Have you just moved to Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar or another city in Gujarat, for work or studies? Maybe you've married into a Gujarati family and want to talk to your partner's family? Or maybe you were born abroad to Gujarati speaking parents and want to reconnect with your roots? Whatever brings you here, you're starting an exciting journey. Gujarati can seem daunting to learn, especially with the general lack of resources for beginners. But fear not, I'm here to make your life easier with tips to pick up Gujarati based on Bhashafy's Gujarati Learning Curriculum.
Firstly, by being here on this blog you've already shown your intention to pick up Gujarati, and that is the first big step towards your eventual fluency. It will connect you with the heritage and history of this vibrant language, and with the people you care about. And if you're living in Gujarat, it will make your experience not only more convenient but also so much more meaningful and interesting!
You don't need to master Gujarati grammar straight away
I have seen so many people give up on Gujarati before they even start, because traditional teaching methods get you too bogged down with the intricacies of the grammar and the script. However, the reality is that with the right guidance, Gujarati is much easier than you may think. And I'm here to prove that to you.
And if you speak any other Indian language, especially Hindi, you already have a huge head start in learning Gujarati! Our sentence structures are the same, most Indian languages share many Sanskrit-origin words for everyday concepts, and the alphabet's structure is the same even though the symbols look different (ka, kha, ga, gha, etc., for consonants and matra symbols for vowels). So don't believe anyone who says that Gujarati is too difficult to learn.
Understand how Gujarati is different from your native language
There are some major differences as well as similarities between Gujarati and other languages like Hindi and English. It is good to know in which parts of the language you can use your native language's logic directly, and where you have to learn the logic of the new grammar.
Let's go through the four main ways in which Gujarati is similar to and different from other languages.
1) Gujarati puts the verb at the end of the sentence
In Gujarati, the verb comes at the end of the sentence. All major Indian languages follow this same Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order as Gujarati, whereas English follows Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). I'll explain in simple terms.
- English: I do yoga (S-V-O). Subject is "I", Verb is "do", Object is "yoga".
- Gujarati: Hu yoga karu chhu (S-O-V). Subject is "Hu" (I), Object is "yoga", Verb is "karu chhu" (do).
- Hindi: Main yoga karta hoon (S-O-V). Subject is "Main" (I), Object is "yoga", Verb is "karta hoon" (do).
Observe how the Gujarati and Hindi sentences line up perfectly. Both end with the verb, whereas in English the verb "do" comes in the middle of the sentence.
If you already know another Indian language, you can skip the mental process of rearranging the sentence in Gujarati. The words will fall in the exact same order as in your native language.
If you're learning through English, you need to adjust your word order. Just remember that the verb comes at the end of the phrase or sentence in Gujarati.
2) Gujarati sticks small endings onto words to change their meaning
Where English uses separate little words like "in", "from" and "of", Gujarati usually glues a short ending onto the end of the word instead. These endings are very regular and easy to predict.
Take the word ghar (house):
- Ghar: House
- Gharmā: In the house
- Gharthī: From the house
- Gharnu: Of the house
- Ghare: At home
Verbs work in a similar way. The root verb for "do" is kar, and you change its ending to show politeness:
- Kar: Do (casual, for friends and children)
- Karo: Please do (polite)
- Karjo: Please do (extra polite, often meaning "please do it later")
- Na karo: Please don't do
Notice the logic here? Learn the endings once, and you can use them with almost any word!
3) Gujarati has built-in levels of respect
The pronouns and verb endings you use depend on who you're talking to.
"You" has three forms in Gujarati, and the verb ending changes to match:
- Tu (informal): For close friends, children and anyone younger than you. Tu kem chhe? (How are you?)
- Tame (formal): For elders, strangers, in-laws and anyone you want to show respect to. Tame kem chho? (How are you?)
- Āp (very formal): For formal settings, and for very senior or important people. Āp kem chho? (How are you?)
If you're ever unsure, go with tame. Nobody minds you being a little too respectful, but using tu with an elder can come across as rude.
For "he" and "she", Gujarati uses the same word, te (or e in casual speech). To show respect to an elder, you switch to teo, which also means "they":
- Te kāle āvshe: He or she will come tomorrow
- Teo kāle āvshe: He or she will come tomorrow (respectful)
Gujaratis also add -bhāi after a man's name and -ben after a woman's name to show respect, as in Ramesh-bhāi or Sheetal-ben. So before you speak, it helps to ask yourself one quick question: who am I talking to, and who am I talking about?
4) Gujarati script: to read or not to read?
The Gujarati script is an abugida, with vowels, consonants and small vowel signs (matras) that attach to consonants. It's a highly phonetic system, so words are written the way they sound, unlike English. If you already know Devanagari, you'll find the Gujarati script very familiar. Many letters look like their Devanagari cousins, just without the horizontal line on top.
Now, the big question for a new learner is whether to start by learning to read the script. I highly recommend getting comfortable with the spoken language first, before doubling the complexity with the script. Learning the script is a project unto itself that I believe should be Step 2 for a beginner, after having made progress on Step 1, which is picking up some amount of spoken Gujarati.
Accelerate your Gujarati progress!
Now, I think you are ready to begin your Gujarati language learning journey.
If you want to progress from phrases and words to having real conversations in Gujarati, a bit of structure makes a big difference. Start with Bhashafy's Complete Gujarati 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 Gujarati - Ābhār!
