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Hindi time expressions
Most languages have separate words for yesterday and tomorrow. This probably strikes you as perfectly natural; after all, what two concepts could be more different? One's in the past, and one's in the future. One has happened already, and one hasn't begun yet. One is all about memory, and the other is all about speculation and possibility. Well, it's precisely because of these differences that Hindi has one word, कल (kal), which means both yesterday and tomorrow. In usage, you can't possibly mix them up, especially when it comes to verb tenses. So कल works perfectly fine for both. But Hindi doesn't stop there. Not only does it have one word that means one day before or after today, it also has a word that means two days before or after today, परसों (parson), which, depending on context, can be translated as the day before yesterday or the day after tomorrow. Taking this one step further, Hindi has the word तरसों (tarson), which means the day before the day before yesterday or the day after the day after tomorrow. But wait … you can even go further with this, and say नरसों (narson), which means, you guessed it, the day before the day before the day before yesterday or the day after the day after the day after tomorrow. Tags: Hindi, newsletter, vocabulary
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