"मेरा भाई ज़मीन पर सो रहा है।"
Translation:My brother is sleeping on the floor.
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All this debate... Yet no one cares why the brother is sleeping on the floor...
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A more appropriate word for floor would be फर्श - it's only for smooth floors. जमीन can be any type of ground. Both of these words are borrowed from Urdu and have a colloquial use. The Sanskrit derived counterparts are considered 'advanced' Hindi. One of them is धरा.
Zamin means "Land" or "Ground". So the English translation actually means "sleeping on the ground". In English floor has 2 meanings, one for ground and the other for the level of a building (eg - first floor). Here the meaning referring to ground is relevant.
People should not take the dots lightly. or else they would change the pronounciation of the whole word. Like what is jindangi? Its supposed to he Zindagi
I've noticed online and in print items that the dot underneath ज to make it ज़ in words like this one seems to be very often left out - are people just not bothered to add it? Is it considered overly fussy to use the dot?
It's technically correct to add the dot, I do, though colloquially many people leave it out. And interestingly people will actually start pronouncing it that way as well, you'll often hear zindagi incorrectly said as jindagi, not even just spelled that way, spoken. Strange phenomenon. I would include the dot when you type though, it's more correct
cool, thanks for the info! I will include the dot :) I'm a fan of most of the 'dotted' versions of those consonants anyway, lovely words like ज़रूर and अख़बार.
Generally (perhaps always, not sure) words with ज़, ख़, etc. are from Persian, and sometimes have a secondary etymology from Sanskrit (i.e. they are 'doublets') without the dot.
I understand preference between the two is thus essentially regional, and spills over into other words similar sounds to which that etymologyical reason doesn't actually apply, so you get mixed pronunciation like sabji & sabzi.
