If you've moved to Mumbai or Pune and Hindi is your first language, you're in a better position to pick up Marathi than almost anyone. So, is Marathi easy for North Indians? Honestly, it's one of the easiest Indian languages a Hindi speaker can learn. Most guides to Marathi are written for English speakers, so they spend ages on things you already know, like the script and the word order, and skip the parts that actually trip Hindi speakers up.
So today, let's look at Marathi through a Hindi speaker's eyes: where your Hindi helps you, where it unknowingly misleads you, and how to use that to learn Marathi faster than the average beginner. Many of these points apply to speakers of Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and other North Indian languages too.
Why Hindi speakers have a head start in Marathi
Hindi and Marathi are close cousins. Both are Indo-Aryan languages that grew out of the Prakrit languages of ancient India, and both have borrowed heavily from Sanskrit over the centuries. In Mumbai, everyday Marathi also picks up plenty of Hindi and Urdu words, so you'll understand more than you expect.
Four things work in your favour right away:
- Same script - Marathi is written in Devanagari, so you can already read most of it
- Same word order - Marathi and Hindi sentences line up word for word
- Shared vocabulary - a big chunk of everyday words is the same or nearly the same
- Similar grammar logic - verbs change with gender, number and respect, just like in Hindi
This doesn't mean you will start understanding Marathi right away if you know Hindi. But it means you're not starting from zero. You're starting from a language that already thinks the way Marathi does.
Where Hindi and Marathi are similar
I. Marathi sentences follow the same word order as Hindi
Marathi and Hindi both place the verb at the end of the sentence, whereas English puts it in the middle.
Take the example, "I drink tea".
- Hindi - Main chai peeta hoon (I - tea - drink)
- Marathi - Mi chaha pito (I - tea - drink)
Both sentences line up perfectly: subject, then object, then verb. You don't need to relearn word order, you just need to swap the words.
II. Marathi and Hindi share a lot of everyday vocabulary
Many words are the same, or the same with a slightly different ending. Two you'll hear on day one are Namaskar (hello) and Dhanyavaad (thank you), exactly as in Hindi. Here are ten more:
Paani (Marathi) / Paani (Hindi)
- Meaning: Water
- In Marathi: Mala paani dya (Please give me some water)
- In Hindi: Mujhe paani dijiye
Ghar (Marathi) / Ghar (Hindi)
- Meaning: House / home
- In Marathi: Maaza ghar zawal aahe (My house is nearby)
- In Hindi: Mera ghar paas hai
Kaam (Marathi) / Kaam (Hindi)
- Meaning: Work
- In Marathi: Mala khoop kaam aahe (I have a lot of work)
- In Hindi: Mujhe bahut kaam hai
Door (Marathi) / Door (Hindi)
- Meaning: Far
- In Marathi: Station khoop door aahe ka? (Is the station very far?)
- In Hindi: Station bahut door hai kya?
Kharch (Marathi) / Kharcha (Hindi)
- Meaning: Expense
- In Marathi: Kiti kharch zhaala? (How much did it cost?)
- In Hindi: Kitna kharcha hua?
