Essential Hindi: Speak Hindi with Confidence! (Hindi Phrasebook & Dictionary)

by Richard Delacy

This portable, user-friendly Hindi language guide, phrasebook & dictionary is the cheapest and easiest way to learn Hindi before and during your trip.

If you only want to purchase one Hindi language book-- Essential Hindi is the way to go. Part of Tuttle Publishing's Essential Series, it is a great first introduction and beginner guide to the language of India and is also designed as a Hindi phrasebook, making it the most versatile Hindi language learning tool on the market.

Perfect for business people or tourist traveling to India or for students who want to supplement their learning, this book's easy indexing feature allows it to act as a Hindi phrase book or as an English-Hindi Dictionary. A clever "point to" feature allows you to simply point to a phrase translated in Hindi without the need to say a single word or read a single character.

Terms and phrases cover all your conversations via mobile phones, internet, and social media in a way that will help you make the most of the language. In addition, sentences on the essentials of travel make it easier for visitors to navigate the basics of arranging accommodations, dining out, dealing with transportation and emergencies, and much more.

Essential Hindi includes: Look up the latest Hindi vocabulary and phrases for smartphones, blogging, Facebook and Twitter. Let Essential Hindi guide you in making the right word choices when communicating with friends and business colleagues, and the world!

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2014

About the author

Richard Delacy has taught at several universities in Australia and the U.S. and currently teaches Hindi/Urdu at Harvard University. He completed a BA with Honors at the University of Melbourne in History and an MA in History from Monash University, with a focus on modern South Asian history and twentieth century Hindi/Urdu language and its literature. He studied Hindi formally for three years as a part of his BA and then spent a year in Delhi studying Hindi language and literature at the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan (Central Hindi Institute). He also taught Hindi at two universities in Melbourne for nearly six years before embarking on further studies in South Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Teach Yourself Beginner's Urdu Script (McGraw-Hill) and Hindi in a Flash (Tuttle) and coauthor of the Hindi, Urdu & Bengali Lonely Planet Phrasebook. He travels back to India as frequently as he can and has many close friends there.

Reviews

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short introduction tells us that the book is aimed as a basic guide for getting you started in communicating in Hindi. As such, I think it would be particularly useful for anyone who has connections to SE India (whether business, private or as a tourist) and would like to take their knowledge of the language further than just 'hello' and 'my name is'.

The book starts with a pronunciation guide and basic grammar. These are not too complex and even for a complete beginner easy to understand. In my opinion, you have to work through those in order to go on to the first lesson and actually learning words. But fear not, there are only 5 pages of pronunciation and 13 pages of grammar.

As with most language learning books, the chapter start with simple and basic information (Personal Details, time, numbers) etc and coach you on to more complex sentences. The chapters have example sentences and a list of words as well as useful information (i.e. holidays, info on religion ) The chapters do not cover exercises - I think that would require a much more extensive book and this one here is only intended to get you started.

I think this can not only an excellent starting point, but it may also help you decide whether this is the language for you.
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