#16 Very handy Nepali words to help you around

in #travel7 years ago (edited)

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Dear Steemit friends, as promised, I am doing a few more articles to help you around in case you want to go to Nepal. Language is such an important part of any culture. attempting to learn a new language is hard work but even knowing a few basic words can help you a lot while travelling. So I have put up a list of Nepali words that might help you in my home-country.

Nepali language gets its roots from Sanskrit like many other prominent languages in the world. We have our own script which is called "Devanagari". But we are going to skip the script learning part because it would take me more than 100 articles to give even the most basic information about that.  So,  let's begin with the basics of Nepali.

As you all must already know, we greet people with Namaste. Keep in mind however that this is a formal way of greeting people, so you will not see friends greeting each other with Namaste. Yes is "ho" (like Santa's ho ho ho) and no is "hoina".  Thank you is a bit tricky to pronounce and hence to explain, but let me try: "dhanyabad". There are youtube videos for the correct pronunciation of this word so start practicing.

"Ma" is I and "Tapai" is you. It is also very important to know that you can be four different words in Nepali language depending on the level of respect you want to bestow on that person. But as someone new, it is always advised to use tapai which is quite a respectable manner to address someone. If you want to say something is nice, then you can say "raamro" and the opposite is "naraamro". "Na" is generally added in-front of any word to negate it in Nepali. 

Let's get to the interrogative words now:

  • What: K
  • Who: Ko
  • Why: Kina
  • Where: Kaha
  • When: Kahile
  • Which: Kun

Ok, I think that I have covered some basics here. If you have specific questions or want to know any word, just drop a comment below. 

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This comes in handy when I go to Nepal in October! Thanks!

I am so happy for you that you get to experience Nepal in really the best month ever. Have tons of fun.