自学印地语2  我们的家庭

3 Getting familiar

We've already seen that आप  aap means 'you' and आप  हैं  aap hain means 'you are'. But in an informal context (talking to a friend, or with  someone perceived by the speaker to be in some way close or socially 'junior') the pronoun तुम tum 'you' is used instead. तुम  tum has its own verb form: तुम हो tum ho 'you are'.

तु कौन हो ?
Tum kaun ho? Who are you?
क्या तुम राम हो ?
kya  tum Ram ho? Are you Ram?

When addressing someone as
तुम tum ,
the word for '
your' is तुम्हाला tumhara.
Remember that such words must agree with the person or thing 'possessed'.

तुम्हारा भाई .
tumhara bhai .   your brother
तुम्हां बहिन
tumhan bahin .  your sister

The important point here is that तुम  tum is much more familiar and informal than आप  aap. Used in the wrong context, तुम tum and तुम्हाला tumhala could sound presumptuous or offensive, so you have to tread carefully here.

Even greater familiarity is shown by yet another pronoun, tum 'you',whose verb is है  hai (the same as for यह  yah and वह  vah): तुम है tum  hai you are. This is very intimate and is restricted to the closest of relationships, such as with partners, small children - and God!

राजू तु मेरी जन है .
Raju, tu meri jan hai.   Raju, you are my darling!
गीता तु मेरी जन है .
Gita, tu meri  jan hai. Geeta, you are my darling!

We won't be seeing much of टू  tu in this book. Its intimacy restricts its usage; and if you know a Hindi-speaker well enough to use it, he or she will happily teach you all you need to know! Used in the wrong context, it can be insultingly blunt. All its verb forms (except the commands - see 4.1) are the same as for यह  yah and वह vah ?: vah. Here then is the full range of 'you' words, with their verbs:

आप है
ap hai    you are (formal and polite)
tतुम हो
um ho    you are (familiar and casual)
तु है tu hai   you are (intimate or blunt)

Grammatically, (टू  tu is singular, and both आप aap and तुम tum are plural - whether addressing one person or more than one.