Lesson #62: न na - Isn’t it?
Today we’re going to learn all about just one tiny but powerful Hindi word. The word is न na. Can you say it? न na! Great. This word is very popular and it’s used all the time so it’s very important to know it.
So what does न na mean? Well it’s a little tricky to put into a single English word actually but न na roughly translates as something like ‘isn’t it?’ or, 'isn’t that so’, 'right?’, 'yeah?’, etc. We use न na at the end of sentence if we’re not completely sure about something but you think it’s probably true. It’s a little hard to example so let me just show you some examples and I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it! Are you ready to go then?
आपका नाम रीना है, न? aapkaa naam reenaa hai na?
- You’re name is Reena isn’t it?
Suppose you knew that this person’s name was Reena but you hadn’t actually met them, this would be a good thing to say! Another example is…
संजीव होशियार है, न? sanjeev hoshiyaar hai na?
- Sanjeev is clever, right?
In case you haven’t figured it out the word होशियार hoshiyaar means Clever! So here it’s like we kind of know Sanjeev is clever but we’re not 100% sure of it, so we add न na! Do you understand? Ready to keep going?
नौ बजे है न? nau baje hai na - It’s Nine o'clock yeah?
Here we’ve used what we learnt in Lesson #57. You’d say this if you thought but you weren’t completely sure!
One thing to notice is the difference between a question starting with क्या kyaa and a sentance ending with न na. They can be quite confusing! Have a look at the two following sentences…
क्या तुम अपने घर पर हो? kyaa tum apne ghar par ho?
- Are you at your house?
तुम अपने घर पर हो, न? tum apne ghar par ho na?
- You are at your house, right?
Can you see the difference between the two above sentences? Let me explain it, in the first sentence we really don’t know if they are home or not, we’re asking 'Are you at your house?’, we don’t know where they are! But in the second sentence we have some reason to think they might be at home so we are asking 'You’re at your house right?’. Can you see the small difference? Great!
Be sure to leave me a question below if you’re confused or if you have any questions at all!
