A systematic checklist for your own writing
I can revise my own Hindi systematically rather than by feel
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
I gave him the letter yesterday.
They should read this book.
He is working right now.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The first four are structural and break the sentence; the last four are stylistic and only make it read as foreign. Fix structure first.
Hindi rhythm is verb-final and clause-short. A sentence that will not read aloud comfortably usually has a Russian shape underneath it.
Apply this grammar in C2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesRevising by feel, which cannot catch errors the first language does not flag.
Revising by intuition alone
Intuition cannot catch what the first language does not flag.
Style fixed before structure
Verb position, ne, agreement and the oblique come first.
I gave him the letter yesterday.
Verb final, ne present, di agrees with chitthi.
They should read this book.
parhni agrees with kitab; unhen is the honorific plural.
He is working right now.
Continuous where the action is in progress.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C2 course exercises
Yamuna Kachru's reference grammar; the descriptive account relied on for aspect, valency and clause structure.
Kamta Prasad Guru's grammar, the standard prescriptive reference for Hindi morphology and syntax.
The Government of India standard for Devanagari spelling, followed for all written forms here.