of words that are English words transliterated into Hindi (ie:(meralaut) for merlot - this one isn't necessarily in the book, but it's an example). I've checked in with my Hindi-native friends, and many of these words do have Hindi forms that aren't just transliterated from English. I'd love to learn more of those - English words I'd already add easily into a sentence where I don't know the Hindi! There are a lot of items and categories here that I think could have better been replaced with categories and items that are more relevant to Hindi-speaking locations and contexts.

2) the MAIN thing is that Hindi is a gendered language, so every noun is masculine (pulling) or feminine (streeling). The gender of a noun affects the form of verb conjugations, modifiers like adjectives, etc, so not knowing the gender of a noun is a big liability.

This dictionary doesn't indicate gender for the nouns! I could look it up for every noun listed in this book in another dictionary, and then mark itin this book, but that kind of undoes the value of this dictionary.

I'd love to see a newer version with a (p) or (s) or (m) or (f) listed after the nouns, or color coding highlighting each word by gender, or something like that!

This dictionary loses a lot of value to me because I have to use it with a dictionary that does show gender to be able to use the words in sentences. (After all, being able to use Hindi is more than just rattling off vocabulary - I'm not practicing for a Hindi spelling bee!) Had I noticed that gender was missing, I wouldn't have bought it, potentially useful though it is!

Abortive at best
I bought this expecting a fun way to improve my Hindi vocabulary.I've found visual dictionaries to be an entertaining and useful aid in the past, but this one is the lexicographical equivalent of a Ford Pinto.

A warning to anyone thinking of purchasing this volume: the gender of the Hindi words is not indicated.This might be a fine buy for someone looking to improve their English vocabulary, but it is almost useless in the other direction.

If I had known this was the case, I would never have bought this book.

Great for learning Hindi!!
PROS: I have this book and it is worth the price. I suggest going out and buying the book right away if you can. I went to my local book store. What I like about the book is that it has over 6,000 everyday words that can be used. It is organized into sections:
People( names people in your life, your body parts, muscles, brain, organs)
apperance( goes over hair, clothing, work wear, hair types)
Health( illness, doctor, first aid)
Home( house, living room, bathroom)
Services( bank, hotel)
Shopping( supermarket, florist, other shops)
Food( names meat, seafoods spices, vegs)
Eating out
Study
Work
Transport
sports
leisure
environment
reference( that names all the countries, time)


What I like about the book is that I can learn the words from photos. They have a photo for every 6,000 + word or some form of picture or writing. It is great to go through and learn each section. They have a very useful index at the book of the book, comman phases hindi alphabet, and the book is in devnagari script, but also romanization with the english meaning right next to it

CONS: What I dislike is the fact the they dont refer to comman indian dish or clothing. They photos are common in the publisher other books not related to hindi. So the photos are just ones that have been reused in many other books. I would have like to have seen a sari/saree or terms for indian clothing, everyday dish, comman things that you would see in india that may not be know to everyone.

BUY IT ... Read more

Product Description

This extensively revised second edition of Colloquial Hindi is easy to use and completely up-to-date. Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Hindi. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Hindi is:

• interactive – with lots of new exercises for regular practice
• clear – including concise grammar notes
• practical – with useful vocabulary and a simplified pronunciation guide
• complete – including an answer key and reference section.

By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Hindi in a broad range of everyday situations. Audio material on CDs or in MP3 format is available to complement the course. Recorded by native speakers, this will help develop your pronunciation, listening and speaking skills.

Customer Reviews (27)

Great for Beginners!!!!
I bought this set and was glad I did. I wanted to learn to speak, read, and write hindi. Within 2 weeks of buying the book, I was able to pronounce and recognize the hindi characters, as well as begin to read some words. I cannot say that I became conversational, but I can pick up words here and there when someone speaks to me. I appreciate the listen and speak lessons that the tapes/cds provide. It is really important to learn the different sounds of hindi, especially some of the sounds are not ones we use in english at all. I recommend this for beginners. if you really want to advance though, you have to take what you learn, and talk to a native speaker, because that is the only way you will advance is if you use what you learned. This covers the basics to get started.

Unlocking the mystery of the Hindi language
If you have been learning Hindi by the Pimsleur language system, you may have wanted a book to answer your questions.This is the book.It is excellent.However, if you plan to use the book and tapes or CD's to learn to speak Hindi, it is lacking.The best of worlds would combine the two into a single system.

