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Learn Nepali — grammar & lessons for tourists
Start with the grammar foundations (an afternoon of reading), then move to the practical lessons by situation. Every page has audio, romanization, and cultural notes.
Grammar foundations
The pieces every Nepali phrase is built from. Read these once and the lessons below stop feeling like rote memorization.
- start here
How to learn Nepali
New here? The complete beginner's guide — the fastest path, a daily routine, and free resources.
Read - foundation
Pronouns & honorifics
तपाईं, तिमी, तँ — when to use each, and why the wrong one stings.
Read - foundation
Verb conjugation
Every verb ends in -नु. The forms of हुनु and the regular suffix rule.
Read - foundation
Postpositions
-मा, -बाट, -लाई, -ले — they go after the noun, not before.
Read - foundation
Sentence patterns
Eight fill-in-the-blank frames that cover 80% of tourist talk.
Read - foundation
Question words
All nine Nepali question words begin with क. Master them in an hour.
Read - foundation
Common mistakes
Aspirated consonants, schwa drop, SOV order — fix the seven big ones.
Read - culture
Kinship address (dai, didi)
How Nepalis call strangers brother and sister — and how you can too.
Read - script
Devanagari stroke order
Three rules explain every consonant. Headstroke last, always.
Read - foundation
Time, days & months
12 BS months, 7 weekdays, periods of day, and the five time-telling patterns.
Read - culture
BS vs AD calendar
Why Nepal uses Bikram Sambat — and how to read a Nepali date on an official document.
Read
Advanced grammar
Once the foundations stick, level up — imperatives at three honorific levels, causatives for household tasks, conditionals for negotiation, and the folk proverbs you'll hear from elders.
- advanced
Honorific imperatives
Three levels of commands — low, mid, high — and why tourists default to -nuhos.
Read - advanced
Causative verbs
Have someone do something — गराउनु, खुवाउनु, सुताउनु. Ten pairs with audio.
Read - advanced
Conditional sentences
If…then in Nepali. The yadi…bhane pattern with ten worked examples.
Read - culture
Proverbs (ukhan-tukka)
Twelve folk sayings with literal translation, meaning, and usage context.
Read
Advanced grammar (deep)
Tense and aspect, negation, the chha-vs-ho split, compound verbs, classifiers, discourse particles, and schwa rules. Twelve focused pages with audio on every example.
- core
Chha vs Ho
Two Nepali 'be' verbs — state/location vs identity. Twelve contrastive pairs.
Read - advanced
Negation patterns
chhaina, hoina, gardaina, garena — twelve negation forms with fifteen examples.
Read - advanced
Aspect overview
Habitual, progressive, perfect, simple past — five aspects across five verbs.
Read - advanced
Past perfect tense
gareko thiyo — 'had done' for narratives, lost-passport timelines, and police reports.
Read - advanced
Past continuous tense
khaa~dai thiyo — what you were doing when something interrupted it.
Read - advanced
Reported speech
bhanera / bhani — how Nepali quotes what people said without backshifting tense.
Read - advanced
Relative clauses
-eko participial vs jo-tyo correlative — 'the man who came' two ways.
Read - advanced
Passive voice
gariyo, garinchha — the impersonal/agentless construction tourists read more than speak.
Read - advanced
Compound verbs
bhok laagyo, man paryo — dative experiencer + light verb for feelings.
Read - core
Numerical classifiers
waṭaa, janaa, thaan, paṭak — what to put between the number and the noun.
Read - advanced
Discourse particles
ra, ta, ni, po, la — the tiny words that change tone without changing meaning.
Read - phonology
Schwa deletion rules
Five rules that decide when the inherent vowel of Devanagari drops.
Read - advanced
Evidential copulas
raicha, hola, rahechha — how Nepali grammatically encodes how you know what you know.
Read - core
Honorific verb paradigm
The complete 3×3 conjugation grid for 'garnu' (to do) across honorific levels and tenses.
Read - advanced
Kinship matrix
35+ Nepali kinship terms by generation — paternal vs maternal, elder vs younger.
Read - advanced
Reduplication & echo-words
khaana-waana, ali-ali, thulo-thulo — three productive doubling patterns in colloquial speech.
Read - core
Vigesimal counting & half-prices
Base-20 counting in rural markets, plus saaḍhe / sawaa / paune for half- and quarter-prices.
Read - advanced
Dialect variation
Kathmandu, Eastern Hill, Terai, Far-West — what changes regionally and why it matters.
Read - advanced
Code-switching (urban speech)
Why young Kathmandu speakers mix English mid-sentence — four productive patterns.
Read
Interactive practice
Hands-on tap-to-play exercises. No streaks, no timers — just train one skill at a time.
- practice
Word-order game
Tap shuffled Nepali words into the right SOV order. 10 rounds, audio feedback.
Start - practice
Memory match
Flip 16 cards to pair eight Devanagari words with their English meanings.
Start - practice
Audio loop
Repeat any phrase 3, 5, or 10 times with adjustable pause for memorization.
Start - practice
Listen & match
Hear three Nepali phrases, match each to its English meaning. Five rounds.
Start - practice
Listening episodes
Three short narrated scenes with toggle-able captions and a comprehension quiz.
Start - practice
Script tracer
Trace Devanagari vowels and consonants on a canvas with smooth strokes.
Start - practice
Audio lessons
15 FSI Basic Spoken Course lessons. Public-domain audio with transcripts.
Start - practice
AI roleplay
Eight Nepali conversation scenarios with a streaming AI persona. Bring your own key.
Start - practice
Describe a photo
Pick a Nepal photo, describe it in Nepali, get structured AI feedback. BYOK.
Start - practice
Top 500 words
Frequency-ranked vocabulary with audio, CSV download, and Anki .apkg export.
Start - practice
Sentence browser
100 hand-curated Nepali sentences across common verbs and tourist situations.
Start
Pronunciation drills
Listen, choose, get instant feedback. Four ear-training drills covering the contrasts that English speakers miss most.
- drill
Intonation — statement vs question
Same words, three pitch contours. How Nepali yes/no questions rise and wh-questions fall.
Start - drill
Aspirated vs unaspirated
Ten minimal pairs — paal vs phaal, kaan vs khaan, gar vs ghar.
Start - drill
Retroflex vs dental
Six minimal pairs across ट/त and ड/द — train your ear for daal vs Daal.
Start - drill
Vowel length
Ten short/long pairs — kam vs kaam, din vs diin, tar vs taar.
Start - drill
Schwa deletion practice
Fifteen everyday words — pick the natural pronunciation over the naive one.
Start
Practical lessons
Short, audio-supported lessons built for travelers — not linguistics students. Each one ends with the cultural context you won't find in a phrasebook.
- beginner8 min0%
Greetings in Nepali
Every meaningful conversation in Nepal starts with namaste — and ends with a small bow. Master these greetings and locals will warm to you instantly.
Start lesson - beginner12 min0%
Numbers 1 to 100 in Nepali
Numbers are the second language of travel — every taxi fare, momo order, and bargain in Asan Bazaar runs on them. Learn the patterns once, use them everywhere.
Start lesson - beginner10 min0%
Ordering Food in Nepali
From smoky teahouses on the Everest trail to dimly-lit dal bhat joints in Patan, food is where Nepal opens up to you. A few phrases turn a transaction into a connection.
Start lesson - beginner7 min0%
Asking for Directions in Nepali
Kathmandu's old town has no logic to its alleys. Google Maps gives up. The only way out is to ask — politely, in Nepali — and trust the friendly point of a finger.
Start lesson - intermediate11 min0%
Essential Trekking Phrases in Nepali
The right phrase at 4,500 meters can mean a warm meal, a faster route, or a life-saving descent. These are the words every trekker in Nepal should carry.
Start lesson