Hinglish is the everyday mix of Hindi and English that most urban Indians and much of the Indian diaspora actually speak. It keeps Hindi grammar and Hindi word order, drops English words in wherever they come more naturally, and is written in English letters when it is typed. You hear it at dinner tables, in offices, in cricket commentary and in every family WhatsApp group. If someone says "tension mat lo, main aa raha hoon" (don't worry, I'm coming), that is Hinglish. This post is the plain definition, with examples, how the mix works, and what to do if you want to speak it. For the question of which one to learn, Hindi or Hinglish, the longer answer is in Hinglish vs Hindi: what's the difference.
I'm Akhil. I'm Indian, my wife is British, and she learned Hindi for my family. Somewhere in the middle of that she noticed that the language in her lessons and the language in my mum's kitchen were not quite the same thing. The kitchen one is Hinglish. I named the app after it: Hinglish, plus "Vinglish", the nonsense echo Hindi speakers add to a word to mean "and all that", chai-shai, khana-vana. Hinglish Vinglish means Hinglish, and everything that comes with it.
What does Hinglish mean?
Hinglish means Hindi plus English, said together in one sentence. The word itself is a blend of "Hindi" and "English", and it has been in use since at least the late twentieth century. In practice it describes a register, a way of speaking, rather than a separate language with its own rules. Hindi provides the skeleton: the verb goes at the end, the little grammar words stay Hindi, the politeness markers stay Hindi. English provides a lot of the nouns, many of the adjectives, and most of the words for anything modern. The result sounds like Hindi to an English speaker and like normal conversation to an Indian one.
Two things people get wrong about the meaning. Hinglish is not "bad Hindi" or "bad English". Speakers who are fluent in both still mix them, by choice, because the mix is faster and warmer. And Hinglish is not slang, or not only slang. A grandmother asking "doctor ko dikhaya?" (did you show a doctor?) is speaking Hinglish just as much as a teenager typing "scene kya hai" (what's the plan).
Hinglish examples: 25 sentences you will actually hear
Every sentence below is Hindi grammar with English words inside it. Where a verb changes with the speaker's gender, both forms are given. Say them out loud; Hinglish is a spoken thing first.
Everyday
- Tension mat lo: don't worry. "Tension" means worry here, and it has stopped being an English word for most speakers.
- Main office ja raha hoon (man) / main office ja rahi hoon (woman): I'm going to the office.
- Time kya hua hai?: what time is it?
- Chai peeni hai?: do you want tea? Literally "is tea to be drunk?", and it is the most common offer in any Indian home.
- Traffic bahut tha: there was a lot of traffic. The standard reason for being late.
- Mujhe late ho gaya: I got late.
- Light chali gayi: the power went out. "Light" means electricity.
Family
- Khana kha liya?: have you eaten? It means "are you okay", not "report your meal". There is a whole post on how to answer khana khaya.
- Beta, phone karna kabhi: child, call sometime. "Beta" is said to anyone younger, regardless of gender.
- Function kab hai?: when is the event? "Function" is the standard word for any organised family gathering.
- Thoda aur lo: take a little more. Said about food, and refusing it once is not a refusal.
- Doctor ko dikhao: go and see a doctor. Sent within seconds of anyone mentioning a cough.
- Weekend pe aa jao na: do come over at the weekend. The "na" at the end turns an order into a warm request.
- Photo bhejo: send photos.
Work
- Meeting kab hai?: when is the meeting?
- Mail kar dena: email it to me. "Kar dena" is "do it for me", the gentle imperative.
- Boss ne bola hai: the boss has said so. End of discussion.
- Lunch ke baad karte hain: let's do it after lunch.
- Main thoda busy hoon: I'm a bit busy. Same form for a man or a woman.
- File forward kar di maine: I've forwarded the file.
Texting
- Scene kya hai?: what's the plan? Literally "what's the scene".
- Google kar lo: just google it.
- Raste mein hoon: I'm on the way. Same form for everyone.
- Bahut tasty lag raha hai: that looks very tasty. The standard reply to a food photo.
- Chalo, bye, baad mein baat karte hain: okay, bye, let's talk later. "Chalo" closes a conversation the way "right then" does.
If you want fifty more of these, straight from the group chat, read 50 Hinglish sentences from the family WhatsApp group.
How Hinglish works
Once you see the pattern, you can make Hinglish sentences yourself. There are four moving parts.