Very Detailed
If you are looking into learning Hindi, this book is super duper detailed.I was looking for something that was more conversational Hindi, and what i got was something that was way more than i bargained for, in turn, turning me off to the entire thing.This book is for those who really want to learn hindi inside out upside down.

some useful features for beginners
This book does offer some assets that are helpful, particularly for a student just starting out.Its section on pronunciation is quite comprehensive (do get the CD that goes with) and it also has an excellent section in back that teaches how to actually handwrite the Hindi alphabet, which I have not seen in any other book.It isn't particularly difficult to write Devanagari, but trying to copy from only printed works does not work very well.Strangely enough,however, the author does not use Devanagari in the body of the book itself- the dialogues that go with each lesson are reproduced in the back of the book, but the exercises and grammatical asides are given only in a complex and cumbersome phonetic system that a learner is unlikely to use again after finishing the book.Devanagari is one of the most precise systems of writing ever devised, and although there are in the spoken language a few deviations from strict phonetic accuracy ('raheta', to live, is usually heard now as 'rehta') it would not use a huge amount of space to simply point them out as they occur.The book doesn't offer a great amount of vocabulary, either; Snell and Weightman's superior work 'Teach Yourself Hindi' is both a richer source of vocabulary and a deeper treatment of grammar.

Far too little of everything
While the Colloquial course enjoy a good reputation for its courses in European languages, the courses for Asian languages are almost all of far lower quality. The Arabic courses, Colloquial Persian, Colloquial Tamil, Colloquial Punjabi, Colloquial Vietnamese, Colloquial Urdu are all much shorter and more rudimentary than the average European language course. Unfortunately, Colloquial Hindi is no exception.

The main problem with this course is simple, far too little content. This leads to two consequences:

a. the grammar descriptions are too short. Colloquial courses for almost all European languages include a complete overview of the main grammatical points (of course not always in great detail, but still) but this course gives offers very little for those interested in Hindi.

b. the vocabulary is a joke. For most other Colloquial courses, the vocabulary you learn in the course is somewhere around 1400-1600 words. Many courses include over 2000 words (Colloquial Italian, Icelandic, Albanian, Czech, Russian, Spanish of Latin America and probably others as well). This course, in sharp contrast, doesn't even include 800 words, and that's far too little for a course calling itself a "complete" language course.

So only half of the vocabulary found in other Colloquial courses and hardly any help at all with the grammar. That's not good enough. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Total immersion, or utter submersion?
Four days before 9/11, Rich arrives in Northwest India. She knows a little Hindi, and she figures she needs a break after eight successive jobs as a magazine editor have ended in her being laid off or the publication going under. Neither her Main Line suburban Philadelphia upbringing nor her years in Manhattan prepare her for immersion into the culture of Rajasthan.

Rich's account follows a narrative pattern that may be familiar to those who have studied and lived abroad. Her romantic expectations fade, her terror at learning the language turns to resentment, resignation, and acceptance. After five months, her fluency grows despite her weariness at the overwhelming assaults of color, emotion, noise, and attitudes that distinguish Udaipur, the city where her school is, from her familiar American mindset.

This book succeeds when Rich describes what she sees.Before leaving New York, she studies the orthography of Hindi. "The beautiful letters, like stick trees that had bumped into a ceiling or a revue of performing snakes, came out shaped like cows' heads in my hands." She tells of Second Language Acquisition with interspersed summations and interview snippets from scholars and linguists. These may interfere with the Indian portions, but they attempt to align her own struggles with those that academics analyze as common situations for any adult learner. She feels speechless, yet the exhilaration of her Indian residence forces her to get beyond the persistent predicament that makes her a child in the eyes and ears of her interlocutors. Many Indians want to practice their equally awkward English phrases with her; meanwhile those Indians adept in her mother tongue shift into English with her often. She compares her condition to "the daily schism to contend with, of having the mind of a woman who's worked to have one and a voice that's the Indian equivalent of a U.S. sitcom character named Babu."

After five months, however, right on schedule according to professors, Rich leaves behind "receptive infancy" for a "naming explosion."Her English can roam, especially in earlier chapters, wildly, into oddly cadenced constructions, strangely placed punctuation, and unidiomatic rhythms. This may leave a native English reader wondering if his or her own articulation also weakens under the pressure of another language, but this prose equivalence may have been subconscious on Rich's part. Her frequent digressions into scholarship alongside often humdrum interludes from her travels lengthen into an off-kilter, idiosyncratically accented work. Her classmates and friends earn attention, but many fail to stick to the page as memorable characters with worthwhile conversations. This may leave a reader both wanting more detail and wishing less of it; it veers between depth and superficiality for long stretches.

Hindi, in reflection, spreads into her mind long after her return to America as a "stain on my thoughts," and this permeable nature of reminding her of places and people from nearly a decade before this book does testify to her powers of recall. Her senses seem doubled. "The lights slanting down soft yellow makes the lanes look like misty stage sets." Speech, in Sanskrit convention, becomes one of ten senses.

She tries to get to know her country's hosts better. She assists at a deaf school and notes how some of the children draw self-portraits without a mouth. Her sign language nickname there is "Plane Crashing into Tower." As she lives in India longer, she feels more at home and less at ease. She is assaulted three times as tensions increase and foreigners meet insults. "When I looked up, two couples were hurrying past, the men's heads pulled down by taut strings, the women's faces turned back to examine mine--laughing, though it looked like they were grimacing." America, to India's increasingly nationalistic Hindus, appears self-absorbed by 9/11; soon after, two thousand deaths (mostly Muslim) nearer to Udaipur, during sectarian riots in neighboring Gujurat, result in no response from the U.S. president.

