Question Structure

Do you know what is a question? That was a question. To make questions, we all follow a certain format. We use words like ‘What’, ‘When’, ‘Why’ etc. Of course, for the questions to make sense, we all subconsciously insert them into the right places without screwing up.  P.S: You will see annoying specks of … Read more

Vocabulary: Phrases And Proverbs

Phrases and Proverbs are called ‘उखान’ (ukhan) in Nepali. Such ‘ukhan’ are passed down as wisdom throughout ages. Hence, they give us some wisdom and knowledge. English Translations of some make no sense, but the Original makes so much sense. So, some might seem weird…. This is an EXTREMELY SHORT version of the total number … Read more

Diacritics

INTRODUCTION Devanagari is an alphasyllabary, meaning consonant-vowel sequences are written as one unit, as opposed to individual units. In the lesson The Consonant, we explored how consonants behave and how they can be used to build clusters. In this lesson, we will look how we can assign a vowel value to consonants or clusters to … Read more

Vocabulary: Baby Words

Baby words are words that you would use as a child, or with young children. Such words are called शिशु शब्द (śiśu śabda) in Nepali. An example in English would be boo-boo, which refers to an injury. Cat सुरी (surī) Cloth(es) नाना (nānā) Cow बाँ (bā~) [lit. moo] Dog भौभौ (bhaubhau) [lit. woof-woof] Excretion आची … Read more

Vocabulary: Common Antonyms

Antonyms are ‘Opposite Words’. In Nepali, Antonyms are called ‘विपरीतार्थक शब्द’ (biparitarthak sabda). Some common Antonyms are: अनुग्रह (anugraha) विग्रह (vigraha) Integrate/ Combine Differentiate/ Separate अमृत (amṛt) विष (viṣ) Ambrosia Poison अहिले (ahile) उहिले (uhile) Now Long time ago आकाश (ākāś) पाताल (pātāl) Sky Ground आगो (āgo) पानी (pānī) Fire Water आदि (ādi) अन्त (anta) … Read more

Poem: Akash Ka Tara Ke Tara

The poem ‘आकाशका तारा के तारा’ (Akash ka tara ke tara) is a Grade 10 Poem (CBSE) written by हरिभक्त कटुवाल (haribhakta katuwal). ‘आकाशका तारा के तारा’ roughly translates into ‘What of the stars above the sky’.  As you might guess from the ‘Grade 10’, it has some pretty difficult words but I chose the one with the … Read more

Using Auxiliary Verbs To Create New Verbs

Did you know that you can create almost any kind of verb using these three Verbs? हुनु (Hunu) = To be गर्नु (garnu) = To do पर्नु (parnu) = For X to fall on Y लाग्नु (laagnu) = *Multiple Meanings* __ HUNU IF a noun or an adjective is followed by ‘Hunu’, then it takes a meaning of ‘To be X’ … Read more

Handwritten Numbers And The Number System

INTRODUCTION Handwritten numbers look slightly different to its print form, thus it is also important to learn how to write numbers when you are practicing Nepali. I have included the number system as well, because numbers are counted a bit differently in Nepali. ZERO TO FOUR FIVE TO NINE EXAMPLE NUMBERS THE NUMBER SYSTEM Unlike … Read more

Advanced Sentence Structure

This lesson is long, but it covers almost everything a sentence is, or has, or will be. Composing long sentences is what we need to master a language effectively. So how do we Compose higher level sentences? Sentence is called ‘वाक्य’ (bakya) in Nepali and Word is called ‘शब्द’ (shabda). Meaning is ‘अर्थ’ (artha).     . VOCABULARY वाक्य (bakya) = … Read more

Vocabulary: Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeic words are called “अनुकरणात्मक शब्द” (anukaranatmak sabda) in Nepali. These words function like adverbs. Here are some such words that are pretty common. Also, some of the words like ‘chittika’ are not really the ‘sound’ concept (like: knock-knock) but more of a different concept of ‘being X’ or ‘X to happen’. : Dropping Sound: खत्रक्क (khatrakka) It is like … Read more