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Hindi Gender | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Jenniferenny Newbie United States Joined 4633 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Hindi, Sign Language | Message 1 of 7 20 March 2012 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I have time to write out/construct sentences, I'm far better at producing the
correct gender when conjugating verbs. I TRY to do so in spoken Hindi. What I mean is, thinking in Hindi (but not trying to formulate a 'translation') I KNOW the correct gender for the sentence, but either [1]I actually say it wrong or [2] my Hindi listener EXPECTS me to say it wrong. Either way I'm corrected. I feel like saying, "I know. That's what I said!" Instead, I smile, nod and repeat (multiple times). So, my question is...How important is gender in this language, especially if a native Hindi speaker understands my intention? Some words are even androgynous!:-) So, it's difficult to tell... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5017 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes  Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 7 20 March 2012 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't sweat it. When, most native-speakers tend to get these wrong, why should mere non-natives like us worry? LOL :p
On a more serious note: If you remember a few rules and their most common exceptions, you'll do just fine. :-) 1. Most words ending in 'i' like 'rani,' 'thali,' 'shaadi,' etc. are feminine. There are a few common exceptions like 'pani(water),' 'ghee(a butter-like substance),' moti(pearl) that are masculine. There may be a few more exceptions. However, they are not very common. Why bother with the gender of obscure words that may even trick native speakers into making mistakes? 2. Means of transport, vehicles are usually feminine. 'Train/gari a rahi hai.' The train/car is coming. 3. Most words imported from foreign-languages are feminine. 'Pyala tuth gaya' but 'Cup tuth gayi.' Both these sentences essentially mean that 'The cup broke.' 'Sipahi khada hai' but 'Police a rahi hai.' These sentences mean 'The soldier is standing.' and 'The police are coming.' respectively. So you see, its not as difficult as it seems at first. 4. Remember, when in doubt, use the masculine gender. 5. Last but not the least. The most important thing is confidence. If you're confident, no one will ever notice. :) Best of luck and happy learning, Napoleon Edited by napoleon on 20 March 2012 at 3:25pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jenniferenny Newbie United States Joined 4633 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Hindi, Sign Language | Message 3 of 7 20 March 2012 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | ||
THANKS! This is a great tip, Napoleon. This makes sense. Your other tips instill confidence, too! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Devashish Diglot Newbie India Joined 4609 days ago 4 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Hindi*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 7 13 April 2012 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can very well relate to the issue you are facing. I am studying Spanish these days and having a terrible time remembering the gender of the objects.
The gender becomes important because like Spanish, in Hindi also the verb forms change with the gender which is a phenomenon not observed in English. In English: He/She does but in Hindi the verb forms change like "karta hai" for M and "karti hai" for F. But anyhow many Indians still have a hard time with the gender of the objects. They tend to be inclined towards the feminine gender a lot even for masculine objects :D 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AlephBey Tetraglot Groupie India Joined 4789 days ago 41 posts - 137 votes Speaks: English, Hindi*, Urdu, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 7 13 April 2012 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | ||
As a native speaker, I vehemently disagree with this. 'Cup' is masculine and I've always used and seen it used as such. So are 'computer', 'table', 'flowerpot', 'pizza', 'burger', 'plug', 'wall', 'laptop', 'idea', 'mansion', 'pot' and so on. In fact, the situation seems to be strongly tilted the exact other way around, which is assuming there even is any kind of a strong enough correlation between gender and foreign-origin. As for the rest though, I concur with Napoleon. No need to bother too much about gender anyway, as long as you refrain from using the wrong gender for people, especially yourself. :P Edited by AlephBey on 13 April 2012 at 6:19pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5017 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 7 13 April 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi AlephBey,
Always a pleasure to read your posts. I have heard native speakers say: 'Cup' tuth gayi. I have also heard 'Shaadi ho rahi hai' although 'shaadi' is masculine according to my dictionary. Of course, as a native speaker you are in a better position to adress these issues. In my experience however, I find that native speakers are themselves divided over these issues. Perhaps if you would be kind enough to provide a few links to an online dictionary? Also, at the risk of going off-topic, perhaps you could suggest a few good print dictionaries for both hindi and urdu. Edited by napoleon on 13 April 2012 at 7:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tenebrarum Groupie United States Joined 5407 days ago 84 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi | Message 7 of 7 14 April 2012 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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One of the online dictionaries I like to use for looking up the genders of words is
http://www.shabdkosh.com/ . Like other online dictionaries I've used, it sometimes gives me a ton of possible Hindi words after I've typed in the English word, making it hard for me to always know the best choice of word. But so far I've found it accurate as far as gender is concerned, particularly for English words like those mentioned above. And in regard to the original question, I would guess that the importance of gender depends on the native speaker as well as the person learning the language (i.e. how much it bothers the learner). For instance, I'm strict on myself when it comes to using the correct gender, but as you can see natives will still be accepting of the wrong gender for an object. I don't think anyone will give you bad looks for saying "yeh cake acchi hai" instead of "yeh cake accha hai" :D Also, what you described about knowing the gender, but saying it incorrectly has happened to me as well - probably just a matter of more practice (at least for me). "kitaab" was one of the first words I had ever learned, but despite knowing very well that it is feminine, I recall at least one time when I gave it the wrong gender! Edited by Tenebrarum on 14 April 2012 at 10:04pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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