She visits the rich and, perhaps less successfully given her outsider status and those of her caste-conscious hosts, she tries to talk to the poor. A haughty wealthy man tells her that by taking tea with him, she shows she is still foreign; a fellow Indian would not be offered tea. They contend to manipulate and dominate each other in a Third World economy that allows little space for mutual admiration.

Rich realizes the gap between her and these natives. Her linguistic progress signals her willingness to reinvent herself, but her appearance and her age defy her wishes. At 45, her Indian counterparts may look like paper-skinned grandmothers. She hides her divorced status but this makes her single status all the more dumbfounding to her Indian inquirers. Staying at a former women's quarters of an old house where the current women of the family challenge her can be both amusing and wearying. She must defend her reputation. As she filters it through what would have been her acquired Hindi: "I have not been bringing men up to my room. I have not been throwing condoms onto people's roofs."

Trying out for a "videshi" or "foreigner" singing competition so her sponsors can benefit from the prize she is promised at a resort, she reflects how in a sari, often like a bunched diaper at best on her figure, she looks like "a large, motorized confectioner's cake gliding pinkly down the street."Still, her inner immersion via Hindi has made her strut more confidently, and capably. She leaves after most of a year spent in India beginning to dream in both languages, and she keeps doing so today, she concludes.

I'm plodding through.....
I'm only 1/2 way through this book and am appalled that the NY Times actually compared it to "Eat, Pray, Love." Not even CLOSE. Perhaps it's that this author's writing style is a bit disjointed and she is trying to tell two stories (the incredibly dry and frankly, boring!, aspects of learning a language) and her own experience in India doing so and not doing a good job of either.I DON'T get much of a sense of the sights and sounds and smells of India at all but I am going to see this through to the end and report back.

All over the place... hard to follow
I really found this book tough to follow.I felt that she was all over the place and sometimes repeated the same information.I also had trouble following how she met some of the people and exactly who they were.Anna Karenina was a quicker read than this.Disappointed that it was not a better book.

A Most Satisfying Read
I LOVED this book! I picked it up on the advice of a friend who'd read it and was not disappointed.Rich evokes India - the heat, the HEAT!, the people, the culture - effortlessly, elegantly, and in vivid color and detail - I wanted to just keep reading for the gorgeous prose in the pages. But there are plenty other reasons to read, not least of which is the fascinating science behindlanguage acquisition.It's terrific - 5 stars!

Extraordinary!
This book takes you into intriguing corners of India and the brain, and the journey is just fascinating. I've never read anything like it. Rich is a compelling writer and while the book is dense, the writing is rich and beautiful. I loved this one.

I have to say, though, I'm puzzled by the bitter review another reviewer gave this book. If you google Rich, you'll find that she teaches at Harvard and writes frequently for the New York Times. She's hardly the bimbo that reviewer paints her as. And why is the reviewer indignant about where the author was born and how much rent she pays-- and would he (she?) even KNOW how much rent she pays?? Guy's a weirdo, if you ask me. ... Read more

Product Description

A lively, practical way to develop and improve basic foreign language skills

This new, audio-based language series from Teach Yourself is an entertaining, nonintimidating way for beginners to build conversational proficiency. Each course covers 10 key situations—from greetings and buying food and drink to shopping, asking for directions, and visiting locals—and includes two conversations per topic. The explanations and instructions are simple and bite-size, making this a very accessible program.

Each audiopackage:

• Builds confidence through a variety of listening exercises, from repetition of foreign language prompts to replying to English prompts
• Covers structures, useful phrases, and strategies for holding two-way conversations
• Lets learners assess their progress with specific objectives and review sections
• Includes a 48-page guide with key words and conversations in written form for reference

Customer Reviews (5)

My friends from India made fun of me...
If you want to go to India to have an everyday conversation, this is definitely not the right resource.I have been going to India for 3 years now for work and have been there more than 10 times, so I didn't want to be lost in Hindi conversations anymore.I have several Indian friends who are fluent in both Hindi and English, and when they heard the conversations in these cd's, they laughed.They said although it was indeed understandable Hindi, people in India would make fun of me if I spoke like this.So I immediately sent it back.I ordered a couple of other books and cd's, and the only thing they approved of was the book "Say It in Hindi (Dover Say It Series)" since it has small useful phrases.I have yet to find a good audio reference for Hindi.

Excellent resource, but not on its own
This is fantastic.I already know all of the grammar covered in it, but it is great for revision.I listen to it during my daily commute and on my evening walk.It is enjoyable because it follows a loose storyline, and has touches of humour as it goes along.

The way the first two CD's work, is that there will be a conversation given, with a track explaining vocabulary, grammar, etc.There are opportunities to join the conversations sometimes.It is not a "total immersion" program, like Pimsleuer.But I think it is better for it.Because it gives explanations, the grammar can progress much more than it does on 10 CD's of the Pimsleuer method.

