"The rice is not good."

Translation: चावल अच्छे नहीं हैं।

[VIJAYRAMPE1]

Hindi treats "rice" (and all grains, noodles, flour, etc.) as a mass noun. It always takes the plural form. (Someone offered an excellent explanation in an earlier thread which I'll try and find and repost here...)

[Kaamat]

Like hair is treated in Marathi?

[shrikrishna1]

yes

[yhagood]

I keep getting confused with nahi before or after the verb. Help?

[OJFord]

It is always before the verb.

Accha is an adjective, not a verb. In 'is good' / 'accha hai', the verb is 'is'/'hai' (to be / hona), hence 'nehin hai'.

[yhagood]

ha ha! I should have known that! Thanks!

[frEule1]

Just to try it, I added an answer without 'hain' (because of the 'nahin'), but it was marked as wrong. Is there something special in this negative sentence and therefore you need the 'hain', or should it have been accepted?

[vinay92]

The हैं cannot be dropped when it is the only verb in the sentence (अच्छे is an adjective).

[jason73043]

thanks! that clears up alot of my mistakes for dropping the hain, etc

[Thorsten781499]

Why is the plural form used here?

[Zesul]

I have no idea either. The only situation I can think of when this form would be used is when one is talking about rice grains or more than one sample of rice grains. But that still doesn't answer why they have used the plural form as a translation of "The rice is not good".