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ગુજરાતી
(Gujarati written in the Gujarati script)
65M
Total Speakers
#6
Most spoken in India
Official Language In
Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu
Gujarati is an official language in Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, and is written in the Gujarati script. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family. Gujarati is spoken in major cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, and across Gujarat.
Did You Know?
Gujarati is the mother tongue of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, three figures who helped shape modern South Asia. It is also spoken far beyond Gujarat by the large Gujarati diaspora, from East Africa to the UK and the USA, thanks to centuries of Gujarati traders and migrants.
Gujarati is easy with the right guidance. Our course follows a well-structured 4-week curriculum that starts from spoken Gujarati and ends with the Gujarati script.
Week 1: Start with pronouns and foundational Gujarati words, with the framework to form Gujarati sentences. Greet, introduce yourself and talk about your life in Gujarati.
Week 2: Learn the past, present and future tenses, and the Gujarati verb conjugations that modify them. Learn common verbs like eat, go and come to talk about actions in detail.
Week 3: Explore more complex forms, question words, and grammatical connectors. Expand your Gujarati vocabulary with dedicated lessons across different themes.
Week 4: Learn the Gujarati script from basic characters to full sentences. Importantly, the script is introduced after learning spoken Gujarati so you know what you're reading.
Make your life not just more convenient, but also more interesting
Get past the language barrier in Ahmedabad and across Gujarat when moving for work or college.
Navigate autos, shops, landlords and maids on your own in Gujarati.
Built for absolute beginners starting Gujarati from scratch.
You have moved to Ahmedabad for work and want to learn Gujarati.
You are a student going to college in Ahmedabad or Surat.
You have Indian immigrant parents and are learning Gujarati as a heritage language.
Spoken Gujarati with a real grasp of tenses, grammar and sentence structure.
Complex sentences and more advanced forms made simple for a beginner.
Plus the grammatical connectors and verb conjugations to build your own.
Gujarati is easier than it seems with the right guidance. If you already speak another Indian language like Hindi, you have a big head start: Gujarati follows the same Subject-Object-Verb word order as Hindi or other Indian languages, shares plenty of everyday vocabulary with common Sanskrit roots, and uses a script built with the same framework as your Indian mother tongue (a-aa-i-ee-u-oo...etc.) If you don't speak another Indian language, Gujarati is still very learnable, especially when you are aware of the main differences from English, such as word order, genders, pronunciation and respect levels. And our course walks you through each one in detail - mindful that you're starting from absolute zero.
With the right guidance, you can start to use basic directions and shopping phrases in Gujarati from the first week. Our Gujarati course is designed to be completed in 4 weeks and will give you a great head start. In around 6 months to 1 year, you can aim for conversational fluency. But remember that this comes with consistent practice, lots of listening practice and immersing yourself in the language. It all depends on how often you interact with native speakers, and how much dedicated time you can spare for learning Gujarati.
As somebody who has grown up outside India and has never learnt Gujarati in a formal manner, this course really helped me formalize my understanding of the language. I was able to appreciate the nuances of the grammar like tenses and gender for the first time.
The instructor is very pleasant and easy to follow. I like the pace and flow. It's perfect for a complete beginner like me. It has good visuals and presentation that make it feel simple.
Tourist visits to Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Gir, made convenient and interesting.
Stop feeling like an outsider in Ahmedabad or anywhere else in Gujarat and start feeling like a local.
Language is a vessel for culture. Appreciate cultural nuances of Gujarat.
Connect with your family in Gujarati, or with your spouse's family if you've married into a Gujarati-speaking one.
You want to communicate better with your spouse or partner's Gujarati-speaking family.
You are a tourist visiting Ahmedabad, Surat or anywhere in Gujarat.
You are a foreign national living in Ahmedabad or anywhere else in Gujarat.
You are interested in linguistics and Indo-Aryan languages.
How formality changes the way a sentence is formed.
The context that simply translating from Gujarati to English leaves out.
Learn to read Gujarati using an intuitive and simplified approach.
You can definitely reach survival level in 30 days - greetings, numbers, directions, ordering food and narrating simple actions using verbs and tenses. This is achievable with good guidance, daily intentional practice, active listening, and lots of immersion in the Gujarati language. Our course is designed to help you reach this level within a 4 week timeframe. Complete conversational fluency in a month isn't realistic for any language, but 30 days is sufficient to start using Gujarati around Ahmedabad and get by comfortably.
If your goal is to learn fast, focus on spoken Gujarati first and leave the script for later, since conversation is more useful to most beginners and the script will strain and slow down your progress. Start with greetings and basic pronouns and simple sentences that show you the pattern of sentence structure, and then move on to common verbs like 'come', 'go', 'eat', 'drink' and 'do' with some basic patterns of past, present and future tense. Use Bhashafy's vocabulary builder and flashcards tool to learn the top 500 most common words in Gujarati. Practice out loud every day, and use the words and phrases in real situations - to shopkeepers, auto drivers, bus conductors and waiters. Don't keep translating to Gujarati each time, but instead speak and associate the Gujarati words with the relevant situation. Thinking in the target language is the fastest way to learn it. And finally, immerse yourself in Gujarati media - movies, TV shows, songs and podcasts - to get used to the sound of the language and how it is spoken by native speakers.
