9 Comments
How do you work out the letters in this sentence? I haven't seen some of them before - I only recognise ह (Ha - Letters 4 Lesson 4). But all the others look similar but are different to letters we've previously learnt. I don't really understand how the Hindi alphabet works yet.
64
FYI, यह is one of few Hindi words that is not pronounced as spelled, so that may be confusing.
actually I hear something like "yeha seeb" and when I checked the letters, it is "ya"+"ha".
pay attention to where the vertical lines are. In some cases the line sits to the left of the consonant, sometimes it is to the right. It depends on the consonant. There doesn't seem to be much opportunity to ask questions in the letters modules, so you will have to work it out here, in basics, when you see the letters put to use into words.
'This apple' is generally said as ये सेब not यह सेब. There are other wrong use of यह and वह in this lesson.
This is not wrong. Both are correct. यह is more formal than ये. If you use ये in formal situations then it is considered wrong.
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यह is not formal. It's the spelling of the word that is normally used by any literate Hindi speaker/reader. However, the spelling does not reflect the pronunciation, which is like /ye/. In writing, ये, also pronounced as /ye/ indicates a plural form. In sum:
***Spoken Hindi (Delhi dialect), everyday speech: This = /ye/ These = /ye/
Spoken Hindi, idealistic/formal speech (adopted by Duolingo): This = /ya-h(a)/ (!!) These = /ye/
Written Hindi not well-educated: THis = ये These = ये
***Written Hindi, casual: This = यह These = यह
***Written Hindi, standard: This = यह These = ये
The starred ones (***) are my personal preferences :) But one can see how there is considerable confusion caused by the way people tend to interpret Devanagri as being 100% "phonetic." Devanagri does follow very consistent rules, but one of those rules concerns a sound change created by letter ह.
There are many posts on these boards about this and how Duolingo creators chose to interpret Devanagri as 100% phonetic, hence causing a lot of confusion for people who know what spoken Hindi sounds like and give authority to sound rather than spelling!
