SAY IT IN HINDI

Most phrasebooks give you the question - and abandon you the moment somebody answers.

You have practiced "Where is the station?" You say it. A real person replies, at speed, with a sentence you have never seen in print - and you smile, say thank you, and walk off in the wrong direction.

SAY IT IN HINDI is built the other way round. It is not a course and not a grammar book. It is a handbook organized by the moment you are standing in: the chemist's counter, the landlord's doorway, the tailor's shop, the waiting room, the wedding, the phone call that keeps dropping. Each chapter takes one real situation and gives you the language for it from the opening line to the exit line - and then gives you the replies you will actually hear, each one glossed, so you can recognize them instead of freezing.

Every phrase is written in the Roman alphabet using one plain, consistent spelling system, explained once in the first chapter and held all the way through. There is no Devanagari anywhere in this book - a deliberate choice for a handbook about the spoken language, so you can open a page in a hurry and say something out loud today.

WHAT'S INSIDE

- Seventeen situation chapters: greetings across the day, the chemist, the doctor's waiting room, renting and repairs, the market and bargaining, the tailor, ordering food and sending something back, the phone call, directions, train and bus booking, complaints at a counter, being a guest, weddings and festivals, small talk with a neighbor, children and elders, and emergencies

- THE REPLIES YOU WILL HEAR - five to ten realistic responses in every chapter, glossed word by word

- Word-by-word glosses plus natural translations for every phrase

- How to end a conversation politely - the skill nobody teaches

- Five phrases to avoid in every chapter, and why

- A short reference grammar, sixty sentences worth learning by heart, numbers, time and days, a themed glossary, twelve more situations in brief, and a two-week plan