Indian phrases and word to use HELP?

karmaquest

When your in India can you call men in general "baba gee"? or just baba? is this rude and disrespectful? or just a normal every day way to call over someone etc like a rickshaw driver or a waiter or just anyone male?

Also can anyone give me some tips or general conversation to use in Hindi?

Like how much is this?

and other such phrases?
thanks!

ddutta

In general you can call men in India as " Bhai Saab " / " Bhaiya ji "( Brother ) specially for Hotel people / Drivers / Shop owner or just anyone in general. For women it is " Bhabiji " ( for married women ) or simply "Bahenji " (sister ) will do.

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Tashi

how much is it: kitne paise hai
i don't need anyting: kuch nahiin chahiye, bhaii
where is the ...: ... kahaan hai?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10: ek do tin chaar paanch cheh saath aath nau das

lonelyaztec

If you want to scream 'Help Help' as in "Save me' loudly - say BACHAO BACHAO

Hopefully, u will not get into situations where u will have to scream for Help

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IndyBoy

so, the next phrase after "kitne paise hai?" (how much is it? : lit: how many pennies?) would be:
"Naya......bahut manga hai!" = NOOOO!! Too expensive!

And the most usefull word ever is "Achaa" (said atch-a) which means good, OK, whatever, umm, .....

guerik

More useful phrases:

Aap ka naam kya hai? - What is your name?
Aur roti dijiye - More roti please (or more whatever)
Shahrukh sab se accha hero hai!

*Gudbjorg*

All I remember at the moment is how to swear pretty offensivly ROFL I doubt that will be usefull! But tik hei is used alot as in okay....but I found body languege the most usefull thing!

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AngelEyes

IMO you shouldn't really call people 'babaji' its not really rude but its just niche.
Call them 'bhaiyya' (brother) pronounced as 'bhai-yya'
or you can simply say 'suniye' (listen) pronouced as 'soo-ni-ye'

Other common phrases which would help you are -
How much is this (cost-wise)- Kitna hua pronouced as 'Ki-ta-naa hoo-ah'
I don't want it - Nahi Chahiye pronouced as 'Na-hee Chaa-hi-ye'
Thank you - Dhanyavaad pronounced as 'Dha-nya-vaa-da'
Forgive me / Sorry - Maaf Karna pronounced as 'Maa-fa Ka-ra-naa'

Mostly all locals will be able to understand common english phrases (provided you don't have a heavy accent)
If you need any more phrases just PM me.
Hope this helps.

Rothrock

I haven't been to India,but I live in a very desi neighborhood. (A lot of pakistanis so a bit more urduized perhaps.) A few things I've found in the shops, restaurants, and pan-wallahs:

Reference to a woman that I don't know apaa-jan (if she is most likely moslem) or didiiji (if she is most likely hindu)

bhai or bhaiya for a guy. Make sure to breath out and asperate that "bh" at the beginning.

shukriya for thank you instead of dhanyavaad. I don't know why, but it seems to be more used in my neighborhood. Unless I know they are bangla in which case I do use dhanyavaad.

kya hua? is "what happened/happening" so if you come upon some scene you can ask that.

I've found that even just a few words will really grease the skids – at least in my neighborhood. If you use a few you might be asked (aap ko) hindi atti hai? Which literally means Does hindi come to you?

And as *Gudbjorg* says body language is very important. Work on the head waggle. I can't tell you how often I will be walking on the street and it will be crowded. I need to get through and I catch someone's eye. I give a little head waggle and suddenly they smile and get that I know what is going on, and suddenly I can get through.

Same thing with getting a chai or something a little "hello" with waggle and ask for the chai and they seem to warm up a great deal.

AngelEyes

Actually, dhanyavaad is Hindi and shukriya is Urdu. Usually people speak Hindi in India, but Urdu and Hindi are very very similar. So both dhanyavaad and shukriya are fine.

Nick-H

"OK", "Ah, Correct" and "No Problem" will get you a long way

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Rothrock

I was talking with my friend from pakistan yesterday about uses for maaf karna. In general they don't use it like we would use excuse me in the west – bumping into somebody or some such.

His first use that sprang to mind was with the beggars. He would use the least polite form "maaf karna" and a little sort of vertical salute. As if to say, "forgive me, but we're done here." The salute is the same he would use for somebody who was just talking and talking and talking… I've seen folks use it (never with me!) and didn't quite know what it was. I'm thinking in that context it is kind of "okay, okay, I see where you are going with this, but let's just get done."

Of course if you are speaking with friends or acquaintances of your own age – peers – then you would use the more polite form maaf karo. And with parents, elders, etc. the polite form maaf kijiye. But again this wouldn't be for the often trivial things we say sorry for in the west, but things that (by desi standards) truly required forgiveness. For the other things, just use the English "sorry" and wiggle your head a bit with eyes turned down.

AngelEyes – intellectually I knew they were from the different languages, but my experience has seemed to be that most people I spoke with used the urdu. That could be because a lot of the folks I know are pakistani, but it seemed the indians used it to – of course I think most of the indians I know are from around luknow. Maybe that has something to do with it too?

AngelEyes

Frankly speaking, unless your a Hindi pandit, its difficult to speak in PURE Hndi. Many Hindi and Urdu words are the same. While Muslims can speak PURE Urdu, Hindus speak a mix of Urdu and Hindi, depending on their location.
Lucknow has a majority of Muslims, perhaps that is the reason why you heard more Urdu.

And its true, 'maaf karo' is not as common as 'sorry' in the west. But like I said, the very basic English words are understood by everyone.

Merchant

Linguists don't make a distinction between Hindi and Urdu beyond lexical trends--if there are more words from Sanskrit, people call it Hindi; if there are more words from Arabic, they call it Urdu. The scripts are different, but the spoken languages are mutually intelligible.

rahul__rahul__

well if youre telling someone where you want to go:

mujhe (where you want to go) jaana hai
i want to go to (where you want to go)

so if you wanted to go to Chandni Chowk

mujhe Chandni Chowk jaana hai
I want to go to Chandni Chowk

for names:
My name is (name)
Mera naam (name) hai
so..
Mera naam Rahul hai.
My name is Rahul

for food:
Mujhe (what food) khana hai
I want to eat (what food)
so..
Mujhe sandwich khana hai
I want to eat a sandwich.


numbers:

1=ek
2=do(like dough)
3=teen
4=chaar
5=paanch
6=chei
7=saat
8=aath
9=naw
10=das
11=gyaara
12=baara
13=tera
14=chauda
15=pandra
16=sola
17=satra
18=athara
19=unnis
20=bees

how are you=Aap kaise hain?

I am fine=main theek hoon

Do you know how to speak English?=Aapko Angrezi aati hai?

and if you call a lady who is in her 20's or 30's BHABI, you will most likely make her feel old.