Things to know about Hindi
Hindi is spoken as a first language by approximately one third of India's population, and learned as a second language by millions more. It is the official language of Indian government communications and is supposed to be taught in all Indian schools where it is not the dominant language. Hindi is descended from the ancient Sanskrit language.
If your Hindi lessons require you to type Hindi characters, follow the instructions immediately below to do so. If your lessons use transliterated Hindi, see the Using Transliterated Hindi Lessons section further down.
Using Hindi Lessons
Hindi is written in the Devanagari alphabet. In this writing system, most characters have at least a partial bar at the top, which connects to the other letters in a word. There are no uppercase and lowercase forms. In addition, each consonant has an inherent vowel sound, which can be changed with diacritic marks. There are also separate characters used to write the vowels independently and a large assortment of conjunct characters to represent consonant clusters. Hindi is written from left to right, like English.
Typing Basic Vowels and Consonants
You can use the virtual keyboard to type Hindi characters. Each of the basic vowels and consonants can be typed directly from the keyboard. To do so, locate the character you want on the virtual keyboard, then press the corresponding key on your keyboard or use your mouse to click on it on the screen. If you do not see the character you are looking for, hold down the Shift key to see an additional set of characters.
Typing Vowel Diacritic Marks and Modifier Symbols
In addition to stand-alone vowels and consonants, the virtual keyboard also shows vowel diacritic marks and special modifier symbols (halant, anusvara, candrabindu, etc.) To type a diacritic or a modifier along with a Hindi character, press the key for the base character first, then press the key for the diacritic mark. You may need to hold down the Shift key to see some of the diacritics and modifiers.
Typing Hindi Numerals
You can find the Hindi numerals on the top row of the virtual keyboard when you hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time.
Typing Punctuation Marks
You can find punctuation marks on the virtual keyboard, too. For example, the Hindi period, which looks like a vertical line, appears on the period key when you hold down the Shift key.
Typing Conjunct Characters (Consonant Clusters)
In Hindi, when two or more consonants form part of a consonant cluster, they are written using special conjunct characters. Producing these characters is perhaps the most challenging part of typing in Hindi, but as you learn to do so, you will also be learning the valuable skill of recognizing and reading these common characters.
To type a consonant cluster, start by typing the first consonant, then type the halant symbol, 
, which indicates the removal of the consonant's inherent vowel sound. The halant is associated with the d key on the keyboard. You will see the halant appear under the first consonant. Next, type the second consonant. The first consonant and the halant will be replaced by the correct conjunct form for the two consonants. If you need to add a third consonant to the cluster, press the d key to add another halant, then press the key for the third consonant. Again, the correct conjunct form for the cluster will appear.
The tricky part is recognizing which consonants make up a cluster, as the combination may not always be obvious from the conjunct form. Listen carefully to the sound of a character to determine the individual consonants included in it, then type the conjunct character according to the instructions above. Note that the application may not allow you to combine characters that are never used together in Hindi.
If you want to learn Hindi without having to type the Hindi characters, you can concentrate on the activities which do not require typing. Alternatively, you can use transliterated Hindi lessons instead.
Using Transliterated Hindi Lessons
Some of the Hindi lessons in this application are transliterated - written with the letters of the Latin alphabet. Transliterated lessons can help you master vocabulary and pronunciation before tackling a new writing system.
You do not have to type actual Hindi characters in transliterated Hindi lessons. You can type the transliterations in any activity or assessment that requires typed answers. Transliterated Hindi does not require any special characters.