हिचकी (hichkii)
noun
A single everyday sense: 'hiccup.' Almost always paired with the verb आना (aanaa) in the frame X को हिचकी आना (X ko hichkii aanaa).
Sense
1
:
hiccup
noun, feminine Used with a dative-subject frame: मुझे हिचकी आ रही है (mujhe hichkii aa rahii hai, 'I have hiccups') -- the hiccup 'comes to' the person, it is not something the person actively does.
Frequency: medium
Cultural Note: There's a common folk belief across North India that getting hiccups means someone is thinking or talking about you -- you'll often hear someone joke, 'लगता है कोई याद कर रहा है' (lagtaa hai koii yaad kar rahaa hai, 'seems like someone's remembering me') right after a bout of हिचकी (hichkii). This fits the broader Hindi pattern where bodily sensations (नींद (niind, sleep), भूख (bhookh, hunger), प्यास (pyaas, thirst)) are things that 'come to' you rather than things you actively do.
Common Mistakes: 1) Learners often try to say 'I am hiccupping' with the person as a grammatical subject doing an action, e.g. wrongly building it like an intransitive verb of the person. Hindi instead treats हिचकी (hichkii) as a noun that 'arrives,' so the person is marked with को (ko): उसे हिचकी आ रही है (use hichkii aa rahii hai, 'he/she has hiccups'), not a person-as-subject construction. 2) The count/plural form हिचकियाँ (hichkiyaan) is used when referring to a series of hiccups happening repeatedly, which learners sometimes forget to pluralize in natural speech.
Sample Sentences:
मुझे अचानक हिचकी आने लगी।
I suddenly started hiccupping.
(mujhe achaanak hichkii aane lagii।)
उसे बहुत तेज़ हिचकी आ रही है।
He has really bad hiccups right now.
(use bahut tez hichkii aa rahii hai।)
जब भी मुझे हिचकी आती है, मेरी दादी कहती हैं कि कोई मुझे याद कर रहा है।
Whenever I get hiccups, my grandmother says someone is thinking of me.
(jab bhii mujhe hichkii aatii hai, merii daadii kahtii hain ki koii mujhe yaad kar rahaa hai।)
पानी पी लो, हिचकी बंद हो जाएगी।
Drink some water, the hiccups will stop.
(paanii pii lo, hichkii band ho jaaegii।)
अगर हिचकी बहुत देर तक न रुके, तो डॉक्टर को दिखाना चाहिए।
If the hiccups don't stop for a long time, you should see a doctor.
(agar hichkii bahut der tak n ruke, to doktar ko dikhaanaa chaahie।)
खाना खाते वक्त उसे हिचकी आ गई और सब हँसने लगे।
He got hiccups while eating and everyone started laughing.
(khaanaa khaate vakt use hichkii aa gaii aur sab hansne lage।)
लगता है कोई मुझे याद कर रहा है, मुझे हिचकी आ रही है।
Seems like someone's thinking of me, I've got the hiccups.
(lagtaa hai koii mujhe yaad kar rahaa hai, mujhe hichkii aa rahii hai।)
अगर उसे इतनी हिचकी न आती, तो वह भाषण पूरा कर पाता।
If he hadn't been hiccupping so much, he would have finished the speech.
(agar use itnii hichkii n aatii, to vah bhaashan pooraa kar paataa।)
साँस रोककर देख, शायद हिचकी रुक जाए।
Try holding your breath, maybe the hiccups will stop.
(saans rokkar dekh, shaayad hichkii ruk jaae।)
Morphology
Noun
(sg.f.direct):
हिचकी
(hichkii)
(sg.f.oblique):
हिचकी
(hichkii)
(pl.f.direct):
हिचकियाँ
(hichkiyaan)
(pl.f.oblique):
हिचकियों
(hichkiyon)