The five Marathi phrases that do 80% of the work
First time? Do this
- Audio is built in. Tap any phrase to hear it in a native voice — pre-recorded and cached, so it just works offline, no setup. (The voice bar can still pick a phone voice as a backup.)
- Phrases — drilled by situation: Irani cafés, chai stalls, directions, the local train. Hit play, then say it back out loud.
- Sounds — the Devanagari alphabet, tap to hear every letter. Ten minutes here pays off the most.
- Customs — the unspoken rules. This is where tourists actually give themselves away.
- Practice — hear / read / recall / speak. Use it on the plane.
Right thing, right moment.
Tap a chip to jump to a scene — or just search. Common holds the go-anywhere basics (hello, thanks, where's the toilet); a few phrases like drinks live under more than one scene.
You can type in either language — both sides are searched.
Common — useful everywhere · greetings · basics · the toilet
Greetings & manners · the social handshake
At the hotel (restaurant) · ordering & dining
Bars & nights out · your scene
At the winery · tasting & buying
Finding your way · asking directions
Rickshaws & taxis · rides & fares
On the train · railways & platforms
Shops & getting by · everyday
Sea & scenery · quick vocab
Numbers 1–10 · prices & ordering
- Digits group in twos after the first three. Indian counting writes 1,000,000 as 10,00,000 and says it as दहा लाख (ten lakh) — Marathi has no separate word for "a million".
- The real pivot is लाख (lakh), not thousand. Where English jumps from thousand straight to million, Marathi's next big unit after हजार (1,000) is लाख (100,000), then कोटी (10,000,000, crore) — a million is simply दहा लाख stacked together.
- शंभर and हजार usually stand bare. "A hundred rupees" is just शंभर रुपये, not "एक शंभर" — the leading "one" is optional emphasis in Marathi, not a required word like English's "a hundred".
- Numbers 11 through 99 are memorized whole words. Unlike English's clean "twenty-one", Marathi numbers like तेरा (13) and चौदा (14) don't visibly share a root the way "thirteen"/"fourteen" do — there's no shortcut, they're learned one by one.
- लाख and कोटी multiply the same way हजार does. Put the counting number first and the place-value word stays unchanged: पाच लाख (5 lakh), दोन कोटी (2 crore).
New script, but the sounds are dependable.
Once you know the letters, Marathi is read exactly as it's written — no silent letters, no shifting vowels. The tricky part is a handful of sounds English doesn't make at all.
Devanagari is the script Marathi shares with Hindi and Sanskrit. Tap a letter to hear it — every consonant carries a built-in short 'a' until a vowel sign changes it.
Devanagari fuses some consonant pairs into a single glyph, and uses small marks instead of extra letters for nasal sounds. These six patterns unlock most of what looks like a brand-new symbol.
- Spelling matches sound almost exactly. Every letter keeps one sound — no silent letters, no shifting vowels like English's "read"/"read". A bare consonant like क always carries a built-in short 'a' unless a vowel sign or halant changes it.
- Stress is gentle, not punchy. Marathi doesn't hit one syllable hard the way English does — emphasis is lighter and tends to land on the syllable with the longest vowel, which is what the CAPS in this kit mark.
- ं nasalizes, it isn't a separate letter. The anusvara dot pushes the vowel before it through the nose, so मुंबई comes out closer to "mumM-bai" than a plain 'm' sound.
- A small stroke lets consonants stack with no vowel between. ् (halant) kills a consonant's built-in 'a' — that's how two consonants fuse into one syllable, like the doubled ट in सुट्टी.
- Aspiration is a real letter, not an accent. क/ख and प/फ are distinct sounds that can change the word entirely — the puff of air is grammar, not emphasis.
The rules nobody prints on the menu.
Your Marathi rarely outs you. These do. Read once, and you'll move differently.
Greet with folded hands
Press your palms together at chest height and say नमस्कार (nuh-mus-KAAR) — it works as hello, goodbye, and a respectful nod to elders, all in one gesture.
The head wobble usually means yes
A side-to-side head wobble isn't "no" — it signals agreement, okay, or "I'm following you". Read it alongside the words, not instead of them.
Use your right hand
Eat, pay, and hand things over with your right hand, or both hands together for something more formal like a gift. The left hand is reserved for personal hygiene, and using it elsewhere reads as impolite.
Don't point your feet at people, food, or books
Feet are considered the least clean part of the body — never point them at a person, a shrine, or reading material, and never step over someone sitting on the floor. Touch someone by accident with a foot and the standard silent apology is a quick touch to their arm, then to your own chest.
Tipping is a soft 5-10%
Restaurants with a printed bill sometimes already add a service charge, so check before adding more. Where there's none, 5-10% in cash is generous; a rounded-up fare or a small note for a porter or driver is plenty elsewhere.
Don't expect punctuality to the minute
Casual social plans run on flexible time — turning up 15-30 minutes after the stated time is normal and rarely remarked on. Trains and flights are the exception: show up on schedule for those.
Shoes come off at the door
Shoes are left outside a home, and always before entering a temple, mosque, or gurdwara — look for the pile of sandals and follow it. Socks are usually fine to keep on.
Cover your head in a gurdwara
Any Sikh gurdwara asks visitors to cover their head — a scarf is usually offered at the door if you don't have one — and to wash your hands before entering. The free communal meal, लंगर (LUN-gur), afterward is open to absolutely everyone.
Bargaining is expected at markets, not shops
Fixed-price shops with an MRP tag don't move on price, but street markets and unmetered auto fares are genuinely expected to be haggled — starting around half the quoted price and meeting in the middle is normal, not rude.
Don't assume everyone eats the same way
Dietary norms vary hugely by region and religion — many Hindus avoid beef, many Muslims avoid pork, and a large share of the country eats vegetarian only, but none of it is universal. When in doubt, just ask rather than assume.
The plates and glasses worth going out of your way for — each with the name as you'd say it out loud.
Test the four channels.
Understanding Marathi by ear, reading, recall, and your own mouth. Quick rounds — do them twice.