Hindi (Teach Yourself Book & Tape) [Paperback]

Rupert Snell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0340866861 | ISBN-13: 978-0340866863 | Edition: 2nd

For beginners and those who want to brush up their Hindi, this is a complete course in understanding, speaking and writing Hindi, a language spoken by over 275 million people around the world. The course can be used as teaching material for both class tuition and individual study, presenting Hindi which is primarily colloquial and practical. It gives greater access to Urdu, Hindi's sister language, which shares a virtually identical grammar and much of the Hindi vocabulary. The course is divided into 18 units, each of which is based on dialogues which exemplify and bring to life the new grammar introduced in that particular unit. Transliteration in the roman script is provided for the first five units and for all words in the Hindi-English glossary. The dialogues form a kind of soap opera based on the life of a Delhi family; the English translations are deliberately close and literal, so as to form a key to the Hindi. The grammatical explanations are intended to be as accessible and non-technical as possible. The main grammatical structures of Hindi are all presented. There are plenty of exercises for readers to practice each new point and a key at the back for checking answers. Two cassettes which accompany the book are also included, containing approximately two hours of listening.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Rupert Snell is a Reader in Hindi at SOAS and has been using the current edition as a course book for his students for more than ten years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Teach Yourself; 2nd edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340866861
• ISBN-13: 978-0340866863
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,939,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of the Hindi grammar, July 11, 1998

By 

Philippe ([e-mail]) (Corning, New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hindi (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

"Teach Yourself: Hindi" provides an excellent introduction to the Hindi language, emphasizing the written language (it is a book, after all). The problem with the book is that the author uses the British sound system, and when a North American reads the vowel and consonant equivalents in the beginning, he pronounces a great deal (especially vowels) incorrectly. My Punjabi friend laughed at me. Supplimentary material will therefore need to garnered on the internet for non-Britons in order to correctly pronounce the Hindi. Sadly, most Hindi - English intructional books are similarly designed (i.e. for the Queen's English) and other dialects must rely on either native speakers for correct prononciation, or sound files downloaded off of the internet. Once the prononciation difficulties have been worked out, the book proceeds in a very logical manner, covering all elements necessary for communication in everyday Hindi. Special appendices are written to cover unique situations, and words used primarily in Urdu are indicated by the author. There are are eighteen units, each containing perhaps four or five aspects of grammar, and inadequate practice activities, so the learner must be willing to devise additional English sentences to practice his translation. For the money, "Teach Yourself: Hindi" cannot be beat. Hindi is not difficult (in comparison to French or Spanish) and is well worth the effort to learn the language.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rigorous course by two SOAS lecturers, May 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hindi (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

So many readers giving 5 stars for a textbook is fairly unusual but this is so much better than Bhatia's "Colloquial Hindi" that it deserves it. The main difference is in the longer length and use of the (easy and logical) devanagari script. RS McGregor's Hindi-English dictionary and the (revised) Lonely Planet Hindi phrasebooks are an excellent accompaniement to this course. McGregor's grammar is also worth getting (better than Srivasta's) though it is a course of a kind itself rather than a reference grammar.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hindi (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

I am presently learning Hindi at a State Department school and this is one of our textbooks. Out of the several grammar books that I have, this is by far the best one. The explanations for grammar and sentence structure are very helpful and useful.