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- Topic: Hindi >
- "एक"
159 Comments
The audio sounds like "ek" but it is spelled like "eka". Is "ek" the correct pronunciation?
Ending "a" is never pronounced in Hindi, except when quoting Sanskrit, where it is always pronounced.
@DerGoldmann To intentionally end a word in the "a" sound, add the long vowel form - such as एका (although this isn't actually a word, but if you were to try to spell something else in Hindi script, like "Sara" - सैरा)
Isn't it like the name of the word "ka", like we have "see" for "c", and "dee" for "d"?
Because the "a" added in the center a the word, is more like a vocalization, like in Arabic, and plays a short "a" role?
Pronounced "ek". Not all characters realize their vowel ending. Another example is the word for India, हिंदुस्तान. It ends with the "na" character, but you only pronounce the consonant. (हिंदुस्तान is hindustaan). As you get to know the language better, reading the ends correctly will become more natural.
If anybody knows a rule for when you do vs dont pronounce the vowel ending, Id love to hear it. Ive always just gone by what feels/sounds right
Yes, there is a rule. Its called Schwa syncope. Don't worry if it scares you, it basically means if a consonant at the end of a word is combined with the vowel "अ", then the sound is dropped. Example: सेब would be pronounced as se-b and not se-ba. This is done in many Indo-Aryan languages while speaking. Native speaker here. HTH
Ya true but i still love it now i can understand so much . Before i was really bad at hindi but duolingo is helping me a lot and i like that a bird comes in between my lesson is so nice
There is a thing called "Schwa syncope". Don't worry if it scares you, it basically means if a consonant has a "a" sound combined with it, it is not pronounced. This is done in many Indo-Aryan languages.
I tested out from level 2 to 3 and got asked what एक was a few times in a row towards the end.
This is a great course though- thank you so much for putting it together!!
I have just gotten this for the 6th time —I don't just mean this particular word, I mean the instruction to translate it in to English, I've gotten the word in other ways too— in the test out of the first level in the first topic. There's no way to report this with the report button, since free-form reporting has been turned off. So here I am, hoping that somebody will improve the testing algorithm.
You must go to report this on the crowns system topics pages in the general forum. It seems like an algorithm problem, so even the people who contribute to the course are probably unable to fix this kind of thing.
Having the script as the only option is hard. With Duolingo Mandarin, you can click on the script and have the Romanized word, or the definition. That would be extremely helpful, as non-Hindi-natives will appreciate not having to know the script to be able to learn to speak the language.
If youre really set on learning hindi, you should definitely invest time in learning devanagari. It will only help you in the end. Reading their script will help you to not read with any english pronounciation that is hardwired in your brain, so you'll even end up speaking better if you learn it. Mandarin may be a bit different since there are many unique hanzi that can take a lot of time to learn. Devanagari is a bit easier, and the fact that duo doesnt give romanized pronunciations just means theres no crutch to rely on, so you'll pick up on the hindi script faster.
When I first started learning Hindi, I found it so difficult to look at words spelled with Roman characters, especially because the standard spelling is almost never the exact transliteration. Additionally, it is so hard to tell if "d" should be द, ड, ढ़, ड़, ढ, etc., so using Devanagari script eliminates that confusion. Additionally, the proper way to transliterate most words leads to incorrect pronunciation. Take "Happy Birthday" for example: जन्मदिन मुबारक. The transliteration of this word looks like this: janmadin mubaarak. However, it is pronounced janamdin mubaarak. Roman script can consequently lead to errors in pronunciation, and additionally, by the time you learn how to properly pronounce the words from their transliterated form, you could have learned Devanagari faster! (Even the word Devanagari is really pronounced Devnagri - misleading Roman spelling!) The last thing I'll say is that Devanagari is really the most simple, beautiful, efficient, logical writing system I have ever seen, so give it a try!!