It teaches grammar as it goes along, covering the major tenses, in aap and tum forms, nouns and adjectives, as well as postpositions and how they change nouns and adjectives.The major gaps I noticed are that it doesn't cover "tu" forms, and it doesn't have subjunctive verbs.But it can't have everything!

One great feature is that it has sections covering aspects of pronunciation as it goes along.Very helpful for refining how you speak.

The final CD has conversations for listening practice, without much help as to meaning.It is useful for learning to understand the gist of things without knowing all the details.

Other reviewers have complained about the amount of English, but the point of this course is that you don't actually need to use the booklet.I think it balances everything quite nicely.

One warning, it moves relatively quickly, and unless you are really good with picking up languages, you will need to use a textbook as well, both in order to understand the whole course, and to go beyond the course.

All in all, it is a wonderful supplement to any textbook, but most people will not be able to use it alone.

Great for the traveler
If you're traveling to India for two weeks to two months, then this is the course for you!The conversations teach you what you need to know to meet people, eat, drink, and shop.I agree with the other reviewers that the music and English get redundant after repeated listening, but they're necessary if you want to learn in your car or some other place where juggling a book is inconvenient.Also, there is less and less English translating as you get farther into the dialogues.A little more meat to the book(grammar review, gender patterns for nouns and adjectives, glossary, etc.) would have been nice.Use this with "Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi" and you'll really be communicatin'!

Great supplement to other self-teaching books
Anything written by Rupert Snell is a best bet. His other books in the Teach Yourself series are wonderful, especially the Beginners Hindi. I agree with the other reviewer that the repeated music between sections becomes quite annoying, but this is true for the entire new conversation cd series. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic addition to your Hindi learning materials.
It is also important to note that the booklets only use Romanized writing, so don't expect the "real" Devanagari script. The series is meant primarily for auditory comprehension, but it would have been nice to see the words in the original writing system.

Lose the English and the music.
This CD offers clear and copious listening practice to comfortably paced conversations between Hindi speakers. I give it only three stars because the amount of spoken English and music on the CD becomes a distraction after repeated listenings.

The whole first band contains information, introduction, and instructions read aloud in English. Although it can be skipped over, it is not necessary to have it on the CD in the first place because most people can read that information in the accompanying booklet.

After that, each individual conversation is preceded by arpeggios and bursts of music, then by a description of the setting read aloud in English. These cannot be skipped over and must be listened to repeatedly.

I think that the music should be eliminated and the setting information should be given in the booklet so that these do not have to be heard multiple times. In this way, a listener could experience continual immersion in the target language without distraction.

Other than the two drawbacks, the quality of the CD is excellent. ... Read more

Product Description
This book teaches the Hindi or Devnagri alphabet to a child familiar with English using a variety of puzzles, exercises and games. The letters are introduced by Sir, a cute dog, who tries to make it fun to learn Hindi. Activities include coloring pictures, finding letters in alphabet soup, finding paths in mazes, and finding matching letters. This is the first in the series of Hindi activity books that can be used to teach yourself Hindi. This is ideal for children fluent in English to learn Hindi language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good start for beginning learners
I have alot of learning tools for Hindi, but I think this is a particularly good one.It keeps my daughter's attention, yet also gets across the relevant information.I think it's a good starting book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a fun-filled activity book to teach children Hindi through a series of puzzles, matching games, and secret message challenges. The goal is to have kids learn Hindi while they are playing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Of limited use for a non-native speaker
Strangely, while some pages in this workbook list the vocabulary needed to complete an exercise (parts of the body, numbers, shapes,etc.) there are other exercises in Hindi which lack a vocabulary list or any way for the non-native speaker to grasp what is being presented.Also absent are the answers to the exercises.
The workbook is evidently designed for a native Hindi speaker to use when teaching another person the language.
It would be more useful if it had vocabulary terms needed for each exercise and an answer key.

Wonderful!
This workbook is a fun way to improve Hindi skills, both for children and adults! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Hindi, with over 800 million speakers, is the world's second most widely spoken language and one of only two official languages of India. This essential guide provides businesspeople, travellers, and students with all the words they will need to handle just about any interaction with Hindi speakers. This title employs both native Devanagari script and Romanisation. It is presented in a compact and easy-to-carry size, for added convenience. It includes over 11,000 total entries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Excellent Dictionary for Beginning Students of Hindi

This small, inexpensive dictionary is packed with useful vocabulary. Hindi entries are presented in both Devanagari and Roman script. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to acquire a sound knowledge of Hindi vocabulary. ... Read more

