Essential Kannada phrases for your first week in Bengaluru

First the warning

Phrase lists like this are the worst way to learn a language and the best way to survive the first ten days while you actually learn. Use them as scaffolding, not as a curriculum. Listen to a real conversation (Lesson 1 of KannadaMaadi takes five minutes) before you try to deploy any of these, so you have a sense of how the words actually sound.

All transliteration here is intentionally readable rather than linguistically precise — the goal is "an auto driver will understand you", not "you've mastered phonemic distinctions". Long vowels are doubled (aa, ee); retroflex sounds are not specially marked.

Auto stand and rickshaw

• Koramangala-ge hogthira? — "Will you go to Koramangala?" (Replace neighbourhood as needed.)
• Meter haakri. — "Put on the meter, please." Said gently. Standard line, no offence given or taken.
• Esthu? — "How much?"
• Jaasti aaytu. — "That's too much."
• Yeradu hundred kodthini. — "I'll pay two hundred."
• Illi nilsi. — "Stop here."
• Edak'ke turn maadi. — "Turn left." Right is balak'ke.
• Neraj hogi. — "Go straight."

Vegetable cart and market

• Idu yenu? — "What is this?" When you have no idea what the vegetable in front of you is called.
• Kilo-ge esthu? — "How much per kilo?"
• Ardha kilo kodi. — "Give me half a kilo." A full kilo is ondu kilo.
• Innu swalpa. — "A little more." For when the scale is just shy.
• Idu fresh-aagide? — "Is this fresh?" Mixed-language is fine.
• Saaku. — "Enough." Universal stop signal.
• Yeshtu aaytu? — "What's the total?"

Darshini and café

• Ondu masala dosa, ondu coffee. — "One masala dosa, one coffee." Numbers are ondu, yeradu, mooru (1, 2, 3).
• Parcel maadi. — "Pack it to go."
• Innu yenu sigutte? — "What else is available?"
• Spicy beda. — "Not spicy." Beda means "don't want".
• Bill kodi. — "Bring the bill."
• Change kodthira? — "Do you have change?"

At your door and on the phone

• Yaaru? — "Who is it?" Said through a closed door.
• Ondu nimisha. — "One minute." When you need to grab keys, a wallet, anything.
• Naanu manegyalli illa. — "I'm not at home." For courier calls.
• Naale banni. — "Come tomorrow." Polite deferral.
• Phone kataki bareyalla. — "Phone reception is bad." Useful when a delivery driver is calling and you genuinely can't hear them.

Greetings, thanks, the basics

• Namaskara. — Formal hello. Younger people often say hi instead.
• Hegidira? — "How are you?" (respectful). Casual to a peer: hegiddiya?
• Channagiddini. — "I'm well."
• Dhanyavaada. — Formal thank you. Thanks is also completely normal.
• Tappu agide, kshamisi. — "Sorry, my mistake."

The honest meta-tip

In practice, Bengaluru is multilingual enough that anyone you meet will accommodate broken Kannada with great patience, often switching to Hindi or English the moment they notice you struggling. What changes when you start trying Kannada is not whether you get understood — it's the warmth of the interaction. That warmth is the real reason to learn, and you start feeling it from day one.

The phrases above will get you through a week. By the end of Lesson 3 of KannadaMaadi you'll have most of them in context with native audio and start being able to combine them into sentences instead of reciting fragments.