50 Common Marathi Words Every Beginner Should Know

Marathi is spoken by over 80 million people, primarily in the Indian state of Maharashtra, with a literary tradition spanning many centuries and significant modern presence in film, theatre, and literature. Building a working vocabulary starts with small, everyday word groups.

Greetings and courtesy

Namaskar (a respectful greeting), dhanyavad (thank you), krupaya (please), maaf kara (excuse me/sorry) — the everyday courtesy phrases that open most conversations.

Family

Aai (mother), baba (father), dada (older brother), tai (older sister), mitra/maitrin (friend, gendered) — note Marathi distinguishes older siblings with specific terms, similar to several other South Asian languages covered in our related articles.

Numbers

Ek (one), don (two), teen (three) through daha (ten) — Marathi numerals in Devanagari script (shared with Hindi) have their own distinctive appearance worth learning directly.

Everyday life

Paani (water), anna (food), ghar (house), kaam (work), shala (school).

Time

Aaj (today), udya (tomorrow), kaal (yesterday, context-dependent with tomorrow depending on tense), vel (time).

Why script matters here

Marathi uses Devanagari script, the same script used for Hindi — genuinely useful if you already have some Hindi familiarity (see our related Hindi Dictionary app content), though Marathi's own vocabulary and some grammatical features remain distinctly its own, not simply "Hindi with different words."

A simple way to build from this list

1. Pick five to eight words a day rather than the whole list at once.
2. Look each one up in Devanagari script and read it aloud.
3. Use each new word in a short sentence of your own.
4. Review yesterday's words before adding today's.

Look up any Marathi word instantly, in proper script, offline, with English Marathi Dictionary →