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Teach Yourself Complete Hindi: From Beginner to Intermediate, Level 4
It's easy to teach yourself Hindi!
"Complete Hindi: A Teach Yourself Guide" provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Hindi, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking, and writing Hindi with confidence.
Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society.
Features: One and five-minute introductions to key principles to get you started Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language
"Complete Hindi: A Teach Yourself Guide" provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Hindi, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking, and writing Hindi with confidence.
Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society.
Features: One and five-minute introductions to key principles to get you started Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language
457 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2010
36 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 23, 2013
I got this book in 2003 when it first came out. I've always loved the Hindi language from growing up watching Hindi films and tv shows. I was also super fascinated and interested in Indian culture and everything India. This is the first Hindi book I ever got and it's my favorite for a number of reasons. I used my original copy so much, it completely fell apart and I had to get the new version which is called "Complete Hindi".
This book teaches Hindi through dialogues, exercises and grammar explanations It follows the story of Pratap, who goes to New Delhi from London, to study Hindi! There he stays with a host family. He is immediately infatuated with their oldest daughter Sangeeta. But Sangeeta doesn't return this feeling and all the drama plays out during each chapter. You also read letters from Pratap to home, and letters that come from his friends.
This is one thing I love about this book, unlike most courses or even "Teach Yourself's" they don't follow stories, in this one there are the same characters throughout and there is hardly any "Touristy" dialogue. Everyone in the book has a good characterization that keeps you hooked and wanting to learn more. It does a wonderful job at keeping you motivated.
Another aspect I like about this book, is the way it handles the Devangari script. It teaches you it in the beginning and then uses it with transliteration until chapter six. After this you must learn to read without transliteration, which I loved because I could not cheat on it and it gave me great reading practice. Some people think this is a negative trait of the book, but I disagree. Without this, I doubt I would have ever been able to read devangari. If you need a slower pace, there is a book called "Teach Yourself Hindi Script" by the same author, which is also very good.
The grammar explanations in this course are very well done. Hindi doesn't have any extremely difficult grammar parts, but the parts that are difficult are clearly explained and have a lot of practice exercises with them. They are worked within the dialogues and letters to help reinforce it. Rupert Snell works in the grammar very nicely and it never seems over your head or too daunting.
In my opinion this is the best book on the market for Hindi. It is nothing revolutionary like "Pimsuleur" or "Rosetta Stone", you have to really work through it and keep at it, but by the time you finish this course you will have a good grasp on Hindi. If you are thinking about learning Hindi and don't what to use, I suggest this course. But make sure you get it with audio! I really don't think I would have gotten half as far in Hindi if I didn't have this book.
This book teaches Hindi through dialogues, exercises and grammar explanations It follows the story of Pratap, who goes to New Delhi from London, to study Hindi! There he stays with a host family. He is immediately infatuated with their oldest daughter Sangeeta. But Sangeeta doesn't return this feeling and all the drama plays out during each chapter. You also read letters from Pratap to home, and letters that come from his friends.
This is one thing I love about this book, unlike most courses or even "Teach Yourself's" they don't follow stories, in this one there are the same characters throughout and there is hardly any "Touristy" dialogue. Everyone in the book has a good characterization that keeps you hooked and wanting to learn more. It does a wonderful job at keeping you motivated.
Another aspect I like about this book, is the way it handles the Devangari script. It teaches you it in the beginning and then uses it with transliteration until chapter six. After this you must learn to read without transliteration, which I loved because I could not cheat on it and it gave me great reading practice. Some people think this is a negative trait of the book, but I disagree. Without this, I doubt I would have ever been able to read devangari. If you need a slower pace, there is a book called "Teach Yourself Hindi Script" by the same author, which is also very good.
The grammar explanations in this course are very well done. Hindi doesn't have any extremely difficult grammar parts, but the parts that are difficult are clearly explained and have a lot of practice exercises with them. They are worked within the dialogues and letters to help reinforce it. Rupert Snell works in the grammar very nicely and it never seems over your head or too daunting.
In my opinion this is the best book on the market for Hindi. It is nothing revolutionary like "Pimsuleur" or "Rosetta Stone", you have to really work through it and keep at it, but by the time you finish this course you will have a good grasp on Hindi. If you are thinking about learning Hindi and don't what to use, I suggest this course. But make sure you get it with audio! I really don't think I would have gotten half as far in Hindi if I didn't have this book.
May 30, 2021
One of the best language textbooks ever published.
April 21, 2024
Overall this is a great textbook for learning Hindi. It covers a lot of ground, with a focus on everyday speech and commonly used colloquialisms/constructions. The exercises are very useful, and its all thoughtfully and logically arranged. I even found myself drawn into the story by the end, even if its a bit tongue-in-cheek.
A couple complaints:
-the end of chapter vocabulary lists miss words pretty often, which means you have to flip to the dictionary at the end of the book
-The dictionary itself has some issues, with a fair amount of missing words. You'll have to do some googling
-There is so much being thrown at you by the end, that even after making sure to review and do all of the exercises, I'm still kind of confused by some of the more advanced concepts
Some advice:
-memorize the Hindi alphabet order, since that's how the dictionary is organized
-or even better, buy a stand-alone dictionary (I think Teach Yourself makes a companion English-Hindi dictionary, but I haven't tried it)
-the book starts easy, but ramps up the pace about halfway through, at which point it starts to get pretty tough. I recommend doing a lot of reviews as you go. I would even redo some of the exercises
-There's a Youtube channel called "hindiuniversity" that works through every chapter in a lecture format, I'd recommend keeping this in mind for sections that you're struggling with
All in all I feel like I learned a huge amount of Hindi through this book. It's still not enough to read most native level texts, but not too far off. It's much better than Duolingo.
A couple complaints:
-the end of chapter vocabulary lists miss words pretty often, which means you have to flip to the dictionary at the end of the book
-The dictionary itself has some issues, with a fair amount of missing words. You'll have to do some googling
-There is so much being thrown at you by the end, that even after making sure to review and do all of the exercises, I'm still kind of confused by some of the more advanced concepts
Some advice:
-memorize the Hindi alphabet order, since that's how the dictionary is organized
-or even better, buy a stand-alone dictionary (I think Teach Yourself makes a companion English-Hindi dictionary, but I haven't tried it)
-the book starts easy, but ramps up the pace about halfway through, at which point it starts to get pretty tough. I recommend doing a lot of reviews as you go. I would even redo some of the exercises
-There's a Youtube channel called "hindiuniversity" that works through every chapter in a lecture format, I'd recommend keeping this in mind for sections that you're struggling with
All in all I feel like I learned a huge amount of Hindi through this book. It's still not enough to read most native level texts, but not too far off. It's much better than Duolingo.
November 17, 2025
I’m totally on Team Sangita here… Pratap is a simp, but I’m not sure the dad is gonna be any better given the dancing background.
Vo shadi nahin sakti!
Vo shadi nahin sakti!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews