Teaching Hindi to someone who grew up hearing it and teaching Hindi to a foreigner are different jobs. A child of Indian parents abroad already knows how the language sounds and what most words mean; the work is reading and writing. A foreign student has none of that. Most Hindi teachers were trained for the first job, and it shows: they begin with the alphabet chart, and the student leaves after a month able to recite letters and unable to say "I would like some water". This page is about the second job.
For a child with Hindi at home, use how to teach Hindi for beginners instead.
Five principles
1. Speak first. The student should say ten useful sentences before seeing a single Devanagari letter. Motivation in the first month comes from being understood.
2. Teach the sounds on purpose. Hindi has pairs of sounds that English treats as one. If the student cannot hear them, no amount of vocabulary will make them understood.
3. Sentences, not word lists. "My name is..." teaches a pronoun, a possessive, a noun and the verb to be in one piece.
4. Grammar by pattern, then by rule. Let the student say मेरा नाम (mera naam) and मेरी किताब (meri kitaab) for two weeks before explaining gender. The rule then names something they already do.
5. One level of "you". Teach आप (aap) only, for the first two months. It is polite to everyone and it halves the verb forms to learn.
The sounds English speakers cannot hear at first
| Pair | The difference | How to teach it |
|---|---|---|
| त (ta) and ट (ṭa) | Tongue on the teeth, against tongue curled back to the roof of the mouth | English "t" is in between; have the student exaggerate both |
| द (da) and ड (ḍa) | The same, voiced | दाल (daal, lentils) against डाल (ḍaal, branch) |
| क (ka) and ख (kha) | Plain, against with a puff of air | A hand in front of the mouth: no breath, then breath |
| ब (ba) and भ (bha) | Plain, against breathy | बात (baat, talk) against भात (bhaat, cooked rice) |
| ड़ (ṛa) | A quick flap with the tongue curled back | लड़का (laṛka, boy); the last sound many learners get |
| Nasal vowels | Air through the nose | हैं (hain, are) against है (hai, is) |
| Short and long vowels | Length changes the word | कम (kam, less) against काम (kaam, work) |
Give these ten minutes in every lesson for the first six weeks: listen and point, then repeat, then say them in words. Record the student and play it back. This is the part self-study apps do worst and a live teacher does best.
When to introduce the script
Week three, not week one, and not never.
Roman letters get speaking started, but they cannot show ta against ṭa, so pronunciation stops improving. Devanagari is phonetic, one sign for one sound, and an adult can read it slowly after three to four weeks of ten minutes a day.
Teach it with words the student already says. They know नमस्ते (namaste), so show them how it is written. Then नाम (naam), पानी (paani), घर (ghar). Five or six letters a lesson, vowels and their matras together, always inside known words.
The first ten lessons
| Lesson | Speaking | Sounds and script | Grammar, by pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greetings; my name is; how are you | Short and long vowels | The verb comes last |
| 2 | Where are you from; I am from | त and ट, द and ड | है and हूँ (is, am) |
| 3 | This is, that is; what is this? | Plain and breathy pairs | यह, वह (this, that) |
| 4 | Family: my mother, my brother | First letters, in known words | मेरा, मेरी (my) |
| 5 | Numbers 1 to 10; how much is this? | Six more letters | Asking with क्या and कितना |
| 6 | I want, I need; food and drink | Matras for aa, i, ee | मुझे ... चाहिए (I need) |
| 7 | I go, I eat, I work: daily routine | Six more letters | The habit tense: -ta, -ti |
| 8 | In, on, at; where is it? | Reading short words | Postpositions: में, पर |
| 9 | Big, small, good; describing | Reading short sentences | Adjectives agree |
| 10 | Review: a five-minute conversation | Reading a short paragraph | All of the above |
The past tense, with its ने (ne) rule, waits until after lesson 15. What is hard in Hindi grammar, and in what order to teach it, is set out in is Hindi grammar hard.
Ten sentences to start with
| Hindi | Said as | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| नमस्ते | namaste | Hello; goodbye |
| मेरा नाम ... है | mera naam ... hai | My name is ... |
| आप कैसे हैं? / आप कैसी हैं? | aap kaise hain? / aap kaisi hain? | How are you? (to a man / to a woman) |
| मैं ठीक हूँ | main theek hoon | I am fine |
| आप कहाँ से हैं? | aap kahaan se hain? | Where are you from? |
| मैं अमेरिका से हूँ | main America se hoon | I am from America |
| यह क्या है? | yah kya hai? | What is this? |
| मुझे पानी चाहिए | mujhe paani chaahiye | I would like water |
| धन्यवाद / शुक्रिया | dhanyavaad / shukriya | Thank you |
| फिर मिलेंगे | phir milenge | See you again |
A 45-minute lesson
| Minutes | What |
|---|---|
| 5 | Greet and chat in Hindi only, using everything learned so far |
| 10 | Sounds: listen, repeat, record, compare |
| 10 | New sentences for today's situation, spoken first |
| 5 | The pattern behind them, named in one line |
| 10 | Practice: role play, questions and answers, the student talking for most of it |
| 5 | Script: read and write today's words; set ten minutes of practice a day |
The test of a lesson is how many minutes the student spoke. Aim for half.
Adults and children
Adults want reasons, so name the rule after they have used the pattern. They are embarrassed by mistakes; correct by repeating the sentence correctly instead of stopping them. They learn the script quickly and the sounds slowly.
Children copy sounds easily and have no patience for rules. Teach through songs, games, objects in the room and stories. Keep lessons to 25 or 30 minutes. They learn the sounds quickly and the script slowly.
Students joining an Indian school need school Hindi: reading aloud, dictation, textbook vocabulary and grammar terms. Ask the school which class the child is joining and whether Hindi is the second or third language, and work back from its textbook.
Mistakes new Hindi teachers make
- Starting with the alphabet chart. Three weeks of letters and no conversation loses most students.
- Explaining in Hindi the student cannot yet follow, or explaining everything in English and never speaking Hindi. Use Hindi for what they know and English for the one new point.
- Teaching तू, तुम and आप together. Teach आप.
- Teaching written, formal Hindi only. A foreigner needs the Hindi people actually speak: शुक्रिया as well as धन्यवाद.
- Correcting every error. Correct the one that today's lesson is about.
- Skipping the sounds because the teacher can no longer hear what is difficult about them.
Where to get help
Our Hindi classes are 1-on-1 online with a native-speaking teacher who teaches foreigners and children abroad every week: speaking from the first lesson, the sound pairs in every early class, the script from week three, and a recording to practise with. For adults, for children with no Hindi at home, and for families moving to India. The free 30-minute first class is a real lesson: you will say your first sentences in it.
Questions parents ask
1How do you teach Hindi to foreigners?
2How do you teach Hindi to foreign students who know no Hindi at all?
3Should foreigners learn the Hindi script or use Roman letters?
4How long does it take a foreigner to learn Hindi?
5What is the hardest part of teaching Hindi to English speakers?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.