Hindi lesson 3: Question words
As you may have noticed in the last lesson, unlike English, question words in Hindi take the answer’s place in the sentence, instead of coming first. These are some basic question words that exist in English:
कौन (kaun) - who (as mentioned in a previous lesson)
क्यों (kyon) - why (colloquially pronounced kyun)
*There are multiple ways to say some question words depending on case, or the speaker’s dialect. This word in particular. But worry about them for now!
**कैसे changes depending on the number and gender of what you’re asking about. This will be done in detail later, but:
कैसा (kaisa) is masculine.
कैसी (kaisi) is feminine.
कैसे (kaise) is formal or plural.
लड़की कैसी है? (Ladki kaisi hai?) - how is the girl?
लड़का कैसा है? (Ladka kaisa hai?) - how is the boy?
आप कैसे हैं? (aap kaise ho?) - how are you (formal)?
Examples for the other question words
पार्टी कब है? (parti kab hai?) - When is the party?
तुम कौन हो? (tum kaun ho?) - Who are you?
विद्यालय किधर है? (vidhyalay kidhar hai?) - Where is the school?