Customer Reviews (14)

rigid and minimal
This was a textbook for my entry level Hindi course in College.I've lived in non-English speaking countries for several years, which means that I have acquired a working level in a few languages, and I understand how to naturally learn a language.I have found that Hindi is moderately difficult language, but not extremely hard.Although this was our class textbook, most students found it nearly useless, and my first semester teacher didn't use it at all.Instead, he made his own handouts.My second semester teacher used this book almost exclusively, and many students found this book to be lacking in quality.Even the teacher admitted this.
Pros:
1.The chapters are in a fairly sensible manner.Each chapter reveals a concept and gives exercises for the concept.The concepts in early chapters are more simple and fundamental than the concepts in later chapters.
2.The explanations in the beginning of each chapter are concise and fairly clear.
3.The book requires a student to learn the Hindi script, which is essential for anyone learning any language with its own writing system.

Cons:
1.Although the chapters are in a sensible order, the whole premise of the book, to learn a language by learning about grammatical concepts, is flawed.Most people do not learn a language effectively or quickly by this method.People learn a language by using it, not by learning facts about it.This is a common mistake of many language courses.Effective language learning comes by usage, not by mindless memorization.
2.The examples are very stilted and impractical.Most sentences are drills which only replace one word in them.Most sentences are just isolated instead of being strung together, there isn't any paragraphs to read, or any dialogues to practice with someone else.All of the work you will do is simply repeating mindlessly a bunch of disjointed sentences, which will NOT teach you how to effectively converse in a foreign language.BELIEVE YOU ME!
3.User unfriendly.Often times words that are in the sentences are nowhere in the glossary, which means you will have to go on-line, or buy a dictionary to find out what the word means.What's more, the words are not in simple Hindi alphabetical order, but are classified by part of speech, are you kidding me?!If you don't know if the word is a adjective, or noun, you will have a difficult time finding it.
4.The explanations are concise, but they are sometimes too concise, and there are often way too few examples to learn from.

Conclusion:If you are a person who already knows a fair amount of simple conversational Hindi, you might find this book helpful to describe and illustrate grammatical concepts which you used but didn't understand. If you are a armature linguist, who wants to have a description or overview of Hindi, so you can know how the language works on a functional level, you may find this book helpful.If you are a person who is surrounded by Hindi speakers, and can practice Hindi on a daily basis, this book might be helpful.
If you are a person who wants to learn Hindi on a practical level, in a natural manner, with no prior experience, this is NOT the book for you.I think if a person sat down and said, "what is the most unnatural, impractical, academic way I can write a book about a language?" the result would look somewhat like this book.Had I known that the Hindi class would be based off a book like this, I would have saved myself the trouble and spent my money on "Rosetta Stone", or "Teach Yourself Hindi".I'm sure I would have obtained better results for less frustration and less student loans.
This is a book about grammar, not a book on how to easily learn Hindi.

Great Book
Great Book. You should learn Devanagari script on your own prior to using this book. You can learn the basic grammar if you complement with another source such as Livemocha. The ideal would be to have a teacher, however you can still benefit greatly from this book. There is no fast way to learn another language if you dont learn the grammar, you can only grom so much. This is the best grammar book on Hindi I have seen. Greatly recommended. It is easy to follow, and examples are relevant. The minor detail is that there is no solutions page for the exercises.

Introduction to Hindi Grammar
A well written book with concepts explained in a simple manner.A must have for Hindi teachers and students and also for people who find languages intriguing.

Introduction to Hindi Grammar
Among the several books I bought and looked at on the topic of Hindi Grammar this is by far the best for my level of understanding of the topic. However, it may not be appropriate for someone without any exposure to the subject. For someone looking to start studying the language from scratch it would be best to have a teacher, at least in the beginning stages. The exercises are great, but there are no answer keys to the exercises. Because of this I rate it at 4.5 stars. Great book by Usha R Jain

outstanding resource for hindi students
I first encountered this book while studying Hindi at the State Department; it is part of their outstanding curriculum. This is absolutely NOT a "teach yourself Hindi" book, and hooray for that! I find there are too few real textbooks available that meet this text's high standards, and far too many travel phrasebooks out there.

This is a systematic and detailed account of Hindi grammar; I work as a translator and consider this one of my most essential resources.

I would highly recommend this book to any serious student of the language for its precision, clarity, and overall quality. Sure, it's $40, but that's a decent price for a textbook, and that's exactly what this book is. ... Read more