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Unit 1 · Beginner
Meet people the Nepali way: say hello, exchange names, and make your first sentences with ho, the verb of identity.
Greetings, names, and numbers (lessons 1-2)
Public-domain audio — FSI Nepali Basic Course (via Live Lingua).
Sita
नमस्ते!
Namaste!
Hello!
John
नमस्ते! तपाईंको नाम के हो?
Namaste! Tapaiko naam ke ho?
Hello! What is your name?
Sita
मेरो नाम सिता हो। तपाईंको नि?
Mero naam Sita ho. Tapaiko ni?
My name is Sita. And yours?
John
मेरो नाम जोन हो। तपाईंलाई भेटेर खुसी लाग्यो।
Mero naam John ho. Tapailai bhetera khusi laagyo.
My name is John. Nice to meet you.
Sita
मलाई पनि।
Malai pani.
Me too.
Namaste is the all-purpose greeting in Nepali: it works for hello and goodbye, morning or night, with anyone from a shopkeeper to a stranger on the trail. Press your palms together at the chest as you say it.
For extra respect to an elder you can say namaskaar instead — slightly more formal, but namaste is never wrong.
To say "X is Y", Nepali puts the verb ho at the very end: Mero naam Sita ho = literally "My name Sita is." The verb comes last — that word order is the single most important habit to build.
ho is used for fixed identity or definition (who or what something is). Its negative is hoina: Mero naam Ram hoina = "My name is not Ram." (A different "to be", chha, is used for location and state — that comes in Unit 3.)
Possessives are built by adding -ko: ma (I) + -ko gives the irregular mero (my); tapai (you, polite) gives tapaiko (your). So mero naam = my name, tapaiko naam = your name.
1. Say "My name is Ram" in Nepali.
मेरो नाम राम हो। (Mero naam Ram ho.)
2. Ask "What is your name?" politely.
तपाईंको नाम के हो? (Tapaiko naam ke ho?)
3. Say "My name is not Sita."
मेरो नाम सिता होइन। (Mero naam Sita hoina.)
4. How do you greet someone and how do you say goodbye?
Both are नमस्ते (Namaste).