Difference between Hindi and Urdu

Basic Urdu/Hindi sound very alike, I completely agree, but there are many words in Hindi that don’t exist in Urdu, and vice versa. Take this simple phrase for an example: “Chinta mat karo” (Hindi = don’t worry), meanwhile in Urdu: “Fikar mat karo.” Same meaning, and the “mat karo” remains the same, while the verb changes.

Hindi derives from Sanskrit, while Urdu derives from Farsi (Persian), and Arabic mostly (although my professor mentioned once that Urdu also derives from Sanskrit..

Really difficult Urdu is often confused with Farsi because the words are similar, if not the same. If you read poets who wrote in Urdu, you can see what I mean.

There are also written differences, of course. Urdu uses the Arabic alphabet, shared with Farsi (alif bay pay, etc.) Urdu alphabet

While Hindi uses the Devangari script from Sanskrit (at least that’s what I can remember from this class I took… maybe I’m spelling Devangari wrong, or mixing up the word completely, I am not sure). This is probably the biggest difference between the two languages that I am aware of.

I speak Urdu, not Hindi, but I could easily converse with someone who spoke Hindi because I’d be able to understand what they were saying. And same would go for them.

If I watch Urdu news however, I can hardly follow what’s going on because the Urdu they speak is at a level that I can’t comprehend. So if a Hindi speaker encountered this, they wouldn’t understand it either. Same with Hindi, if I were to watch Hindi news I’d have no idea what’s going on. Official news channels generally prescribe to the proper form of the language so maybe this is where another difference can be seen.

I think Bollywood movies are usually in Hindi (correct me if I’m wrong), while the songs are in Urdu I think (depending on who wrote the song, because the script writers and song writers are usually different people from different backgrounds)?

It’s important to remember though that since both languages are spoken on the same subcontinent, they have both borrowed words from each other which have naturalized into each respective language. Spoken Urdu and Hindi (especially Hindi and Urdu spoken by the layman) are often difficult to distinguish I’ve found.

Urdu is the contested “official” language of Pakistan, and Hindi is generally viewed as India’s official language, but I don’t think it is. One of my other professors once said India has no official language… this can’t be though? They must have SOMETHING.