Product Description
Let the Rough Guide Hindi & Urdu Phrasebook help you to make some new foreign friends. Laid out in a clear A-Z style, this fully-revised, pocket-sized phrasebook will have you speaking the language even before you step off the plane. Whether you want to book a hotel room, practise your haggling skills at the local market, or simply sample the local beer, the 16-pages of additional scenario material will help you in all manner of situations. Recorded by native Hindi & Urdu speakers, the scenarios are available as downloadable audio files either to your computer or iPod – perfect for practicing your pronunciation. The phrasebook also includes a detailed grammar section and a helpful menu and drinks list reader to help you order the right dish. With this phrasebook in your back pocket you are sure to have a good trip – khAriyat se jaye! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Seems like it could work
Many of the common words in Hindi and Urdu are the same, and so in contrast to the other review, it makes sense to make a basic Hindi-Urdu phrasebook.Hindi and Urdu are the same grammar and a same common core vocabulary with two upper level vocabularies- Urdu uses Persian for its big words and Hindi uses Sanskrit for its big words.It should be ok to make a phrasebook like this in spite of what the other reviewer said.However, I don't know how well they did staying neutral and not straying into non-neutral vocabulary because my Hindi isn't good enough.In reality, though, having basic conversations with both Pakistanis and Hindi-speaking Indians in general should not be hindered by using the common Hindustani words, unless you are going to talk about politics, philosophy, religion, and the like, which you can't learn from a phrasebook like this anyway. So it seems like a good idea.
The thing is, I bought this yesterday and as I was flipping through it I already found a spelling mistake in one of the Hindi words. It's hard to tell if things are spelled right because everything is written in the Roman transliteration and there is nothing written in Devanagari or Nastaliq in the dictionary sections.I understand why they would put it in only Roman because they are giving you Hindustani words which are common to both languages and would take up a lot of space writing them out in both scripts.I just feel uneasy because I can't check the spelling of the transliterations against the Hindi and Urdu scripts.So I don't know what to think but I wanted to add my 2 cents because the other review was so negative.

Hindi & Urdu Rough Guide Phrasebook
The Rough Guide to Hindi&Urdu Dictionary Phrasebook 3 (Rough Guide Phrasebooks)

Do not - repeat - do not buy this book. "Worthless" works for beach novels; for PHRASEBOOKS, "misleading" and "dangerous" work better. You will get yourself in real trouble (as I did) with a native speaker.

First, the book does NOT differentiate between Urdu and Hindi (as it promises to do), and, given the difficult history of the Punjabi-Indian interaction (shall we say, purge and war, in plain language?), both groups get really angry when you - meaning well - use a Hindi term for the Punjabi one (and vice versa).Do you want to get into trouble travelling through the (already) troubled area?

Second, any native speaker of either languages will tell you that many of the entries are totally undergraduate.

Third, the editors did a lousy job while making the "phrasebook"'s template. You will find words like "absorbent cotton" and "Norway" (no offence, but how many of the potential buyers ARE Norwegian?), but you will not find other, really essential ones.

Normally, I trust Rough Guides, but this indignity looks a result of the publishing venture's overstreach. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the third in the series of Hindi activity books which makes learning Hindi fun for the child growing in an English speaking country. The focus of this book is on teaching the basics of Hindi grammar through a series of puzzles, activities and games. The goal, as in the other two activity books of the series, is to learn the basic concepts through interesting activities. Teach yourself Hindi grammar using the exercises in this book. Grammar can be a really interesting subject. ... Read more

Product Description

This text provides a reader-friendly guide to the structural patterns of modern standard Hindi. Ideal for both independent learners and classroom students alike, this book covers the essentials of Hindi grammar in readable, jargon-free sections.

Key features include:

• sections on the speech sounds of Hindi
• detailed analysis of Hindi sentence structure
• full examples throughout.

Customer Reviews (3)

Another beautiful book by Usha Jain
Again, Usha R. Jain provides a fantastic book with which to learn Hindi.Great for self-study, easy to follow, good vocabulary, insightful! Very professional, although the chapters are not as neatly organized as the Introduction to Hindi Grammar.Again, her drills leave much to be desired, but the clear writing and easy descriptions of grammar makes up for it.Definitely worth the money!

Great book to continue studies in grammar!
I have been using Ms. Jain's Introduction to Hindi Grammar with several other Hindi language learning books for some time now.Her book was by far the most helpful and easiest lay out I have used.Now that I am comfortable enough to feel I am ready to move to the Advanced level, I can already see this book is full of great new grammatical points and several new vocabulary words for Advanced level as well.This book is set up just like her first one with a very easy to follow format with examples excercies etc.I am sure this will really help me to move into the more advanced topics of Hindi.You could literally pick up with this book right after finishing the last one.Yah kitaab bahut acchii hai!!