1. Hindi word order, with the verb last
English says "I am going to the office". Hindi says "main office ja raha hoon", I office going am. The verb sits at the end, and the words that English puts before a noun (to, in, on) come after it in Hindi: "office mein" (in the office), "Sunday ko" (on Sunday), "ghar se" (from home). Hinglish keeps all of that. The English words slot into Hindi positions. If the order is new to you, Hindi word order explained simply walks through it.
2. English nouns and adjectives, dropped straight in
Office, phone, meeting, traffic, doctor, ticket, train, school, time, busy, tasty, nice, late. For many speakers there is no everyday Hindi word in active use for these; the English one is the Hindi one now. Nobody pauses before "traffic bahut tha". The sentence is not switching languages in the speaker's head.
3. English verbs take a Hindi helper
You cannot conjugate an English verb the Hindi way, so Hinglish adds "karna" (to do) or "hona" (to be) after it and conjugates that instead. "Google karo" (google it), "mail kar dena" (email it), "adjust ho jao" (adjust, make do), "tension mat lo" (don't take tension). This is the single most productive trick in the register. Any English verb plus "karna" is a Hinglish verb, and Hindi speakers will understand it.
4. The small words stay Hindi
The words that give a sentence its tone never get translated. "Yaar" (mate, friend), "na" (won't you, right?), "hi" (only, exactly), "toh" (so, well), "bas" (enough, just), "achha" (okay, I see, good), "arre" (hey), "ji" (the respect particle). You could speak Hinglish with ninety percent English words and it would still sound Indian because of these.
15 Hinglish words and particles to know
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| yaar | mate, friend, used for emphasis | Chalo na yaar (come on, mate) |
| na | softens a request, or asks "right?" | Aa jao na (do come) |
| ji | respect particle, polite yes | Haan ji (yes, politely) |
| achha | okay, good, I see, really? | Achha, theek hai (okay, fine) |
| bas | enough, just, that's it | Bas ek aur (just one more) |
| toh | so, well, then | Toh kya hua? (so what happened?) |
| arre | hey, oh, mild surprise | Arre, tum aa gaye! (oh, you're here!) |
| chalo | let's go, fine then, okay bye | Chalo, milte hain (okay, see you) |
| tension | worry, stress | Tension mat lo (don't worry) |
| funda | the basic idea, the logic | Funda simple hai (the idea is simple) |
| timepass | killing time, a light pastime | Bas timepass kar rahe hain (just passing time) |
| scene | the situation, the plan | Scene kya hai? (what's the plan?) |
| jugaad | a clever workaround, a hack | Jugaad kar lenge (we'll work something out) |
| mast | great, excellent | Khana mast tha (the food was great) |
| pakka | definite, confirmed, for sure | Pakka aaoge? (you'll definitely come?) |
Where you hear Hinglish
Almost everywhere Hindi is spoken casually. Film dialogue and song lyrics have mixed the two languages for decades. Advertising slogans do it on purpose, because a Hinglish line sounds like a friend rather than an announcement. Cricket commentary slides between the two several times an over. Offices in Indian cities run on it: the email is in English, the conversation about the email is in Hinglish. And the family WhatsApp group is Hinglish from top to bottom, typed in English letters, with the Hindi spelled however the sender feels that day.
Outside India it is the home language of a large part of the diaspora in the US, the UK, Canada and beyond. Chances are, if your partner's family is Indian, the language they switch into when they relax is Hinglish, not textbook Hindi. That is the whole reason the difference matters to a learner.
Hinglish vs Hindi vs Urdu
Hindi is the standardised language of textbooks, news bulletins and government forms, written in the Devanagari script. Urdu shares the same spoken grammar and most everyday words, written in a different script, with more formal vocabulary drawn from Persian and Arabic. Hinglish sits on top of the spoken core that Hindi and Urdu share, and adds English. A sentence like "chai peeni hai?" (do you want tea?) is Hindi, Urdu and Hinglish at the same time; "meeting ke baad chai peeni hai?" (tea after the meeting?) is Hinglish. The two longer comparisons are Hinglish vs Hindi and Hindi vs Urdu: what's actually different.
Is Hinglish a real language?
