मुँह means both mouth and face, which sounds imprecise until you notice English does something similar with ‘head’. सिर is worth memorising instantly because सिर दर्द (sir dard, headache) is the most common complaint anyone voices in Hindi.

Hindi is looser than English about where an arm ends and a hand begins. हाथ covers the whole limb, and पैर covers leg and foot together. If you need to be specific, say हाथ की उंगली for finger or पैर का अंगूठा for toe.

हाथ and पैर also carry heavy social meaning. Touching an elder’s पैर is the standard gesture of respect, and pointing your feet at a person, a book or a shrine is genuinely offensive — if you accidentally touch someone with your foot, the expected apology is to touch them with your hand and then your own chest. हाथ जोड़ना, joining hands, is both the namaste gesture and the idiom for pleading with someone.

This is the section to memorise. The frame is: [body part] में दर्द है — there is pain in the [body part].

Swap the body part and the sentence still works. Notice that pain uses में (in), while illnesses like fever and cough use मुझे (to me). That split catches learners out constantly — you never say मुझे सिर दर्द है in standard Hindi.

Indian doctors will almost always ask कब से? (kab se?) — since when? Answer with दो दिन से, एक हफ़्ते से or आज से. Addressing a doctor as डॉक्टर साहब is standard and expected across North India.

One practical warning about Indian pharmacies. Many medicines that require a prescription elsewhere are handed over the counter here, and a chemist will often suggest something directly. That convenience is real, but so is the risk — antibiotic self-medication is a serious problem in India. Learn पर्ची (parchi), the prescription slip, and ask यह किस लिए है? — what is this for — before accepting anything.

आँख is nasalised — the chandrabindu sends the vowel through the nose, and the word ends on a raspy kh, not a k. मुँह is genuinely awkward for English speakers: it is roughly ‘munh’ with the nasal and the h barely separated. पेट uses retroflex ट, so curl the tongue. पीठ is aspirated retroflex — curl and puff. If you get only two right, make them सिर and पेट, because those are the ones you will say under stress.

• Saying मुझे सिर दर्द है. Correct is सिर में दर्द है.
• Using पैर only for foot. It covers the whole leg in normal speech.
• Confusing पेट (stomach) with पीठ (back). One letter apart, completely different complaint.
• Pronouncing आँख without the nasal, which turns it towards a different word.
• Expecting English to work in a small-town clinic. In district hospitals Hindi is essential.

1. Build the pain sentence for five different body parts.
2. Practise answering कब से? with three different time expressions.
3. Point at parts of your own body and name each one aloud without translating.
4. Describe a full imaginary illness: fever for two days, headache, no appetite.
5. Say पेट and पीठ back to back until the difference is automatic.