· 7 min read
Is Hindi Hard to Learn? A Fair Assessment
By Language Lab editorial team
Is Hindi hard to learn? Officially it is a hard language for English speakers: about 44 weeks, 1,012 class hours. See what is difficult and what is easy.
Hindi is hard for English speakers, but not among the very hardest. The US State Department places it in Category III, which it labels hard languages, with significant linguistic or cultural differences from English, and allows about 44 weeks, or 1,012 class hours, to reach a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. That is more than Spanish or German and half the time of Arabic or Japanese. The difficulty is mostly grammar: every noun is masculine or feminine, adjectives and verbs change to match, and the verb goes at the end of the sentence. Against that, Hindi has real advantages for a learner. Words are written as they are pronounced, there are no articles, and the language shares a surprising number of words with English.
Where Hindi sits
| State Department category | Class time | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Category I, languages close to English | 24–30 weeks (552–690 class hours) | Spanish, French, Italian |
| Category II | About 36 weeks (828 class hours) | German, Indonesian |
| Category III, hard languages | About 44 weeks (1,012 class hours) | Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Russian, Thai |
| Category IV, super-hard languages | 88 weeks (2,200 class hours) | Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean |
The State Department's figures describe English-speaking students reaching an ILR score of 3 in speaking and listening. It notes that the actual time varies with a learner's natural ability, prior language-learning experience and time spent in the classroom. The Department previously published this list under the name Foreign Service Institute (FSI); an archived version of the page gives identical class-hour totals to the current one.
What is hard about Hindi
Gender runs through the sentence
The BBC's guide to Hindi explains that all nouns have a gender, masculine or feminine, and that adjectives and verbs change according to it. It calls learning this usually one of the most difficult steps in learning Hindi. Its example: he is a good boy is wah achchha larka hai, but she is a good girl is wah achchhi larki hai. Even the speaker's own gender matters: a man says Main nahin samajhta for I don't understand, and a woman says Main nahin samajhti.
The verb comes last
Sentence structure is different from English. Verbs always go to the end of sentences, and auxiliary verbs go at the very end. How are you is aap kaise hain, word for word you how are. I am fine, main achchha hoon, is I fine am.
Formal and informal address
Hindi distinguishes formal from informal speech. The BBC's phrase list gives how are you as Aap kaise hain? in formal speech and Tum kaise ho? informally, and yes as Jee when you want to be respectful or Haan otherwise.
A new script
Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, so there is an alphabet to learn before you can read.
What is easy about Hindi
- Spelling matches sound. The BBC's guide says it is fairly easy to read Hindi, because words are written as they are pronounced and each character has a different sound.
- It reads left to right, like English.
- No articles. Hindi does not have words for the or a.
- Words you already know. Guru, jungle, karma, yoga, bungalow, cheetah and avatar are Hindi or of Hindi origin.
- English words inside Hindi. Doctor, station, hospital, train, bus, cricket and many others are used as they are in English, simply written in Hindi letters.
How Hindi compares with its neighbours
The State Department lists Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Nepali all in Category III, so by its measure they take a similar time. Hindi is the one with the widest use inside India: the BBC's guide describes it as the language used by the largest number of people in India as their first language, and as widely understood in states beyond its heartland.
How to make it easier
- Learn the script early: spelling follows sound, so what you read is what you say.
- Learn each noun with its gender, in a short phrase with an adjective.
- Get used to verb-final sentences by building them aloud, piece by piece.
- Lean on the shared vocabulary for quick wins.
- Test yourself and space your reviews. A 2013 review of learning research rated practice testing and distributed practice as high utility, and rereading and highlighting as low.
- Use an official course for structure: the Indian government's LILA packages go from the basic to the advanced stage.
Language Lab's Hindi course is built around voiced real-life scenarios with an AI tutor, so you hear gender and word order in use and practise them aloud.
Frequently asked
Is Hindi hard to learn for English speakers?
Yes, moderately. The US State Department lists Hindi in Category III, hard languages, at about 44 weeks or 1,012 class hours to a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale.
What is the hardest part of Hindi?
Grammatical gender. All nouns are masculine or feminine, and adjectives and verbs change to match. The BBC's guide calls this usually one of the most difficult steps in learning Hindi.
Is Hindi easier than Arabic or Chinese?
By State Department figures, yes. Hindi is listed at about 44 weeks; Arabic and Chinese are in Category IV at 88 weeks.
Is Hindi easy to read?
Once you know the script, yes. The BBC's guide says words are written as they are pronounced, because each character has a different sound.
Does Hindi have articles like the and a?
No. Hindi has no articles.
Is Hindi harder than Urdu?
The State Department puts both in Category III, at about 44 weeks.
Sources: US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Foreign Language Training; BBC Languages, A Guide to Hindi: 10 facts about the Hindi language and Key phrases (archived pages); Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education; High Commission of India, Port of Spain, LILA; Dunlosky et al., Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2013. Checked on 13 October 2026. Photo: Courtyard of Amber Fort, Jaipur, Jakub Hałun / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
