Hindi opposites, synonyms and idioms
The most recoverable marks in a Hindi paper, and the ones that cannot be worked out in the exam hall. A comprehension answer can be reasoned towards. The opposite of उदय cannot - it is either known or it is not.
Play the Hindi word quiz
What shall we practise?
Three things every Hindi paper asks for, and the three most recoverable marks in the vyakaran section.
Three topics, three different mistakes
Why these three topics are worth the time
Hindi marks are lost in two very different places, and parents often work on the wrong one. Comprehension and writing are open-ended, slow to improve and hard to help with at home. The vyakaran section is the opposite: finite, listable, and almost entirely recoverable.
Vilom, paryayvachi and muhavare sit at the heart of it. They appear in essentially every Hindi paper from Class 4 upwards, the pool of what can be asked is small, and none of it requires understanding a passage or constructing an argument. A child who is average at Hindi and has drilled these will beat a child who is good at Hindi and has not.
They are also the part that cannot be worked out in the exam hall. A comprehension answer can be reasoned towards from the passage. The opposite of उदय cannot - it is either known or it is not, which is exactly why exposure beats effort here.
The three mistakes, and what each mode does about it
The modes are not the same game with different words in it. Each topic goes wrong in its own way, so each is asked differently.
| Topic | How children actually lose the mark | What the game asks instead |
|---|---|---|
| विलोम शब्द | Simply not knowing the pair. There is nothing subtle here. | Straight matching, in volume. The only fix is meeting them often enough. |
| पर्यायवाची | Knowing one synonym and stopping. Asked for words meaning fire, the child writes आग and loses most of the mark. | Odd-one-out among four words, which cannot be answered from a single pair - it requires knowing the group. |
| मुहावरे | Completing the phrase but explaining it literally. नाक में दम करना gets an answer about a nose. | Two questions in order: complete it, then say what it means. The second is where the marks are. |
The paryayvachi one is the most useful distinction. A child who has learnt आग = अग्नि has a pair, not a group, and pairs are what the answer key does not accept. Being shown four words and asked which does not belong forces the group to exist in the child's head, which is what the question actually needs.
How to help, including if you do not read Devanagari
You do not need to be able to read the script to be useful here, and the vilom mode shows the roman transliteration for exactly that reason.
- Ask for a sentence. After a muhavara comes up, ask your child to use it about something that happened this week. A muhavara that has never been used in a real sentence will be explained literally in the exam.
- Keep a page of the missed ones. Not a full notebook - one page, added to over weeks. These are learnt by re-meeting, and a short list re-read is worth more than a long list written once.
- For paryayvachi, ask for the fourth word. If your child names three, ask whether there is another. That single question is the difference between the mark and most of the mark.
- Do not correct pronunciation mid-answer. It interrupts recall, and recall is the thing being practised. Note it and come back after.
Ten minutes, three times a week. This is a topic where a little and often genuinely beats an hour on Sunday, because the entire mechanism is exposure over time.
The Hindi worksheets cover the same ground on paper with answer keys, and Hindi Word Builder handles the earlier stage - building words and placing matras correctly.
About this game
What is vilom shabd?
Vilom shabd are opposites - दिन and रात, सुख and दुख, जीत and हार. They appear in the vyakaran section of every Hindi paper from about Class 3 onward, usually as a straight matching or fill-in question. There is no rule to derive them from, which is why they are learnt by meeting them repeatedly rather than by working them out.
What is the difference between paryayvachi and vilom?
Paryayvachi are words that mean the same thing and vilom are words that mean the opposite. The practical difference is what the question expects: a vilom question wants one word, while a paryayvachi question usually wants three or four - which is why children who know only one synonym lose most of that mark without realising it.
Why does the synonym mode ask for the odd one out?
Because it cannot be answered by knowing a single pair, and knowing only one is the actual problem. A child who has learnt that आग means अग्नि has a pair; the exam wants the group. Showing four words and asking which does not belong forces the whole group to be held at once, which straight matching never does.
Are muhavare worth learning at Class 6, or only for boards?
From Class 6, and earlier if the school introduces them. They accumulate slowly and cannot be crammed - there is no rule connecting a muhavara to its meaning - so a child who starts meeting them in Class 6 arrives at Class 10 with four years of exposure. One who starts in Class 10 is memorising a list under pressure.
My child completes the muhavara but explains it wrongly. Why?
Because completing it is recall and explaining it is comprehension, and only the first gets practised. A child can fill in नाक में ___ करना correctly and still believe it is about a nose. That is why the game asks both, always in that order - if the meaning were asked first, the phrase could be guessed backwards from it.
Is this useful if we do not speak Hindi at home?
Yes, and it is arguably more useful. A child without Hindi around them gets no incidental exposure, so vocabulary that others absorb by hearing has to be met deliberately. Start with the vilom mode, which shows the roman transliteration, and leave muhavare until the basic vocabulary is comfortable.
How can I help if I cannot read Devanagari?
The vilom mode shows roman transliteration alongside, so you can check answers without reading the script. More usefully, ask your child to use each muhavara in a sentence about their own week - you can judge whether the sentence makes sense in any language, and that is the part that is actually going wrong.
Which classes is this for?
Vilom from about Class 3, paryayvachi from Class 5, and muhavare from Class 6 - which is roughly when each enters the syllabus. The modes are separate so a Class 4 child is not shown idioms they have no use for yet.
How long should we practise?
Ten minutes, three times a week, rather than a long session. The whole mechanism here is exposure over time - there is nothing to understand, only things to have met before - and spacing does far more for that than length ever will.
Is it free?
Yes, with no account, no email and no sign-up. Nothing your child does leaves the browser.
How do you play the Hindi word quiz?
- 1
Pick what you are practising
Vilom, paryayvachi or muhavare. They are separate because they enter the syllabus at different classes and go wrong in different ways.
- 2
Answer eight rounds
No timer. The right answer is always shown afterwards with a short note, because the note is where the learning is - including when the answer was right.
- 3
In muhavare, expect two questions
Complete the phrase, then say what it means. The second is the one the exam marks, and the one children get wrong while feeling confident.
- 4
Read the note even when correct
For paryayvachi it names the whole group, not just the answer - which is the part worth taking away.
What it actually practises
- Vilom shabd - opposites, learnt by exposure rather than by rule
- Paryayvachi as groups of three or four, not as single pairs
- Muhavare and what they actually mean, with a sentence for each
- The vyakaran section generally - the most recoverable marks in a Hindi paper
When not to use it: It builds vocabulary, not writing. A child who knows every muhavara and still cannot structure an anuchhed needs writing practice - this only guarantees the vyakaran marks, which is a different half of the paper.
Practise the same thing elsewhere
- Hindi Word BuilderThe earlier stage - building words and placing matras
- Hindi worksheetsThe same topics on paper, with answer keys
- Class 6 Hindi tuitionWhere vyakaran starts carrying real marks
Hindi marks are usually lost in vyakaran, not in comprehension.
It is also the half that can be fixed fastest, because the pool of what can be asked is small. The first class is free, with no card.
- You tell us the class, board and what is going wrong.
- We match a teacher who has taught exactly that, and send you a time.
- A free 20-minute assessment. Sit beside your child if you like.
- No card, no commitment
- Live classes, never a crowd
- The same teacher every week