Review and final recap (lesson 30)
The final FSI lesson — a comprehensive review that drills you through every major pattern from lessons 1 through 29. Use this as a diagnostic before moving to intermediate Nepali materials.
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FSI 1979, lesson 30 — the diagnostic. Rather than new vocabulary, this lesson cycles through every major grammar pattern from the prior 29 lessons in rapid drill format. Minutes 1–5: ho/chha/cha distinction (identity vs existence) — the single most foundational pattern in Nepali. Minutes 6–11: tense ladder — present habitual, present progressive, simple past, past habitual, future. Minutes 12–17: postpositions — laai (dative), le (ergative/instrumental), maa (locative), baata (ablative), sangai (comitative). Minutes 18–22: politeness levels — tan / timi / tapaai and the corresponding verb endings. Minutes 23–25: a 'final exam' style mini-dialogue with no script support — if you can follow this without rewinding, you have reached the upper edge of the FSI 30-lesson syllabus and are ready for native materials. The advice from the original 1979 instructor: spend 200 hours on these lessons before assuming you're 'done' with beginner Nepali.
More lessons
- beginner 26 min
Greetings, names, and numbers (lessons 1-2)
Opening Namaste, exchanging names, basic ho/hoina identity statements, and the cardinal numbers 1-10. This is the canonical FSI opener.
- beginner 19 min
This and that — yo, tyo, demonstratives (lesson 3)
Pointing at things and naming them. Yo (this), tyo (that), and the cha/chaina pattern for stating that something is present.
- beginner 13 min
Question words — ke, ko, kaha, kati (lesson 4)
All Nepali question words start with क. Drill the five most useful: what, who, where, how much, and which.
- beginner 15 min
I, you, we — pronouns and honorifics (lesson 5)
ma, hami, tapai, timi, ta — when to use which, and why mixing them up offends. Drills with the verb hunu (to be).
- beginner 25 min
Family members and kinship (lesson 6)
buwa, aamaa, didi, daai, bhaai, bahini — the relations every tourist hears at a homestay. Plus the kinship-as-address custom.
- beginner 21 min
Directions and places (lesson 7)
kahaa, yahaa, tyahaa — here, there, where. Asking where things are with the cha verb and locative postpositions.
Attribution
Audio courtesy of the US Foreign Service Institute (Public Domain) and hosted by Live Lingua. This page links directly to their CDN; we do not re-host or modify the audio.