The #1 tip we can give beginners practicing Gujarati is to let go of the fear of making mistakes. The reality is that most people in Gujarat will be delighted that you're trying to learn their language and will appreciate your effort. Practice speaking Gujarati in real life situations - with shopkeepers, auto drivers, bus conductors and waiters. Stop translating in your head from English. Instead, let each situation trigger the Gujarati word directly. At the shop, say "Ketlo?" without ever thinking "How much?". When you want the bill, say "Bill aapo" straight away. When your auto reaches your destination, let "Rokvo" be the first thing that comes to mind, instead of thinking "Stop" in English. Translating word by word is slow and keeps you stuck in your native language, while linking the situation directly to the word is how native speakers think, and it is the fastest way to learn. Between conversations, review vocabulary with flashcards and repeat phrases aloud to fix your pronunciation. Also immerse yourself in Gujarati movies, TV shows, songs and podcasts to get used to how native speakers sound.
Not at first, if your goal is speaking. Start with spoken Gujarati in English letters so you can communicate quickly. Add the script once you have a base - it helps with signs and menus, and helps you sharpen your pronunciation. Plenty of traditional Gujarati teachers and community classes do start with the Gujarati alphabet. However, our take at Bhashafy, shaped by watching thousands of Gujarati learners go through this, leans the other way - start with spoken Gujarati, and treat the script as its own project later on. The main reason is simple: trying to learn a brand new spoken language and decipher an entirely unfamiliar script at the same time is genuinely overwhelming to take on at once. In fact, it's one of the most common reasons beginners quit early.
It looks unfamiliar but is logical. Each consonant carries a vowel sound, and vowel signs attach predictably. Most learners read slowly within a few weeks of regular practice, and because spelling is phonetic, a word you can read is a word you can pronounce. If you already know how to read an Indic script like Devanagari (Hindi / Marathi / Nepali), Tamil, or Telugu, you have a huge head start. All major Indian scripts share the exact same underlying architecture - a, aa, i, ee, u, oo, etc. So there is a direct match between letters in the script you know and Gujarati. You simply have to learn a new font with different shapes!
Duolingo does not currently offer a Gujarati course. Good alternatives are a structured video course like Bhashafy's Complete Gujarati Course, or live classes with a tutor, ideally paired with immersion in Gujarati. Further, gamified, no-grammar apps work better for languages like French, German or Spanish, which share an alphabet and vocabulary with English. For Gujarati, copying the same method causes confusion: a new script, no overlapping vocabulary to guess from, and limited reliable resources to turn to when you get stuck. That's why we recommend a guided video course to learn Gujarati effectively and easily as a beginner.
Start small. You don't need perfect fluency to start, just a handful of everyday Gujarati words for greetings, prices, directions and ordering food. Use them with auto drivers, shopkeepers and waiters, where you get instant feedback and locals appreciate the effort even when it's imperfect. Plenty of people in Ahmedabad speak English, but even basic Gujarati changes how they respond to you. Once you're ready to go further in your Gujarati learning journey, just ten minutes a day on a structured Gujarati course can help you have real conversations in Gujarati. Bhashafy's Complete Gujarati Course can have you understanding and speaking Gujarati in just 4 weeks, with an effective method that gets you speaking and practicing from Day 1.
You don't need fluency, just the phrases you'll use most: greetings, yes and no, thank you, numbers, directions, and how to ask for or order something. Ten minutes of structured practice a day is enough to handle autos, restaurants and shops in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gir or anywhere across Gujarat. Many Indians speak some English, but even broken Gujarati connects you with locals, and you'll instantly notice the difference in the hospitality you receive.
Many Indian-origin children growing up abroad understand some Gujarati but struggle to actually speak with their loved ones. Most resources are bookish, focus on reading rather than real communication, and don't explain the language from an English speaker's point of view. Our course is built for exactly that gap. It teaches spoken Gujarati, starts with the situations you'll actually face, and gives you the grammar foundation to build on, assuming you're starting from zero. We also start with Romanized Gujarati so you don't have to struggle with the script while you are still sharpening your speaking skills. We come back to the script at the end of the course. You also learn cultural nuances like the respectful forms used for elders, so you sound caring instead of curt, and structured lessons with real conversations take you from understanding to replying.
Many NRI parents ask us this question. Their children abroad spend most of their day in English, so they only reply in English even if they understand some Gujarati. Fix that at home with a consistent rule, such as the whole family speaking only Gujarati indoors or each parent sticking to one language. Consistency in sticking to the rule is key, and that starts from the parents. Build in short, relaxed rituals like a Gujarati-only dinner, Gujarati songs and rhymes for little ones, and video calls with grandparents in the mother tongue. Skip grammar corrections and drills, which "school-ify" the process and make children resist the language. Focus on speaking and listening before reading and writing, and add a structured course like Bhashafy's or live classes to move them from understanding to speaking confidently.
Bhashafy's Complete Gujarati Course is designed for absolute beginners starting from scratch. It takes you from zero to a solid foundation in spoken Gujarati, then teaches the Gujarati script at the end. Once you enroll, you get lifetime access and can learn at your own pace. The course includes video lessons, practice exercises and cultural insights that help you understand the language in context. If you want a guided, step-by-step approach focused on real-life use, this course is built for you. Bhashafy's courses have taught more than 20,000 learners from 90+ countries across multiple languages and platforms. They are consistently rated 4.8/5 or above, both on Bhashafy and on external platforms like Udemy, where our Gujarati course is the Bestseller in the Gujarati category. You're enrolling in a course that thousands of learners worldwide have already tried, tested and loved.