Madat (Marathi) / Madad (Hindi)
- Meaning: Help
- In Marathi: Thodi madat kara (Please help a little)
- In Hindi: Thodi madad kijiye
Raatra (Marathi) / Raat (Hindi)
- Meaning: Night
- In Marathi: Raatra zhaali (It's night)
- In Hindi: Raat ho gayi
Dukaan (Marathi) / Dukaan (Hindi)
- Meaning: Shop
- In Marathi: Dukaan band aahe (The shop is closed)
- In Hindi: Dukaan band hai
Prashna (Marathi) / Prashn (Hindi)
- Meaning: Question
- In Marathi: Maaza ek prashna aahe (I have a question)
- In Hindi: Mera ek prashn hai
Aaram (Marathi) / Aaraam (Hindi)
- Meaning: Rest
- In Marathi: Aaram kara (Please rest)
- In Hindi: Aaraam kijiye
III. Gender and verb agreement work much like Hindi
In Hindi, a man says "main jaata hoon" and a woman says "main jaati hoon". Marathi does exactly the same thing:
- Mi zaato / Mi zaate - I go (man / woman)
- Mi gelo / Mi geli - I went (man / woman)
Even the trickiest bit of Hindi grammar carries over. In the past tense, the Hindi verb agrees with the object ("maine aam khaaya", but "maine roti khaayi"), and so does the Marathi one:
- Mi aamba khaalla - I ate a mango (aamba is masculine)
- Mi poli khaalli - I ate a chapati (poli is feminine)
- Tyaane aamba khaalla - He ate a mango (Hindi: Usne aam khaaya, even the -ne is there)
IV. "Mujhe" simply becomes "mala"
Hindi uses "mujhe" for wanting, knowing and liking. Marathi does the same with "mala":
- Mujhe chai chahiye - Mala chaha paahije (I want tea)
- Mujhe pata nahi - Mala maahit naahi (I don't know)
- Mujhe thodi Marathi aati hai - Mala thodi Marathi yete (I know a little Marathi)
- Mujhe pasand hai - Mala aavadta (I like it)
V. "Kara" works just like "kijiye"
Think of "kara" as the Marathi "kijiye". It turns almost any action into a polite request, and just like in Hindi, people happily attach it to English words:
- Call kara - Call kijiye
- Wait kara - Wait kijiye
- Try kara - Try kijiye
- Adjust kara - Adjust kijiye (you'll hear this one in every crowded Mumbai local)
Add "thoda" in front to soften it, just like in Hindi: Thoda wait kara (Please wait a bit).
Where your Hindi instincts will mislead you
Because Marathi feels so familiar, Hindi speakers often assume a word or rule works exactly the same way. Here's where that catches people out.
I. Marathi has a third gender, and genders don't always match Hindi
Hindi has two genders. Marathi has three: masculine, feminine and neuter. Many words that are masculine or feminine in Hindi are neuter in Marathi, and a few even switch sides:
- Chaha (tea) is feminine in Hindi but masculine in Marathi: Chaha thanda zhaala (चहा थंड झाला) - Hindi: Chai thandi ho gayi
- Ghar (house) is masculine in Hindi but neuter in Marathi: Ghar motha aahe (घर मोठं आहे) - Hindi: Ghar bada hai
- Pustak (book) is feminine in Hindi but neuter in Marathi: Pustak chaangla aahe (पुस्तक चांगलं आहे) - Hindi: Kitaab achhi hai
- Paani (water) is masculine in Hindi but neuter in Marathi: Paani sampla (पाणी संपलं) - Hindi: Paani khatam ho gaya
- Kaam (work) is masculine in Hindi but neuter in Marathi: Kaam zhaala (काम झालं) - Hindi: Kaam ho gaya
See that dot at the end of मोठं, चांगलं and झालं? That's the neuter ending, a short, slightly nasal sound you won't find in Hindi. A simple tip: learn each new noun along with an adjective or verb, so its gender comes with it.
II. Postpositions stick to the word, and the word can change shape
In Hindi, little words like mein, se, ko and ka sit separately after the noun. In Marathi, they attach to the noun itself as a suffix. This is one of the features of Marathi that makes it feel similar to South Indian languages (which use lots of suffixes) in some ways:
- Ghar mein - Gharaat (in the house)
- Mumbai se - Mumbaitun (from Mumbai)
- Pune ko - Punyala (to Pune)
- Ram ka ghar - Raamcha ghar (Ram's house)
Notice what happened to Pune. Some nouns change shape before an ending is added, so Pune becomes Punya-la (to Pune), Punya-at (in Pune) and Punya-tun (from Pune), and Thane becomes Thanya-la. So "Main Pune se aaya" becomes "Mi Punyatun aalo".
