Food and drink — dal bhat to chiya (lesson 9)
Ordering at a teahouse, asking for salt, declining politely, and the verb khanu (to eat/drink).
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FSI 1979, lesson 9. The verb khaanu does double duty — 'to eat' and 'to drink' (Nepali doesn't separate them). Drill template: 'ke khaanuhuncha?' (what will you eat?) → 'ma X khaanchu' (I'll eat X). Around minute 5: 'mitho cha' (it's delicious) — the warmest table compliment in Nepali. The lesson covers pugyo (enough — said when you're full) and chaahinna (it's not needed — polite refusal). End of lesson drills the restaurant scenario top to bottom: arrive, greet, ask price, order, eat, compliment, ask for the bill, pay, leave. If you only have time for ONE lesson before a trip, make it this one.
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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.