Hindi Lesson Plan - Various Ways to Say 'I Love You' In Hindi
Whether it’s Valentine’s Day or Sweetest Day that’s approaching, you will want to pay attention to this lesson plan: We will learn to say
I love you in Hindi. There are several synonyms for love in Hindi and different ways of saying I love you. Theek hai? Chalo dekhte hai. (Okay? Let’s see).
Subject: Learning to Speak Hindi - to say I love you in Hindi.
Objectives: Students will learn the Hindi words for love and learn to say ‘I love you’ in Hindi.
Prior Knowledge: It will help to know the following in Hindi -
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Main - I
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Tum, Tu (informal) -You
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Aap (formal) - You. The formal ‘Aap’ is always used for someone older, an authority figure, and someone you don’t know very well. Some people also use it as a polite address in place of the familiar ’tum’ or ’tu’, so even children can be addressed as ‘aap’.
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Hindi follows a subject-object-verb sentence structure. So, while you would say ‘I love you’ in English, you would say ‘I you love’ in Hindi; that is, ‘Main tumse pyar karta/karti hoon.’
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Hindi verbs change according to subject gender, subject number, tense, action and formal/informal aspects.
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Hindi has two genders, masculine and feminine; and two numbers, singular and plural.
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Hindi is written in the Devanagari script. This is a phonetic script. Words are pronounced as they are written.
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Devanagari alphabet - Not essential, but it wouldn’t hurt to know the basics.
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It might help to know a bit about Indian culture.
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The ’n’ at the end of ‘main’ and ‘hoon’ is nasal. You don’t pronounce ‘main’ as the English word ‘main’ or ‘hoon’ like the word ’loon’.
Materials:
- Chalkboard
- Chalk
- Worksheets written in Devanagari script
Procedure:
There are several synonyms for love in Hindi. You can write these on the board for everyone to see, in both English and Devanagari. The synonyms are as follows -
- Prem - love
- Pyar - love
- Mohhabbat - love
- Iskh - love
Three other synonyms, which would not generally be used in the ‘I love you’ address form are:
- Kaam - lust
- Sneh - affection/platonic love
- Mamta - affection/platonic love/maternal love
Write and read aloud the following Hindi sentences, all of which mean ‘I love you’:
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Main tumse prem karta hoon (masculine)
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Main tumse premr karti hoon (feminine)
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Main tumse pyar karta hoon (masculine)
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Main tumse pyar karti hoon (feminine)
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Main aapse pyar karta hoon (masculine)
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Main aapse pyar karti hoon (feminine)
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Mujhe tumse pyar hai
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Mujhe tumse mohhabbat hai
Here are some variations:
- Mujhe tumse iskh huwa hai - I have fallen in love with you
- Main bhi tumse/aapse prem/pyar/mohhabbat karta/karti hoon - I love you too
- Mujhe bhi tumse iskh huwa hai - I have also fallen in love with you
And, of course, if you don’t want the romantic attention, you can say:
- Mujhe akela chod do! - Leave me alone!
A bit melodramatic in the Bollywood style, but it ought to work. If not, here’s another Hindi word -
- Bacchao! - Help or Save me!
Assessment:
Ask the students to say I love you in Hindi out loud and check that they get the pronunciation right.
Extensions:
Use the Devanagari worksheets to practice writing in Hindi.
See these articles on learning Hindi -
Learning Hindi - Means of Transportation
Learning Hindi - Food and Dinner Vocabulary
Learn to Speak Hindi: Visiting the Vegetable Market
Here’s a look at some paintings based on the romantic poetry of the Hindi poet Bihari.