So what is the best way to learn Bengali? Unlike more popular languages like Spanish, French, or Japanese, you’ll find a few functioning resources. But, luckily, the conjugations are limited compared to many other languages, such as Hindi or Modern Standard Arabic.īut the biggest challenge by far is the lack of quality resources. Take the following example:īengali translated: I school-to going (am).Īnother challenge that students might have is that there are many different verb patterns to commit to memory. For many native English speakers, this often feels like speaking in reverse. Bengali generally uses a subject-object-verb order. Generally, European languages like English, Spanish, and German have a subject-verb-object order. It depends on a highly Sanskritized register, you’ll find yourself needing to know at least two synonyms of the same word to understand both spoken and written Bengali.Īnother common issue is word order. But written Bengali is similar to several other languages in the region in that it uses a completely different vocabulary. Loanwords are abundant in colloquial Bengali. The Challenges: “Pure Bengali” and Word Order And if you are in Bangladesh, you’ll find considerably more words based on Arabic and Persian. The good news is that you’ll find several English terms and phrases. If you are familiar with other Southeast Asian or East Asian languages such as Hindi, Thai, Japanese, or Chinese, you’ll already have a headstart. In fact, you don’t have to worry about articles at all.įurthermore, besides having several variations of sh and a few other sounds that are not present in English, the pronunciation is fairly straightforward. You don’t have to worry about adding endings to nouns, adjectives, verbs, or articles based on whether a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. One of the biggest pluses is the fact that the language is relatively genderless. If you’ve read my earlier post about the language tree, then you may already know that Bengali grammar is different than Hindi. In this blog, I’ll try to answer the best way to learn Bengali – especially if you are working on it by yourself. And similar to languages like Hindi, written and colloquial Bengali use different vocabulary. This isn’t even including immigrant communities.Īs with many populous languages in Southeast Asia, there are various dialects. Bengali, or Bangla (বাংলা), is largely spoken in Bangladesh and in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam.
Despite being one of the most spoken languages globally, there is a lack of resources for those seeking to learn Bengali online.