A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 23

1. Directions = दिशाएँ

2. ऐसा / वैसा / जैसा

3. इतना / उतना / जितना

4. फ़र्क़ / अन्तर

5. The Passive

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23.1	Directions = दिशाएँ

Learn the compass directions in Hindi-Urdu:

	Hindi	Urdu
North	उत्तर	शिमाल
South	दक्षिण	जनूब
East	पूरब, पूर्व	मशरिक़
West	पश्चिम	मग़रिब

Each of the above also has a corresponding adjective:

	Hindi	Urdu
Northern	उत्तरी	शिमाली
Southern	दक्षिणी	जनूबी
Eastern	पूरबी, पूर्वी	मशरिक़ी
Western	पश्चिमी	मग़रिबी

“Toward” in Hindi is तरफ़ or ओर (both feminine nouns).

X की तरफ़ = in the direction of X

मेरी ओर / मेरी तरफ़ = in my direction = toward me

Towards the North = उत्तर की तरफ़ / उत्तर की ओर

That way = उस (की) तरफ़ / उस (की) ओर

This way = इस (की) तरफ़ / इस (की) ओर

Note that in the last two instances the की is usually omitted.

Also here’s how we say “right” and “left”:

left hand	right hand
बायाँ हाथ	दायाँ हाथ
बाहिना हाथ	दाहिना हाथ
उल्टा हाथ	सीधा हाथ

toward the left	toward the right
बाईं ओर	दाईं ओर
बाईं तरफ़	दाईं तरफ़
बाहिनी ओर	दाहिनी ओर
बाहिनी तरफ़	दाहिनी तरफ़
उल्टे हाथ की ओर	सीधे हाथ की ओर
उल्टे हाथ की तरफ़	सीधे हाथ की तरफ़

All of these phrases may be followed by the postpositions पर or को . For example:

To the right = दाईं तरफ़ को

On the left = उल्टे हाथ पर

By itself, सीधे is an adverb meaning “straight ahead”.

If you have a hard time remembering the direction words in Hindi-Urdu, here’s a little trick. Hold up your hands as shown below. Your left hand will look like an English “b” for बायाँ and your right hand will look like an English “d” for दायाँ !

left hand	right hand
बायाँ हाथ	दायाँ हाथ

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000)
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