The possessive -cha also changes with gender, just like Hindi ka, ki and ke: Raamcha mulga (Ram's son), Raamchi gaadi (Ram's car).
III. Watch out for false friends
A few words look like Hindi but mean something else:
- Kaal means only "yesterday" in Marathi. Tomorrow is udya, so "Kal milte hain" is "Udya bhetu"
- Shiksha means "punishment" in Marathi. Education is shikshan
- Bas means "sit" as well as "enough". When your host says "Basa", they're asking you to take a seat, not telling you to stop
IV. Questions put "ka" at the end, not "kya" at the start
In Hindi you might say "Kya aap Marathi bolte hain?". You might sometimes place the "Kya" at the end of the sentence too. In Marathi, the question word always goes at the end: Tumhi Marathi bolta ka? (Do you speak Marathi?). Just add "ka" to any statement and it becomes a yes-or-no question.
Essential Marathi phrases, with their Hindi equivalents
- Namaskar - Hello (Namaste)
- Ho - Yes (Haan)
- Naahi - No (Nahi)
- Thik aahe / Chaalel - It's fine (Theek hai / Chalega)
- Paahije - Want / need (Chahiye). Just like chahiye, it stays the same whatever you're asking for
- Nako - Don't want (Nahi chahiye)
- Maahit naahi - Don't know (Pata nahi)
- Kuthe - Where (Kahaan)
- Kaay - What (Kya)
- Kiti - How much (Kitna)
- Kiti door aahe? - How far is it? (Kitna door hai?)
- Kaay chaallay? - What's up? (Kya chal raha hai?)
- Dhanyavaad - Thank you (Dhanyavaad)
Is the Marathi script the same as Hindi’s?
Yes. Marathi is written in Devanagari, the same script you learned in school, so you can start reading shop signs and bus boards on your very first day in Maharashtra. The letters, the matras and the order of the alphabet are practically the same. What changes is how a few of them are pronounced, and that's what gives away a Hindi accent.
च and ज often sound like "ts" and "dz". In many Marathi words, च is said like the "ts" in "cats" and ज like the "ds" in "beds". So चार (four) is tsaar, पाच (five) is paats, चहा (tea) is tsaha and जा (go) is dzaa. Before "i" and "e" sounds, and in many Sanskrit words, they keep the familiar Hindi sound, as in चिमणी (chimni, sparrow). The spelling doesn't tell you which is which, so this one is learnt by ear.
ळ is a retroflex "l". Hindi doesn't use this letter, but Marathi uses it all the time: शाळा (school), वेळ (time), पोळी (chapati), जवळ (near). Curl your tongue back against the roof of your mouth, the same way you would for ट, ड or ण.
ऐ and औ are said as "a-i" and "a-u". Most Hindi speakers say पैसा as "pæsa" and और as "or". In Marathi, ऐ and औ are proper double sounds, closer to "eye" and "ow". So पैसे (money) is pa-i-se, and औषध (medicine) is a-u-shadh.
The neuter ending gets a dot. Words like मोठं (big), केलं (did) and झालं (happened) end with an anusvara that marks the neuter gender, a sound Hindi doesn't have.
Marathi also writes English words like bag and bat with a special mark, बॅग and बॅट, for the short "a" sound.
So for a Hindi speaker, the script is a quick win. Spend most of your energy on speaking, and the reading will follow.
Where to go from here
That covers the basics - enough to start noticing the patterns for yourself as you hear more Marathi around you.
If you want to progress from phrases and words to having real conversations in Marathi, a bit of structure makes a big difference. Start with Bhashafy's Complete Marathi Course for Beginners and see how far a little consistency can take you.
Bhashafy has over 20,000 satisfied learners across 100+ countries and millions of minutes of lessons taught. Bhashafy's courses are some of the most widely used, highly rated and bestselling courses for Indian languages across the world.
Thank you, or as we say in Marathi - Dhanyavaad!
