Hindi for Foreigners
Asking ‘How are you’ or ‘How do you do’ in Hindi is really simple. However, foreigners need to take care that the sentences change with the gender.
I have tried to provide all the variations that may revolve around the same basic sentence.
Word Key
| Hindi Word | Meaning (Usage) |
| Āpa | You (respectful) |
| Tuma | You (Informal) |
| Wo | He, she, they (not present) |
| Kaise | How |
| Kaisī | How (female) |
| Hai’n | Are (Plural, Formal) |
| Ho | Are (singular) |
| Hai | Are (Singular Informal) |
Asking a Male: How are you?
When you have to ask the question from male but offering him some respect due to age, position, or if the person is not informally comfortable with you (like if you have met him once or twice).
Just notice the ‘n. It’s the small nasal sound that may totally change the meaning of the word. This is very particular to Hindi and is different from the usual function played by Anuswāra.
Asking a Female: How are you?
When you have to ask the same question from a female but offering her some respect due to age, position, or if the person is not informally comfortable with you (like if you have met her once or twice).
Asking a male informally
This expression is used when you have to address the person informally due to friendly comfort, young age, or low in position.
Asking a female informally
This expression is used when you have to address a woman informally due to friendly comfort, young age, or low in position.
Asking about a male not present at the scene
This expression is used when you have to ask about a male who is not present at the scene.
Asking about a female not present at the scene
This expression is used when you have to ask about a female who is not present at the scene.
Asking about a male not present at the scene (Informal)
This expression is used when you have to ask about a female who is not present at the scene but in an informal way due to young age, authority, etc.
Asking about a female not present at the scene (Informal)
This expression is used when you have to ask about a female who is not present at the scene but in an informal way.
Asking in plural
All the above expressions are used for singular version only. If you have to ask for plural subjects, you can add a single word to all of them after the first word and it will take care of every condition that might be there.
The word that you can add is सभी, which is read as “Sabhī”.
For example, it will now read as:
Wo Sabhī Kaise Hai’n?
Tum Sabhī Kaise Ho?
Further, in day-to-day usage, this word takes the for of “Saba”, which speaking.