Excellent
This book provides greater instruction in continuation with the first book "Beginning Hindi Grammar".Wonderfully useful with good layout for learning and practice. ... Read more

Product Description
Excellent advanced Hindi text, used widely in courses across the country ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent additional Advanced Hindi book to have!
This book is definitely going to be a great resource for me as I am learning more and more advanced Hindi. I look forward to using it in my continued studies.So far I enjoy what I have seen.The book has modern short stories throughout and after each story there are grammar lessons vocabulary lessons etc.Also there is a list of the vocabulary referencing the stories in the back so you have a handy way to look up words quickly which you do not know.I like how she teaches everything through the stories to help you to stay interested AND to make you feel accomplished that you can read 5-8 pages all in Hindi.The book is entirely in script with no transliteration of course (but HONESTLY BY NOW IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE SCRIPT YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS WITH ANY KIND OF HINDI LEARNING MATERIAL BEYOND LEARNING THE SCRIPT OR A PHRASE BOOK!)This book is for serious students trying to learn advanced level Hindi constructs and vocabulary.I see too many ratings on books online which absolutely do NOT deserve the 1 or 2 stars they get simply because a person does not want to learn the script.If you knew the script you would see that nearly all these books a lot of people are trashing and giving low ranks to, are in fact EXCELLENT books from which to learn.Take the time learn the script and appreciate all the Hindi textbooks out there.***IF YOU ARE AT THE ADVANCED LEVEL I RECOMMEND USHA JAIN'S "ADVANCED HINDI GRAMMAR" WHICH IS BAR NONE THE BEST ADVANCED GRAMMAR BOOK ON THE MARKET AND THE BEST HINDI GRAMMAR AUTHOR FOR THAT MATTER IN GENERAL.HOWEVER THIS BOOK IS GREAT TO HAVE FOR ADDITIONAL MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTS IN OTHER SITUATIONS TO SEE THINGS USED IN DIFFERENT WAYS, AND A WEALTH OF VOCABULARY*** ... Read more

Product Description
"Hindi Dictionary" is the only two-way, English-Hindi and Hindi-English, dictionary on the market. It is ideal for beginners in Hindi and is an ideal companion to "Teach Yourself Hindi" or "Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi". It also goes beyond the basic vocabulary level of these two books to a wider range of contexts. The dictionary is both compact and reliable. Entries have been chosen based on research into high frequency words in Hindi and there are lots of examples of phrase formation and usage. If you are following a taught course in Hindi, teaching yourself or planning a visit to India, this dictionary will help you to express yourself with confidence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Good dictionary
This is a good dictionary, but it mostly contains the same vocabulary as in the other Teach Yourself Hindi books, so if you have already some of those books, I think you can spare it. On the contrary, if you have those books and don't want to bother to go to the back every time you need to see a word, then this is a good tool.

Just what I needed
I am Christopher Stanton's wife, Laura. I didn't want to create a new account to write this - my first ever review for Amazon, but I was so grateful for the Teach Yourself Hindi Dictionary that I wanted to comment on it.I have been studying Hindi on and off since the '70s, when I lived in India for 6 months. Since then I have been back three times.Each time I find a different new grammar book, study frantically for a month, and then forget Hindi again for another 6years or so!We were just in India in December 2009 for a wedding, and while preparing for the trip,I discovered this dictionary.It is the perfect book for someone who knows a certain amount of basic Hindi vocabulary and grammar and wants to review.I love the full sentence examples for every word. They were great for getting my mental Hindi switches turned on after so many years.

Once I was in India, It was easy to use the dictionary to find the words I needed, and to figure out how to use them in my own sentences. I managed to have several long conversations beyond the usual, "How much does it cost?Where is the bathroom?"This communication was a first for me, and I was very excited about it. I felt that that Rupert Snell was a reliable helper and companion. Of course, only the most common words are in the dictionary, but that is only to be expected for a "learners' dictionary".More words would just be a distraction.If you know a bit of Hindi and want some added confidence, this is the book for you.

superb! yet super disappointing at the same time.
good points:VERY easy to navigate.easy to read print.it's light and easy to travel with. it has pronoun, verb, adjective (etc) guides that are superb.

bad points:it has very few words.most of the words i've needed to look up so far, have not been in there. or they had a word for it, just not the one i was looking for.14,000 definitions (NOT words) sounds like a lot, it's not.

perfect!except for the fact that it needs MORE WORDS!!!:-(

beginners fast-track to hindi at a great value
great features: quick lessons let you learn a lot but in a short period of time and at your own pace. teaches practical things that you would use in everyday life, not just occasional travel. comes with audio discs so you can hear the language. a great value for the content. teaches the alphabet from the very beginning but also uses the english transliteration to help you along.

yah shabdkosh bahut acchaa hai! (This dictionary is very good!)
The "Teach Yourself Hindi Dictionary" is an excellent supplementary text to have when studying the Hindi language.It contains over 14,000 entries of very common words.Most of these entries give the form of the word coming from Sanskrit, Perso-Arabic, and then the word you would hear in colloquial (every day speech).It also tells you the gender of the nouns (m or f),the part of speech it is, gives the transliteration for each, and shows many entries with usage examples so you can see how it functions in a sentence.It also includes entries from English-Hindi AND Hindi-English.True it is not an exhaustive dictionary by any means, but for a language with relatively limited good materials out there, this would be a great aid for anyone and get you well on your way to knowing over 14,000 common words.(Remember even the average college graduate only knows 30-40K words in his native language.)So this dictionary is a good amount and for the price and userfriendly layout you can't complain! ... Read more

