Most Beautiful Words in Hindi?

[Dhadkan]

  I could agree with so many of you, what beautiful words! And I'd like to add these:

chai - tea
sanam - beloved
jaan - life / beloved
mithi - sweet

Am I a hopeless romantic or what?

Talking about the most beautiful language, I think Telugu sounds the best. Even better than my own first language, Finnish. People around the planet tend to think Finnish is sounding soooo lovely.

[bollyscot]

Oops! I forgot "payal" - love the sound of that word!

[Vijay_UK]

Someone mentioned English not being a beautiful language, i believe it is when used properly e.g. Poem, speeches etc

As for Hindi i love the whole language as a whole.

[angaare]

angaare
dastak
laksyha

[urmis_champion]

That may be one of the reasons. The main reason is that Urdu has been part of Indian culture since the advent of the Mughals so it's only natural to use both.

Beauty also lies in the ears of the hearer?    I think Hindi is as beautiful as Urdu.

According to my desi co-worker here, Hindi is relatively new as languages go (only a few hundred years) so it doesn't have equivalents of some of the more formal/traditional words.  So they co-opted the Urdu words to fill in where a Hindi words didn't exist.  With more modern words -- especially technical ones -- English is usually used for the same purpose.

But I can't confirm or deny the Urdu component.

[Ghoda Ladki]

Someone mentioned English not being a beautiful language, i believe it is when used properly e.g. Poem, speeches etc

As for Hindi i love the whole language as a whole.

Definetly! On both!

[**Sam**]

This might be because I grew up with these words, but certain words in Hindi/Urdu, especially those with a Persian origin, conjure images for me that their English equivalent simply does not.

Khawhish (however you want to transliterate) is one of those.  I hear a sense of pleading in that word that, for me, does not accompany the words request, or to plead, or whatever other synonym you want to use.

Dil is another favorite of mine.  I'm not certain about Hindi, but in Persian, when referring to the heart (as opposed to the stomach - another meaning for it in Persian), it only relates to the heart as in "getting your heart broken," or "having a heartache" - it does not refer to the heart as the organ (that is strictly "qalb," which can be used poetically as well).  So there are many many Persian poems that use the word Dil and when I hear it, it again conjures certain images of love, etc. for me that the word "heart" simply does not do.

[anj]

lovely topic. as for my favorite hindi words are:

ishq (love)

bas (enough/stop)

dewaani (crazy)

bagele (crazy)

( I hope i wrote them right.... ...)

[**Sam**]

bas (enough/stop)

Good call on bas - there is such a finality to the word.  I just putting up my hand, turning my head away and saying: Bas!!

[dormeg]

I've been able to use this word with my family as we always throw up our hands and say "ba" (short for bastante=enough in Spanish, tambien). Bas comes out much easier and now the whole fam uses it. 

[Ishiqa]

I love the word Suhana; it means and sounds so beautiful when said, espcially the'ha' part. Another one is Gunguna (sing) and Meheki (fragrant). Whenever these words are in a song, it just brings me a sense of such joy

[kendra]

I'm from armenian origin and one of the first things that made me love hindi is that there are many words which are the same in armenian...
I must say that my favourite one in both language is Azad=freedom... but I'm not sure, maybe it's an urdu word...

[humsurfer]

I'm from armenian origin and one of the first things that made me love hindi is that there are many words which are the same in armenian...
I must say that my favourite one in both language is Azad=freedom... but I'm not sure, maybe it's an urdu word...

Azad is used in Hindi, but yeah, it's from Persian. It's not surprising there are so many common words given Armenia's just north of Persia, and all these languages are Indo-European .

[Ginger]

Good call on bas - there is such a finality to the word.  I just putting up my hand, turning my head away and saying: Bas!!

I like Bas as well.  Very close to Basta (enough! or stop in Spanish)... I find myself saying bas instead.

[anuc]

My two cents...

Prerna - Inspiration
Diya - Lamp
Raina - Raat

[Aishwarya4eva]

I love the sound of:

Payal (npi) - Anklets
Ishq - love/romance
Saanson - breaths
Honthon - lips
Kahaani - story
Rasiilaa - Juicy (Not totally sure what it means, but i get chills when I hear it! )
Badnaam - bad reputation
Kyunki - because

and my favorite...

Bahut - much, many (I use it probably more than I should just because I LOVE the way it rolls off the tongue )

[namastemia]

Hamēśā

[LinKarish]

This is really weird, but I think "Kaise Aap" sounds so very pretty.

[Usha]

I love the sound of Hamesha, but especially the sentence " Hamesha, Hamesha Ke Liye"    ( that would translate into "Forever and ever ")

[Plava]

kyunki

[Dancelover]

And so the True Indian Language is created!
Dancelover

[snip] Its geting difficult to tell what words belong to what language these days.
bollyking

[LinKarish]

Saanson - breaths

You know what I love about "saanson?"  The way the singers sort of breath out and lower their voice when saying that word. I don't even know how to explain it. 

[anbuzan]

I like Bas as well.  Very close to Basta (enough! or stop in Spanish)... I find myself saying bas instead.

Basta has the same meaning in Italian as well.

I'm from armenian origin and one of the first things that made me love hindi is that there are many words which are the same in armenian...
I must say that my favourite one in both language is Azad=freedom... but I'm not sure, maybe it's an urdu word...

Alot of the words ARE the same, love the word jaan.  It's funny when I hear 'char' I always think of the number 4 being bad now...

[purplecowmoo]

This might be because I grew up with these words, but certain words in Hindi/Urdu, especially those with a Persian origin, conjure images for me that their English equivalent simply does not.

Khawhish (however you want to transliterate) is one of those.  I hear a sense of pleading in that word that, for me, does not accompany the words request, or to plead, or whatever other synonym you want to use.

Dil is another favorite of mine.  I'm not certain about Hindi, but in Persian, when referring to the heart (as opposed to the stomach - another meaning for it in Persian), it only relates to the heart as in "getting your heart broken," or "having a heartache" - it does not refer to the heart as the organ (that is strictly "qalb," which can be used poetically as well).  So there are many many Persian poems that use the word Dil and when I hear it, it again conjures certain images of love, etc. for me that the word "heart" simply does not do.

I feel this way about a few of my favorite words in Hindi. I loved learning 'intesaar' - gosh, it sounds so pained and longing to me. I know you can 'intesaar' at a bus stop, but how much more poetically than 'wait'. 'Waiting' for a beloved sounds so full by comparison...

Here's my list - trying to include some without romantic meanings, just for the sounds.

Ishq (love)
Khushi (happiness)
Sharam (shame - sounds so vivid and shame-y)
Dhadkan/Dhadak - so onomatopoeic
The name Meenakshi
Words like 'kyunki', 'kisise', 'kisiko', 'jiski' are just fun
Kahaani
Insaafi (injustice?)
Zubaan (language)
Safar (journey - this is apparently how one enquires about a flight or a car ride and seems suited only to epic journeys across deserts based on the sound of it)
Afsana (story?)
Jaan (life)
Azadi (freedom)
Sharab (alcohol - sounds so enticing and yet threatening; the chemical-y English term doesn't quite do it)

Just love those long aa sounds...