Introducing Yourself
अपना परिचय देना
Introducing yourself in French leans heavily on one reflexive verb, s'appeler ('to call oneself') — a genuinely different mechanism from Hindi's possessive मेरा नाम...है ('my name is'). French also uses avoir ('to have') for age, where Hindi reaches for a genitive adjective agreeing with your own gender.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
je m'appelle — 'I call myself', where Hindi just says 'my name is'
Je m'appelle Sarah. (My name is Sarah. / I'm called Sarah.)
मेरा नाम सारा है।
s'appeler is a reflexive verb (full reflexive grammar comes later), but je m'appelle is so common it's worth learning now as a fixed chunk: literally 'I call myself'. Hindi states a name with a possessive construction instead — मेरा नाम सारा है, literally 'my name is Sarah' — with no reflexive idea involved at all; नाम ('name') is simply possessed by मेरा ('my') and equated with है. French frames giving your name as an action you do to yourself, while Hindi frames it as a straightforward statement of possession — two genuinely different underlying logics that happen to land on the same everyday meaning.
j'ai ... ans — 'to have' for age, where Hindi uses a genitive adjective
J'ai vingt ans. (I am twenty years old.)
मैं बीस साल का हूँ। (स्त्रीलिंग के लिए: साल की)
French always states age with avoir: j'ai vingt ans literally means 'I have twenty years'. Hindi does something different again: मैं बीस साल का हूँ literally means 'I am of twenty years' — साल का/की is a genitive adjective that must agree with the speaker's own gender (का for men, की for women), attached to होना ('to be'), not रखना ('to have'). Neither language's age construction really works like the other: French reaches for possession (avoir), Hindi reaches for a gendered genitive adjective plus 'to be' — train yourself to produce j'ai specifically for age in French, since neither your Hindi का/की habit nor a literal 'to be' translation will get you there.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- मेरा नाम...हैmerā nām...hai
- English
- my name is...
- Hindi
- मैं...साल का/की हूँmaiñ...sāl kā/kī hūñ
- English
- I am ... years old
- Hindi
- मैं...से हूँmaiñ...se hūñ
- English
- I am from...
- Hindi
- मैं...में रहता/रहती हूँmaiñ...meñ rahtā/rahtī hūñ
- English
- I live in...
- Hindi
- मेरी राष्ट्रीयताmerī rāṣṭrīyatā
- English
- my nationality
- Hindi
- मेरा पेशाmerā peśā
- English
- my profession
- Hindi
- आपसे मिलकर ख़ुशी हुईāpse milkar khuśī huī
- English
- nice to meet you
- Hindi
- यह है/ये हैंyah hai/ye haiñ
- English
- here is/this is...
- Hindi
- मैं...से आता/आती हूँmaiñ...se ātā/ātī hūñ
- English
- I come from...