Product Description
This new dictionary makes learning words in Hindi easier and more fun than ever! It is designed to be the first foreign language dictionary for children ages 5 to 10 years. It contains 625 total entries and 500 colour illustrations. It allows a child to make the connection between a picture and a word. The entries consist of the word in English, its Hindi equivalent, and easy-to-use phonetic pronunciation. All Hindi words are presented in the original Devengari script. The words included are for the people, animals, colours, numbers, and objects that children encounter every day. The appendices include everyday expressions, time-related words, and common pronouns. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pretty good for the price
I was looking for a Hindi picture dictionary for our son, age 2, and given there isn't much choice out there for Hindi, I would say that this is a pretty good, reasonably priced book.There are some errors in the dictionary however.For, example, they have taken the English kite and translated as kite, the bird, not the kite, the toy, that most of us are familiar with.Clearly they did not have a proper editor for this job.All in all, though, we are pleased with the purchase. ... Read more

Product Description
The first new Hindi-English dictionary in over a century, The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary is the comprehensive reference to modern standardized language, both spoken and literary.This handy paperback dictionary is designed to meet the needs of the growing number of people now learning to speak Hindi.It provides translations for over 36,000 headwords, using illustrative material to show words in use.
Students of Hindi and South Asian studies of all kinds will find extensive coverage of historical Hindi, together with the most up-to-date colloquial and literary vocabulary.In addition, the Urdu vocabulary of Hindi is well represented.Providing contemporary, idiomatic Hindi and English, The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary is the perfect reference guide for students, businesspeople, and travelers alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Excellent Resource
I am still new to the Hindi language but i find this dictionary to be quite extensive. I recommend it to anyone who is beginning to learn the language especially through written form and needs to know the definition of a new word.

Useful dictionary
Very good dictionary, as I expected from an Oxford press series dictionary. Note that this dictionary is meant for English speakers, which makes it very easy to use. 70'000 entries makes it a very complete but also compact dictionary. It is more than what you need to start, so you will use it for a long time as you progress in studying the language.

probably the best one out there
What I like about this dictionary is it includes
1) origins of words
2) sex of words
3) various connotations of meaning
4) uses of words in phrases
5) romanised word pronunciation
6) specifies transitive v intransitive verbs (which one must know to use perfective tense)

What I don't like about this dictionary
1) words that are compositions of other words are sometimes hard to find. You have to guess
which words it is composed from and look under that word. for instance, avishvasi might be found under vishvas and so forth.

I also found a mistake in this dictionary the other day. They had a particular word as masculine when it was in reality feminine. I have also found a mistranslated word, given as a verb when it is a noun. So it's not perfect. As a result, I would suggest buying one or more other dictionaries for comparison purposes.

That being said this dictionary is the most complete one I have so far. It is what English speakers have come to expect from dictionaries.

Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary
Can't say enough good things about this book.We are just beginning to learn Hindi.This is invaluable to us in learning this challenging language.

Must have for anyone learning Hindi
Many dictionaries are available that go both directions, Hindi to English and English to Hindi. These are very convenient.But if you are reading Hindi news or books you're going to find lots of words that aren't in these dictionaries.This is where the Oxford Hind-English dictionary comes in handy.I can't imagine a more complete dictionary.If Oxford had added the English to Hindi dictionary to this you'd need a friend to help carry it.It's that heavy with vocabulary.Well worth getting. ... Read more

Product Description
For those who find learning a new language daunting, the Teach Yourself Beginner's Language Series is just what the language teacher ordered. Each friendly and practical course introduces the new language without overwhelming the learner and includes:

• Lively dialogues and exercises
• A helpful pronunciation section
• Manageable lists of practical vocabulary
• A glossary of grammar terms
• Hints on how to make learning easy
• Fascinating language and cultural information
• Accompanying dialogue recordings on CD

Customer Reviews (8)

Good for the dedicated!
I have the Snell Hindi Script and Teach yourself Beginner's Hindi and must say I can read and write Hindi/Devanagari well. Conversation still struggles... This book is concise and well laid out with lots of information good for the beginner. Snell has a tendency to add lots of grammar to the text- important, but difficult to learn as there are a lot of grammar rules.The audio portion is very well done but tends to go too fast, in the sense that the speakers speak in Hindi quickly which can be confusing and frustrating.
While not perfect this book is definitely worth purchasing! It takes lots of work and practice to speak Hindi and this book will help you get up and well, maybe not running, but walking!

an excellent starter book
This is as good an introductory language course as I have ever seen. Although Hindi grammar is treated very thoroughly , a learner who doesn't care for grammatical terminology can absorb a great deal inductively. The dialogues, even in the early lessons, are fun and interesting and introduce a lot of useful everyday vocabulary. I actually got this book because I was taking Urdu lessons- the core vocabulary of the two languages is very close- and I could make faster progress with this book (and some other Hindi material)than working with material in the Urdu script, which is gorgeous, but much less phonetic and much harder to read than the Devanagari script, which is one of the most precise systems of writing ever invented. The CDs are a great value as well. One thing I would suggest is for a beginning student to check out the Living Language Hindi course as well, which contains an introductory section showing how to actually handwrite Devanagari. This will help a lot in learning Hindi writing, an essential for anyone wanting to go on from here. The book does offer phonetic transcription in all the lessons as well, but really, who needs it?