It depends what you mean by language, and people argue about it. Hinglish has no official status, no standard spelling, no grammar book of its own, and it varies from city to city and family to family. Linguists usually describe it as code-mixing or a mixed register rather than a language in its own right. On the other hand, it is the daily speech of many millions of people, it has stable patterns (the four moving parts above), and children grow up acquiring it as their first way of talking. Some speakers are proud of it; some older speakers wish people spoke "proper" Hindi or "proper" English. I am not going to settle that here. What matters for a learner is simpler: Hinglish is real in the sense that it is what people will say to you, and what they will expect you to understand.
How to learn Hinglish
You learn Hinglish by learning the spoken Hindi core, out loud, and then letting the English words fall in where they already live. There is less to learn than for textbook Hindi: you do not need the script, you do not need the formal vocabulary, and a few hundred Hindi words plus the English you already have covers most conversations. The things that cannot be skipped are the sounds (Hindi has sounds English does not), the verb-last pattern, and the verb endings for your own gender. The step-by-step guide is how to learn Hinglish; the broader route, including when the script is worth it, is how to learn Hindi. If you are starting from zero, the first 50 words is the place to begin.
Mistakes English speakers make with Hinglish
- Using English word order. "Main ja raha hoon office" is understood, but it is not how anyone says it. The verb goes last: "main office ja raha hoon".
- Translating the English words into Hindi. Reaching for a textbook Hindi word for "train" or "office" makes you sound like a news reader. The English word is the normal word.
- Dropping the small words. A sentence with no "na", "toh" or "yaar" is correct and cold. The particles are where the warmth is.
- Saying everything in the masculine form. "Main aa raha hoon" is a man speaking. A woman says "main aa rahi hoon". Many apps teach only the first; check which form is yours from day one.
- Pronouncing the Hindi words with English sounds. Hinglish is forgiving about vocabulary and strict about sounds. The "t" in "theek" and the "d" in "doodh" are not English t and d, and people notice. Our post on why your t and d sound wrong in Hindi fixes that.
- Treating it as slang to be avoided. You will be understood in careful Hindi. You will be welcomed in Hinglish.
Where Hinglish Vinglish fits
Most Hindi courses teach the textbook language and the script first, and the Hinglish you actually need at the table arrives late or never. Hinglish Vinglish starts from the other end. The lessons are spoken Hindi and Hinglish, written in English letters only, built around real situations like dinner time, chai time, the in-laws and travel. You say each line out loud, and Ellie, the elephant coach, gives you feedback on your pronunciation and the one sound to fix. It asks which words you use for "I" at the start, so the verb forms you learn are your own. It will not teach you to read Devanagari and it is not a substitute for a patient relative. It is for the start, the part where most people stall. There is a full description on the app page. Free for seven days, then a one-time unlock, no subscription, on iOS and Android.
FAQ
What is Hinglish?
Hinglish is the mix of Hindi and English spoken by most urban Indians and much of the diaspora. It uses Hindi grammar and word order with English words dropped in, and it is typed in English letters. "Tension mat lo, main aa raha hoon" (don't worry, I'm coming) is a typical Hinglish sentence.
Is Hinglish a language?
Not an official one. Linguists usually call it code-mixing or a mixed register of Hindi and English, with no standard spelling or grammar book. It is, however, the everyday speech of many millions of people, with stable patterns that a learner can pick up.
What is an example of Hinglish?
"Meeting ke baad chai peeni hai?" means "do you want tea after the meeting?". "Meeting" and "chai" sit inside a Hindi sentence frame. Other common examples are "google kar lo" (just google it), "time kya hua hai?" (what time is it?) and "khana kha liya?" (have you eaten?).
Who speaks Hinglish?
Mostly people in Indian cities who grew up with both Hindi and English, and the Indian diaspora in countries like the US, the UK and Canada. It is common across generations, not only among the young, though the amount of English in the mix varies by speaker and by setting.
Is Hinglish the same as Hindi?
No. Hindi is the standardised language, written in Devanagari, taught in textbooks and used in news and official settings. Hinglish is the spoken everyday mix that uses Hindi grammar with English vocabulary. A Hindi learner who only knows the textbook form often struggles to follow a Hinglish conversation, and the other way round.
How do I learn Hinglish?
Learn the spoken Hindi core out loud: the sounds, the verb-last pattern, the verb endings for your own gender, and a few hundred common words. Keep the English words that Hinglish speakers keep. Skip the script unless you want to read. Practise with a speaking-first method and get corrected on your sounds, then put it to use in the family group chat.
— Akhil Madan, founder of Keeda Studios. I built an app around this register because my wife needed the kitchen language, not the news-bulletin one, and nothing taught it.