In today’s lesson we’re going to just look at one tiny little Hindi word - I mean how easy does that sound? The word we’re going to study is; ही hee. Have you seen this word before? It comes up all the time so I bet you have. Hopefully by the end of today’s lesson you’ll understand perfectly what it means and how to use it. So are you ready to get going? 

Let’s look at an example of ही hee first, we already know how to say “They speak Hindi”, that’s right it’s…

वे हिन्दी बोलते हैं
ve hindee bolte hain
- They speak Hindi

This should just be revision, but if you’re confused head on back to Lesson #28. Now by just adding the word ही hee into this sentence we can make quite a big difference to its meaning. So let’s see what happens…

वे हिन्दी ही बोलते हैं
ve hindee hee bolte hain
- They speak only Hindi

So can you see what’s changed? We’ve added ही hee and this has changed the meaning of the sentence from “They speak Hindi” to “They speak only Hindi”. Are you following? So what exactly does ही hee mean then? 

Well simply put, ही hee is used for emphasis. It emphasises, or restricts, the word before it in the sentence. Often (but not always) this means it can be translated as “only” or “just”. So in our above sentence this means that putting ही hee after the word हिन्दी hindee tells that it is only Hindi that they speak!  

Let’s build another sentence together then, we learnt how to say “I can swim” in Hindi in Lesson #64, can you remember how we say it? That’s right, it’s…

मैं तैर सकता हूँ main tair saktaa hoon
- I can swim (said by a male)

Now if we want to change this sentence to say “Only I can swim” can you guess how we’d do it? That’s right we’re going to use ही hee and it’s going to come right after मैं main (because we want to emphasis that it’s just “me” that can swim), so we’d say…

मैं ही तैर सकता हूँ
main hee tair saktaa hoon
- Only I can swim (said by a male)

With me? So let’s see a few more examples, as you read through them make sure you understand them. Don’t forget if you have any questions you can leave them in the comments section below.

हम मछलियाँ ही ख़रीदेंगे 
ham machliyaan hee khareedenge
- We will buy only fish

राजेश ही रसोईघर में है
rajesh hee rasoeeghar men hai
- Just Rajesh is in the Kitchen

मेरे पास एक ही कुत्ता है
mere paas ek hee kuttaa hai
- I have just one dog

Are you getting the idea now? Remember that ही hee emphasises the word directly before it in the sentence. This means that its position is very important, and changing its position changes the meaning! For example consider the sentences…

मैंने ही दाल पकाई 
mainne hee daal pakaaee 
- I cooked the daal by myself

मैंने दाल ही पकाई
mainne daal hee pakaaee 
- I cooked just daal 

Can you see the differences between the two sentences above? In the first one we have the ही hee right after the word मैंने mainne which means we’re emphasising that it was just “me” that did it - I cooked the daal by myself. But in the second sentence we have the ही hee right after the word दाल daal so we’re emphasising that it was just daal we cooked! Does that make sense? 

Do you think you now understand the word ही hee? Hopefully you do but of course if you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section below!

If you think you’ve understood the whole lesson try translating the following sentences into Hindi - each one of them uses ही hee!

1. I will write only in Hindi
2. Rishi went to the cinema by himself
3. He is selling just one house
4. They will return with just Priti (To Return - लौटना lautnaa)
5. She eats just chips

As usual leave your answers in the comments section below and I’ll let you know how well you’ve done! So go on, give it a go! 

Back to Beginner’s Grammar.