My friends from India made fun of me...
If you want to go to India to have an everyday conversation, this is definitely not the right resource. I have been going to India for 3 years now for work and have been there more than 10 times, so I didn't want to be lost in Hindi conversations anymore. I have several Indian friends who are fluent in both Hindi and English, and when they heard the conversations in these cd's, they laughed. They said although it was indeed understandable Hindi, people in India would make fun of me if I spoke like this. So I immediately sent it back. I ordered a couple of other books and cd's, and the only thing they approved of was the book "Say It in Hindi (Dover Say It Series)" since it has small useful phrases. I have yet to find a good audio reference for Hindi.

I would like to write a love letter to Rupert Snell for writing this book.
I was really beginning to think I was really stupid, or at the very least, incapable of learning Hindi.

But it wasn't me.It was the prevalent methodology in texts to be either "travel phrases" (useless) or "obsessive grammar method" (which is difficult, and useless, as a new-wave learner who never learned English in grammatical terms.This book bridges that gap.it is well organized, and a lovely pace.I would recommend learning the devanagari script before plunging in, But I'm having a good time learning, and I've had countless "Eureka moments" when going through the lessons, because he explained it all very clearly, and in a way that didn't require my brain to translate from Hindi -> Grammatical Terms -> English. (3 hops is difficult when the grammatical terms are just as foreign as the language you are learning!)

Good course, but takes perseverence
This course is divided into twelve chapters.I figured, "Hey - I have twelve weeks before I go to India.A chapter a week -- that's doable."Well, it wasn't, at least not for me.I like the layout of the book, the grammar notes are clear, and the exercises are helpful, but I find myself going at a slow pace.Despite what another reviewer says, you NEVER have to learn the Devanagari script with this course.(I started to learn it, but then realized I didn't need it to make friends, eat, sleep, or shop.)Exercises are given in both script and romanization throughout the book.I wish there was more dialogue practice on the CDs, but I ended up buying the "Teach Yourself Hindi Conversation" CDs which provide extra listening and speaking practice.All in all, this course may be more than you need to survive in India for a month or so, but it's certainly worth starting with. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

(once again) Amazing!
I only have praise for Usha R. Jain's books.This is by far my favorite (I now own all three and am veryyyy happy with all of them!).It provides great vocabulary on each section, and you can go through good examples of Hindi literature without having to flip through a dictionary.All the tough words are at the end of each excerpt.Good poems, articles, essays, short stories! I only wish that she would put something on there by more well-known Indian authors, not just herself and Gandhi.Although she does have some, she should have put more ( I realize, however, that it is difficult to find texts for intermediate students).A fantastic reader!

EXCELLENT READER FOR HINDI!
As usual another top notch book from Usha Jain.I now have all 3 of her books.I was very eager to receive this and it is an excellent reader that REALLY does make you feel like you are able to read in Hindi.It has all the words you shouldn't know yet right after the story for easy reference so you don't have to use a dictionary for everything.The words are in the order of appearance in the story.Being that this is an Intermediate level "READER" it is in script.If you want to learn some words that are truly helpful through being exposed to a wide variety of literature in Hindi, then this is the reader for you.Usha Jain you are bar none the best out there on Hindi Grammar and learning Hindi.Thank you!!!!Also about what the one reviewer said that gave this a 2 star rating...The books was updated for modern Indian society and she even makes reference to it in the beginning and *ALSO* the book does not need exercises.The reading and comprehension is the exercise!It is a READER not a grammar book.If you want to enjoy reading a wide varitey of literature in Hindi while learning over 1,000 extremely helpful vocabulary words, then this is the book for you A+++!!!!!!!

A good second year Hindi student resource
I have to give this book 4-5 stars, because there aren't really many other good 2nd year Hindi (as a second language) intermediate readers out there. If you have finished Shapiro's Primer for Modern Standard Hindi, you should be able to tackle this book with just a dictionary.

Yes the readings are outdated, but the hope is that as India rises as a world power, we will see more writers and teachers producing contemporary learning materials more appropriate for the age we live in. Until I see more material, I have to highly recommend this book. Anything Jain and Schomer do is top rate.

diverse but somewhat outdated
This book presents an excellent diversity of Hindi/Urdu stories, poems, memoirs and articles. Only problem is the choice of some articles that present somewhat outdated view on India and its people. Book also lacks exercises and drills for each chapter. ... Read more