Resources

Resources to support the Hindi-Urdu student, while traditionally hard to come by, are gradually increasing in number and quality. The Hindi Urdu Flagship is at the center of efforts to both collect and improve existing resources. All materials are free for non-commercial, non-derivative use (view full licensing details). Click on the headings below to find out more about key Hindi-Urdu learning resources developed by HUF. You may also want to take a look at our media archive (an aggregated listing of all the audio and video available on our website) and our growing list of external resources.

A lot of our resources are also available as podcasts delivered via iTunes, RSS, or email. Visit our Podcasts page for the relevant links.

 
  • Glossaries Alive

    Glossaries Alive
    • An innovative series which combines light oral drills, informal conversation, and script-reading to produce an effective introduction to essential Hindi vocabulary and grammar. Full episodes and pdf glossaries available here and via the iTunes store.
  • Spoken Thesaurus

    Spoken Thesaurus
    • A groundbreaking series of lively, unscripted Hindi-medium conversations about groups of words of related meaning. Concentrating on selected mainstream words and phrases, we help you to broaden your active vocabulary by encountering styles of language appropriate for everyday speech. Full episodes and pdf glossaries available here and via the iTunes store.
  • voicemail-logo

    Hindi Urdu Voicemail
    • Hindi Urdu Voicemail is a library of recorded messages for listening practice. The voicemails will help learners of Hindi & Urdu: get used to hearing & understanding disembodied voices; hear a wide variety of voices & accents; develop the skill of catching the gist of a message without necessarily understanding all of it; encounter real-world examples of language use; learn a variety of ways to report events, give instructions, ask questions; and to make requests, complaints, explanations, excuses, etc.
  • Vedji

    Language for Health
    • Language for Health is a HUF-produced language-learning resource targeted specifically at teaching Hindi-Urdu for the healthcare profession. The site provides a wealth of unique, high-quality, authentic video material and innovative side-by-side Hindi and Urdu supplemental textual materials, all centered on the practice of health and medicine in South Asia.
  • Hamari Boli

    Hamari Boli
    • Hamari Boli is a web-based database of video interviews with native Hindi-Urdu speakers. The database features clusters of short video responses to questions covering a wide variety of topics from conversational strategies to social issues. All videos can be access
  • murgi

    Hindi Worksheets
    • A collection of innovative learning materials developed by HUF Director, Rupert Snell. They are primarily intended to supplement his Teach Yourself Hindi and Beginner’s Hindi course-books, but are extremely useful on their own as well.
  • Jishnu Shankar

    Presenting Hindi
    • Informative and entertaining grammar and topic-specific language presentations by HUF's Senior Hindi Lecturer Dr. Jishnu Shankar. The presentations focus on real-world Hindi cultivated from current Hindi print journalism and advertising. All presentations are viewable online and downloadable in a variety of formats.
  • Kavyarth - Encounters with Hindi Poetry

    Kavyarth
    • Kāvyārtha is a one-of-a-kind guided tour of unique moments in Hindi poetry. In this series of interactive online articles, HUF director Rupert Snell focuses on poetic structure and aesthetics as a means of approaching the artha (the meanings and ends) of kāvya (poetry) in Hindi. The series begins with a focus on Braj and Awadhi, it will gradually expand to encompass Khari Boli and modern Hindi poetry.
  • pic-resources-commonreader

    Hindi-Urdu Reader
    • A free, online version of "Hindi and Urdu Since 1800: A Common Reader" by Christopher Shackle and Rupert Snell. The main section of the book consists of a series of sample passages in Urdu and Hindi; each passage represents a stage in the development of the language and has some aspect of language itself as its primary focus.
  • braj-cover

    Braj Bhasha Reader
    • A free, online edition of the classic, standard reader for students of medieval Hindi. HUF has carefully scanned and processed the entire book, making it available for online viewing and download in a number of different formats, including high-quality print, screen-optimized, and individual chapter PDFs.
  • Braj Bhasha, an ancestor to modern standard Hindi, was the dialect of the region surrounding Vrindavan, a north Indian city that retains much of its unique traditions to this day. Above, Priests throw color on the devotees celebrating Holi at the Banke Bihari temple in central Vrindavan.

    Braj in Brief
    • An introduction to Braj Bhasha, an important and colorful ancestor of modern, standard Hindi. The main features of the language are introduced through a selection of couplets by the early 18th-century poet Vrind. Audio clips accompany each couplet, allowing one to get a feel for the rhythm of the language.
  • Kavyarth - Encounters with Hindi Poetry

    Transliterating Devanagari
    • This is a practical guide for people such as thesis- and dissertation-writers who need to know how to transliterate Hindi into roman script with consistency and accuracy.
  • Former HUF Director Herman van Olphen

    First-Year Hindi Textbooks
    • Complete PDF versions of some introductory Hindi textbooks by former HUF Director, Herman van Olphen. The books should be used in the following sequence: Hindi Praveshika, First-Year Hindi Course - Part I (and its accompanying workbook), and First-Year Hindi Course - Part II.
  • High School students from Dallas visit HUF

    K-12 Hindi-Urdu
    • The cultivation of quality Hindi-Urdu programs at the K-12 level is a crucial component of the Flagship's mandate. To this end, HUF spearheads a number of efforts to increase and enhance Hindi Urdu K-12 programs in the US.
 
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