I learned most of modern day Hindi (Hindustani; Hindi + Urdu) from Bollywood movies.
But I couldn't read it in its native writing script; Devanagari. So I made an attempt to learn it from free resources available on the web. I learned most of Devanagari from this course (it was free back then). Also used learning-hindi.com for additional information.
It took me about a month to memorize all the letters.
I'd say I'm pretty average at reading and writing in Devanagari now. I still have problems understanding when to use dental and retroflex consonants. Also I'm not that good at conjunct consonants. Usually I'm able to figure them out when reading (by guessing the word). But during writing I tend to use full, stand alone letters.
Taken and modified from omniglot.com
Modern Hindi underwent a standardization of its script to fit its alphabet to the number of keys available on the typewriter. The major elements of this standardization are the following:
Use of the anuswar in place of the panchamvarna of the same group E.g., डंडा , गंगा , चंपा vs. डण्डा , गङ्गा , चम्पा
Use of ए and ई in place of ये and यी in dual spellings E.g., जाए , गई vs. जाये , गयी
Use of English numerals in place of Hindi numerals E.g., 1 , 2 , 3 vs. १ , २ , ३
Use of anuswar in place of the anunasik (chandrabindu) E.g., जाऊं , आंख , हंस vs. जाऊँ , आँख , हँस
Avoiding the use of the nukta, except when Urdu text is being written in Devanagari E.g., जमीन , कानून , गबन vs. ज़मीन, क़ानून, ग़बन |
These norms are now widely accepted. Most leading publication houses and publications in Hindi follow these rules. [Source]
Some frequently used conjunct consonants and consonant + vowel combinations.
Tried to find example words using E•Z•Glot . Couldn't find an example for all combinations (indicated by a blank cell).
क्ष | ksha (क+श) | हस्ताक्षर | द्य | dya (द+य) | विद्यार्थी |
ज्ञ | gya (ज्+ञ) | वैज्ञानिकों | द्म | dma (द+म) | पद्म |
च्छ | cchha (च+छ) | इच्छाओं | ह्य | hya (ह+य) |
|
ग्घ | ggha (ग+घ) |
| ह्म | hma (ह+म) | ब्राह्मण |
ज्ज | jja (ज+ज) | लज्जा | श्र | shra (श+र) | विश्राम |
ण्ण | nna (ण+ण) |
| श्व | shva (श+व) | आत्मविश्वास |
ब्भ | bbha (ब+भ) |
| श्च | shcha (श+च) | निश्चित |
प्र | pra (प+र) | प्रायोजन | श्ल | shla (श+ल) | अश्लील |
द्द | dda (द+द) | मुद्दों | द्घ | dgha (द+घ) | उद्घाटन |
ट्र | tra (ट+र) | इलेक्ट्रॉनिक्स | द्ध | ddha (द+ध) | बुद्धि |
द्र | dra (द+र) | इन्द्रधनुष | द्भ | dbha (द+भ) | अद्भुत |
रु | ru (र+उ) | तन्दुरुस्त | क्त | kta (क+त) | शक्तिशाली |
रू | roo (र+ऊ) | गुरूवार | त्त | tta (त+त) | इत्तिफ़ाक़ |
त्र | tra (त+र) | स्वतंत्रता | त्त्र | ttra (त+त्र) |
|
द्व | dva (द+व) | विद्वान | र्प | rpa (र+प) | समर्पित |
