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.
Public-domain FSI Nepali Basic Course audio, streamed via our server. If the player shows an error, the source file may be temporarily unavailable — try again later.
Transcript
Hand-typed for the opening of this lesson. The remaining audio is FSI's original recording — no full machine transcript exists for ne-NP audio that handles all dialogue. Listen along for the rest.
Lesson one. Listen and repeat.
नमस्ते। Namaste. Hello.
तपाईंको नाम के हो? Tapaiko naam ke ho? What is your name?
मेरो नाम राम हो। Mero naam Ram ho. My name is Ram.
यो के हो? Yo ke ho? What is this?
यो किताब हो। Yo kitaab ho. This is a book.More lessons
- 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.
- beginner 15 min
Time, days, and the clock (lesson 8)
Telling time in Nepali — kati bajyo, baje, ghanta. The seven days of the week, and morning/afternoon/evening.
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.