Who Am I? - Family and Personal Characteristics

Reading Gujarati

Gujarati has its own graceful script, written from left to right like English, but with no capital letters at all: not for names, not at the start of a sentence. It is an abugida, which is not the same as an alphabet. In an alphabet every vowel gets its own letter; in an abugida each consonant already carries a built-in vowel sound, and small marks called matras change it. Every word here is shown three ways: the script, the sound in brackets, and the English.

The words

Eight words carry this topic. The first two introduce you; the rest are the people around you:

Match each word to its meaning

Read the script

બહેન (bahen) means _____, while ભાઈ (bhai) means _____. કુટુંબ (kutumb) is the whole _____, and મિત્ર (mitra) is a _____, who is not part of it.

Where the verb goes

This is the difference that trips up an English speaker, and it is worth seeing side by side rather than just being told:

Two sentences to keep

These words become sentences once છે (chhe) closes them. Two patterns are worth memorising whole: - મારું નામ રવિ છે (maru nam Ravi chhe) = "my name is Ravi". મારું (my), નામ (name), the name itself, and then છે. - મને મારું કુટુંબ ગમે છે (mane maru kutumb game chhe) = "I like my family". Literally it says "to me my family is pleasing": મને (mane) is "to me" and ગમે (game) is "is pleasing". Notice the second one does not translate word for word. Gujarati says the family is pleasing TO you rather than that you like it, and the sentence still ends with છે.

Inside the sentence

Here is મારું નામ રવિ છે, split into its four words. Tap the word meaning "my" AND the word meaning "is".

• મારું
• નામ
• રવિ
• છે

Pick the sentence

Which of these says "my name is Ravi"?

• મારું નામ રવિ છે (maru nam Ravi chhe)
• છે મારું નામ રવિ (chhe maru nam Ravi)
• મારું નામ રવિ (maru nam Ravi)
• મને મારું કુટુંબ ગમે છે (mane maru kutumb game chhe)

Build the sentence

Put these four words in the right order to say "my name is Ravi".

• મારું (maru) - my
• નામ (nam) - name
• રવિ (Ravi) - the name itself
• છે (chhe) - is

Say it properly

You are introducing yourself and your family in Gujarati. Work through three decisions.

• You want to say "my name is Ravi". Which word has to come LAST?
• Now you want to say "I like my family". Which sentence is it?
• A friend writes મારું નામ રવિ and stops. What is wrong with it?

Pleasing to me

મને (mane) means "to me" and ગમે (game) means "is pleasing", so મને મારું કુટુંબ ગમે છે literally says "to me my _____ is pleasing". In English we would simply say "I _____ my family". Notice that this sentence also ends with _____, and that nowhere in it is there a _____ letter, because Gujarati has none.

Explain the rule

A friend is starting Gujarati and keeps writing sentences the English way round. Explain, in English, where the word છે goes and why English speakers find it hard.

• Say what છે (chhe) means
• Say where it goes in a Gujarati sentence
• Quote one of the two sentences you have learnt, and point out the છે in it
• Say what an English speaker is likely to do instead, and why

The capital mistake

A student writes a Gujarati sentence and carefully gives the first letter a capital, and the name રવિ a capital too, exactly as they would in English. What is wrong?

• Gujarati has no capital letters at all, so there is nothing to capitalise, in a name or anywhere else
• Names may be capitalised but the first word of a sentence may not
• Nothing is wrong, but the sentence should be written right to left
• A capital letter is written as a matra above the consonant

Gujarati summary

Gujarati is written from _____ to right with no capital letters, and it is an _____. The word for family is _____, and a sentence is closed by _____, which comes last.