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Lesson 4A1

Family

परिवार

Spanish and Hindi both assign grammatical gender to every noun, and for family words the assignment already matches biological sex in both languages — पिता (father) is masculine just like el padre, and माता (mother) is feminine just like la madre.

Grammar Comparison

व्याकरण तुलना

-o/-a and -ा/-ी: two languages with matched gendered endings

Spanish

hermano (brother, -o) / hermana (sister, -a)

Hindi

बेटा (-ा) / बेटी (-ी)

Spanish pairs like hermano/hermana or hijo/hija swap a final -o for -a to swap gender. Hindi does something remarkably similar with several family words — बेटा/बेटी (son/daughter) swap a final -ा for -ी. The exact letters differ, but the underlying habit — recognize gender from the noun's own ending — will already feel natural to a Hindi speaker.

Not every family word marks gender this visibly, in either language

Spanish

el padre / la madre — no shared root at all

Hindi

पिता / माता — कोई साझा रूप नहीं

Just like Spanish padre/madre don't share a root the way hermano/hermana do, Hindi's पिता and माता are also unrelated words rather than a matched pair. Both languages mix 'visibly paired' words with 'just memorize them separately' words, so don't expect every family term to follow the neat -o/-a or -ा/-ी pattern.

Vocabulary

शब्दावली

SpanishPronunciationHindiEnglish
la madrelah MAH-drehमाताmātāmother
el padreel PAH-drehपिताpitāfather
el hermanoel er-MAH-nohभाईbhāībrother
la hermanalah er-MAH-nahबहनbahansister
la abuelalah ah-BWEH-lahदादी / नानीdādī / nānīgrandmother
el abueloel ah-BWEH-lohदादा / नानाdādā / nānāgrandfather
el hijoel EE-hohबेटाbeṭāson
la hijalah EE-hahबेटीbeṭīdaughter