In today’s lesson we’re just going to cover one very simple Hindi word. How easy does that sound? The word is (quite unsurprisingly!) चाहिए caahie and it’s used to show that someone ‘wants’ or ‘needs’ something.
How would we say ‘I like tea’ in Hindi? That’s right, we say…
मुझको चाय पसंद है mujhko caay pasand hai - I like tea.
Postposition को ko to mean ‘to me’. So in this sentence we are literally saying “To me tea is liked (pleasing)”.
Why have I brought this up now? Well saying ‘I want tea’ in Hindi is very similar to saying ‘I like tea’! We actually say…
मुझको चाय चाहिए mujhko caay caahie - I want tea
Literally ‘to me tea is wanted / needed’. Can you see the similarities and differences here? Note first that when using चाहिए caahie we don’t use हूँ hoon, है hai, हैं hain etc.
Think you’ve understood? Ready for another example?
हमको फल चाहिए hamko phal caahie - We want fruit
Can you see how easy this is? There’s nothing difficult here at all! So do you want to see some more examples?
उसको क्या चाहिए usko kyaa caahie - What does he want? (Or she!)
उसको दूध चाहिए usko doodh caahie - He wants milk
क्या तुमको चावल चाहिए? kyaa tumko caaval caahie
- Do you want Rice?
नजमा को किताबें चाहिए थीं najmaa ko kitaaben caahie theen
- Najma needed books
(Literally this is ‘To Najma books were wanted / needed’). Here we’ve changed need / want to the Past Tense needed / wanted by adding थीं theen - ‘were’ to the end. We use थीं theen because it agrees with the Feminine Plural word किताबें kitaaben - books.
मेरे भाई को केला चाहिए था
mere bhaaee ko kelaa caahie thaa
- My brother wanted a banana.
And here we use था thaa to agree with the Masculine Singular word केला kelaa - Banana.
Do you think you’ve understood this? It’s been quite an easy and straight forward lesson don’t you think? Hopefully now you know how to use the Hindi word चाहिए caahie!
Note 1! If you want to say ‘I want to do something’ (ie using ‘want’ with another verb) then you have to do something a little different! We only use चाहिए caahie when it’s wanting or needing an object.
Note 2! Be aware that sometimes चाहिए caahie is spelt चाहिये caahiye - both are perfectly correct but चाहिए caahie is more common.
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caahie - which is used to show that someone wants / needs something. So for example we might say…
अमित को नई चप्पलें चाहिए amit ko naee cappalen caahie
- Amit wants new sandals
I told you that we only use चाहिए caahie when talking about wanting an object? Well in today’s lesson we’re going to learn how to talk about wanting to do something! So are you ready to get going…
The all important verb for today is चाहना caahnaa - to want. Can you see that it’s similar to the word चाहिए caahie that we’ve just been revising? So how do we use चाहना caahnaa? Well let’s start by seeing an example…
मैं सिनेमा जाना चाहता हूँ main sinemaa jaanaa caahtaa hoon
- I want to go to the cinema (said by a male)
So what’s going on here? Well can you see that we use चाहना caahnaa just like we would use any other verb and then we just throw सिनेमा जाना sinemaa jaanaa - ‘to go the the cinema’ in the middle of the sentence! Easy hey?! Ready for another example?
मैं अख़बार पढ़ना चाहती हूँ main akhbaar parhnaa caahtee hoon
- I want to read the newspaper (said by a female)
Can you see what we’ve done this time? It’s exactly the same structure as the last example, this time we’ve put अख़बार पढ़ना akhbaar parhnaa - ‘to read the newspaper’ in the middle of the sentence! Also remember that because it’s now a female talking we use चाहती caahtee.
Have you got that? Ok let’s try one more simple example together then, can you think how we would say ‘Mohindar wants to learn English’? Have you got it? That’s right, we’d say…
मोहिंदर अंग्रेज़ी सीखना चाहता है mohinder angrezee seekhnaa caahtaa hai
- Mohindar wants to learn English
Have you understood everything so far? It’s nothing too extreme and complicated is it? Now, how do you think we use this verb in the past tense, so that’s sentences that use the word ‘wanted’?
Well actually it’s easier than you might think! चाहना caahnaa is a transitive verb- and that means we have to use ने ne! So for example we might say…
उसने टीवी दिखना चाहा usne teevee dikhnaa caahaa
- She wanted to watch TV
Can you see what’s happened here? We’ve added the ‘thing’ we want to do in the middle again, टीवी दिखना teevee dikhnaa - ‘to watch TV’, and then we’ve used the masculine past tense of चाहना caahnaa - चाहा caahaa - to agree with the masculine word टीवी - TV. Are you still with me? Let’s see another example…
हमने नाचना चाहा hamne naachnaa caahaa
- We wanted to dance
Can you see what we’ve done here? Remember that ‘to dance’ is नाचना naacnaa. See it’s not that bad is it?
Now take a little breath, there’s just one more final rule to know, are you ready? If you want to say a sentence like ‘someone wants someone else to do something’ then you do it slightly differently. Let me show you an example…
माताजी चाहती है कि मैं पढ़ूँ maataajee caahtee hai ki main parhoon
- Mother wants me to study
Ok this is quite a complicated sentence here, so what’s going on? Well let’s break it down bit by bit…
- Well we’ve started with माताजी चाहती है maataajee caahtee hai - ‘mother wants’, this is straightforward yeah?
- Then we’ve used कि ki - which translates as ‘that’, so, this far we’ve got ‘mother wants that…’.
- Finally then we finish with मैं पढ़ूँ main parhoon - this means ‘I should/may study’. If this looks familiar then it’s because this is the Future Conditional Tense
राजेश चाहता है कि मैं दुकान जाऊँ
rajesh caahtaa hai ki main dukaan jaaoon
- Rajesh wants me to go to the shop
Can you see? Just like above we’ve literally said “Rajesh wants that..” and then followed by “I should go to the shop” using the Future Condition tense. With me?
Ok wow, phew, that’s the end of today’s lesson. Well done for making it all the way to the end, I know it hasn’t been easy! Hopefully you now know how to correctly use चाहना caahnaa in all your Hindi sentences!
Have you got any questions? Are you confused about any of the examples? Feel free to leave them in the comments section just below and I’ll do my best to help you.
To test your understanding of the lesson try translating these sentences into Hindi, leave your answers in a comment below and I’ll let you know how well you’ve done!
- Amit wants to buy new sandals
- I want to eat (said by a female)
- They wanted to go home
- I wanted to read
- I want you to learn Hindi (said by a male)
- He wants me to watch TV
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