· 6 min read
Hindi vs Tamil: How They Compare
By Language Lab editorial team
Hindi vs Tamil compared: language families, scripts, where each is spoken, greetings, how long each takes to learn, and which one to learn first.
Hindi and Tamil are both major languages of India, but they are not related. Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European family and descends from Sanskrit. Tamil belongs to the Dravidian family. They are written in different scripts, Devanagari for Hindi and the Tamil script for Tamil, and a Hindi speaker cannot simply understand Tamil: the BBC's guide to Hindi notes that it is difficult for a Hindi speaker to communicate in the south Indian states where Tamil is spoken. Hindi is the main language of much of northern and central India. Tamil is the official language of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. Which to learn depends on where you are going and whom you want to speak with.
Side by side
| Hindi | Tamil | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Indo-European; Indo-Aryan group | Dravidian |
| Script | Devanagari, left to right | Tamil script, left to right |
| Characters | Each character has its own sound | 12 vowels and 18 consonants, combining into 216 compound characters |
| Main regions | Northern, central and parts of eastern and western India | Tamil Nadu and Puducherry; Sri Lanka; Singapore |
| Speakers | Nearly 425 million first-language speakers, by the BBC's archived guide | More than 85 million, by the Open University's course |
| Hello | नमस्ते | வணக்கம் |
| US State Department listing | Category III, about 44 weeks | Not named on the list |
Two different families
The BBC's guide describes Hindi as a direct descendant of Sanskrit, belonging to the Indian group of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family, which is the family that also includes English. France's national institute for oriental languages, Inalco, places Tamil in the Dravidian family, and calls it the only Indian language with an ancient literature and grammar that are not local adaptations of Sanskrit texts. The BBC's guide notes that Hindi has been influenced and enriched by south Indian Dravidian languages, among others, but the two belong to different families.
Two different scripts
Hindi is written in Devanagari, a script it shares with Nepali. The BBC's guide calls Hindi fairly easy to read, because words are written as they are pronounced and each character has a different sound. Tamil has its own script: 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character, with vowels and consonants combining into 216 compound characters, for 247 in total. Both run from left to right. Knowing one script does not let you read the other; the BBC's guide notes that south Indian languages use Dravidian scripts of their own.
Where each is used
- Hindi: the BBC's guide lists it as the main language of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, of Bihar and Jharkhand, of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and of Rajasthan, and says it is widely understood in several other states.
- Hindi abroad: Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nepal.
- Tamil: the official language of Tamil Nadu and the territory of Puducherry, and one of the official languages of Sri Lanka and Singapore.
- Tamil abroad: large communities in Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia and the USA.
The same phrases in both
| English | Hindi | Tamil |
|---|---|---|
| Hello | नमस्ते (Namaste) | வணக்கம். (Vanakkam) |
| Thank you | Dhanyavad | நன்றி. (Nandhri) |
| Are you well? / How are you? | आप कैसे हैं? (aap kaise hain) | நீங்கள் நலமாக இருக்கிறீர்களா (Neenkal Nalamaka Erukkirirkala) |
The Open University's Tamil course makes the cultural link itself: Vanakkam is used just like Namaste in northern India, and is said with the palms pressed together.
Grammar notes
- Hindi puts the verb at the end of the sentence. The BBC's guide gives आप कैसे हैं, how are you, word for word you how are.
- Hindi nouns are masculine or feminine, and adjectives and verbs change with gender. The guide calls this one of the most difficult steps in learning Hindi.
- Hindi has no articles.
- Tamil has a classical and a modern form, as Greek does. Inalco teaches mainly modern Tamil, as it is spoken and written in India.
How long each takes
The US State Department lists Hindi in Category III, hard languages, at about 44 weeks or 1,012 class hours for English speakers to reach a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. Its list, which it says is not exhaustive, does not name Tamil, so there is no official figure to compare. At 10 hours a week, 1,012 hours is about 101 weeks.
Which should you learn?
- You are going to Delhi or elsewhere in northern or central India: Hindi.
- You are going to Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, northern Sri Lanka or have ties to Tamil communities in Singapore or Malaysia: Tamil.
- You want the language with the larger number of speakers: Hindi.
- You have Tamil family or heritage: Tamil. The Tamil Virtual Academy was created to provide Tamil education through the internet for the diaspora.
- You already speak one: the other is a new family and a new script, so treat it as a fresh start.
Language Lab offers both. Its Hindi and Tamil courses are built around voiced real-life scenarios with an AI tutor.
Frequently asked
Is Tamil similar to Hindi?
No. Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language descended from Sanskrit; Tamil is a Dravidian language. They belong to different families and use different scripts.
Can Hindi speakers understand Tamil?
Not without learning it. The BBC's guide to Hindi notes that it is difficult for a Hindi speaker to communicate in south Indian states where Tamil and other Dravidian languages are spoken.
Do Hindi and Tamil use the same script?
No. Hindi is written in Devanagari. Tamil has its own script of 12 vowels and 18 consonants.
Which has more speakers, Hindi or Tamil?
Hindi. The BBC's archived guide gives nearly 425 million first-language speakers; the Open University's course gives more than 85 million speakers for Tamil.
Which is harder for English speakers, Hindi or Tamil?
There is no official comparison. The US State Department places Hindi in Category III, at about 44 weeks, and does not name Tamil on its list.
Is Tamil older than Hindi?
The Open University's course describes Tamil as one of the oldest languages in the world, dated back to around 400 BC. The BBC's guide describes Hindi as having evolved from Sanskrit through later stages into its present form.
Sources: BBC Languages, A Guide to Hindi: 10 facts and Quick Fix essential Hindi phrases (archived pages); The Open University, OpenLearn, Beginners' Tamil: a taster course; Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco), Hindi and Tamil; Tamil Virtual Academy (tamilvu.org), About TVA; US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Foreign Language Training. Checked on 13 October 2026. Photo: Pamban Bridge, Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, IM3847 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
