Once you join a family group chat, you discover that most Hindi on phones is not written in Devanagari at all. It is typed in English letters, fast, with vowels dropped and words shortened. "Kya kr rhe ho" and "thk h" can look like a code. In this episode: • Why there is no single spelling • The most common shortcuts • Where it gets ambiguous • This course's hinglish system • A family group chat • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key Hindi from this episode: है (h) = is. Many people type just h. नहीं (nhi) = no, not. क्या (kya, also k) = what. कर (kr) = do, doing. मैं (mai) = I. Notice the nasal hum is usually not typed. हूँ (hu) = am. तुम (tm) = you, familiar. आप (ap) = you, polite. कब (kb) = when. पर (pr) = on, at, but. ठीक है (thk h) = okay. क्या कर रहे हो? (kya kr rhe ho?) = what are you doing? मैं घर पर हूँ (mai ghar pr hu) = I'm at home. अभी नहीं (abhi nhi) = not now. तुम कब आओगे? (tm kb aaoge?) = when will you come? कैसे हो? (kaise ho?) = how are you? बाल (baal) = hair, and बल (bal) = strength, can both be typed "bal". कम (kam) = less, and काम (kaam) = work, are often both typed "kam". दिन (din) = day, sometimes typed "dn". Season 3 · Spoken Hindi at Home: the complete self-study course for English speakers. Every Hindi item is given in Devanagari, Hinglish and English. Take the 52-question quiz after listening. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair.