This short lesson will interest teachers and students of English who want to know about the Hindi words that have entered into common English. This happened in Victorian times when the British united and ruled India. The movie Ghandi will give interested students some background.

I composed the following sentence with as many Hindi words as I could think of.

I woke up west of Calcutta, put on my gingham sari, rode a rikshaw through the jangle, paid in rupees and took a dinghy across the Ganges to pick mango and tamerind for my curry chutney.

Calcutta is the famous city.

Gingham cloth is a corruption of the Malay or Hindi word.

Sari is the typical Indian dress.

Rikshaw is the pull cart.

Jangle is the better form of jungle.

Rupees is the currency.

Dinghy is a small boat.

Ganges is the famous river.

Mango is the fruit.

Tamerind is a sour sticky bean pod from native trees.

Curry is a combination of spices especially yellow tumeric.

Chutney is a spicy pickle sauce. It became popular in Britain.

It would be nice to teach this with a good Indian map and some examples of Indian foods. I always ask students to make little sketches of the new items. Maybe you can mix your own blend of curry powder with the students.

Copyright 2005 Robin Tim Day