I find the Romanization rather harmful and distracting. Romanization is often based how certain characters are pronounced in some other language. This language is often English, which itself has the most screwed-up grapheme to phoneme mapping. Here is it the same: the sound, which is transcribed as 'ai' sounds for me (as a German) like an 'ä'. And the sound of थ, which is transcribed as 'tha' sounds distinctly like 'k' to me. This Romanization into 'tha' utterly confuses me. Now I have to learn: 'tha' = 'ka' = थ.
I agree. I'm French, and the "gha" and "kha" things, are very confusing for me. I know it's a course for English speaker, but I think we all tend to pronunce "kha" etc, very differently from this (weird) romanization.
Please, don't give up. Really, Hindi script is not that hard to learn. Go on Memrise, and train yourself. I really can tell you, because I had the same difficulties at the beginning when learning a little of Hindi letters, and finally it's relatively easy, but you would need to write the letters with a pen.
That's the problem, there should be a tracing letter exercice on Duolingo I think, but they didn't add it to the global exercises database yet.
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The hover tips say एक can mean one or a or an, but when I tyoed "an" it marked me wrong. I have reported this.
I think it only mean "an" when it's in a sentence. Alone, it's "one", that is logical. You wouldn't say "an" without anything behind.
I'm learning hindi by myself and I do have Indian friends who help me if someone wants to practice with me he is more than welcome
Hey.. I see you are learning spanish .. i can help you with hindi and you can be my buddy to.practise Spanish..
I'm looking for Urdu advices on this lesson, as we have been told that they don't want an Urdu course for now, because an Hindi course is already here.
How am I supposed to know just by seeing these letters that it means one?
What are the differences between those letter : a, ā, ai, ē, i, ī, u, and ū??? How to pronounce them?
u is a bit shorter than ū, and the pitch for ū is a bit lower, u is like u' with a quick glottal stop behind.
a is supposed to be shorter than the long ā, but what I hear is that ā has a lower pitch than a.
ī is supposed longer than the short i, but I hear the i as a lower pitch than ī
So the long vocal, I hear them as a lower pitch than the short vocals. It helps me more than the duration, as in my language (French), we don't recognize the vocals duration.
ai is like the French è.
ē is like the French é, or the Spanish e.
For the script, I have memorization tips.
अ is the short a, and the modified letter आ is the long a. So once you know अ, it's easy to recognize आ, because it has a "foot" and a horizontal line above added:
अ and आ
Same for इ and ई
The short इ (i) with an "accent" added gives the long ī ई
Same with उ and ऊ.
The basic for is the short u उ
é is the basic form ए, and with an "accent" it gives ऐ è (ai)
General feedback - the mobile app is not great for seeing the letters and subtle differences in the Hindi alphabet at this beginning level. I have learned arabic and farsi as an adult, so i am comfortable with non-Roman alphabets. But this screen size is simply not suited to learning Hindi levels -especiallu how tiny the letters appear in the match letter to sound exercises.
How are we supposed to know this? Please teach this. Looking forward to learning all the awesome numbers. You've guys done a fantastic job otherwise. Please please keep up the great work!!!!!!!!!
Their system may just be trial and error - like how the matching ones you can't actually get wrong, it just won't let you advance until you've paired them up correctly. The listening ones also help, as you can listen to the sound and then listen to each of the options by clicking on them before having to submit the answer.
For people who don't like trials and errors, take a lesson on another site first, and when go back on Duolingo to test how much you learnt.
"Classical" way to learn them:
https://wikitravel.org/en/Learning_Devanagari
Are you refering to एक and १? If you are, the difference is one and 1. If you arent, I'm not sure what other way there is..
I am attempting to test out of the letters section but it keeps asking me "one"/"ek" over and over, is this a known issue being worked on? Thank you!
In all the tests to upgrade level the only thing you have to do is translate "one" wtf who did this
What's the point of asking a question with only one answer? There's absolutely no challenge...
