Coco's Nepal

In English, there are only a few names for family members. For example, our father's brother and our mother's brother are both called the same thing: "uncle." But in Nepali the words and titles used for family are much more specific, which can make it difficult for a beginner! In addition, strangers are also addressed by "family" names: the lady you buy your veggies from is your 'older sister,' the kid that lives on your block is your 'little brother,' and the older woman who asks you for directions is your 'auntie.' There are no words for "excuse me" as we would use it in English to address a stranger - it's literally almost required for you to call someone as though they are a family member! In regards to actual  relatives, there are so many different words for so many different members of the family that it's almost impossible to list them all in once place. Here is a partial list of words to get you started:

Click here for part one and here for part 2 of this article. Here are a couple more Nepali verb tenses for you: 1. गर्दै छ  gardai cha "am/are/is doing" This tense tends to be used for things that you are doing right at the moment (eating, walking, etc) as opposed to ongoing projects (like writing a novel, etc). For the latter, you can use the next verb form. For verbs with stems that end in consonants (i.e., garnu: stem = gar-) you can use the stem as-is and add -dai plus the correct conjugation of hunu  (cha, chan, etc.) For verbs with stems that end in vowels, keep that "n" from the -nu dictionary ending and then add the -dai suffix. For example, khaanu "to eat" becomes khaan-dai instead of khaa-dai.

Try out this delicious Nepali appetizer/snack which Sharad teaches us how to cook in our second recipe video! Like and subscribe for more like this! Our Patreon Our Threadless Shop!