Playing Taboo in Hindi and Hinglish

The host picks a pack from Word pack in the lobby. The Hindi and Hinglish packs have their own groups in the list, next to the standard English ones.

• Taboo - Hindi mixes easy, medium and hard Hindi words.
• Taboo - Hindi (Easy), (Medium) and (Hard) each deal words from a single difficulty, which helps when players have very different levels of Hindi.
• Taboo - Hinglish mixes English and Hindi words from every difficulty on the same board.

Hindi words score the same points as English words of the same difficulty. Each tile shows a label such as "Hindi easy", so guessers know which language to think in.

The Hindi words in Taboo Party are written in Roman letters, the way most people type Hindi in chat apps. Guessers type their answers the same way. Guesses typed in Devanagari script will not match.

Romanised Hindi has no single correct spelling, so the same word can be typed several ways. The game gives half points for a guess that is very close, but a different vowel pattern can still miss.

• Long vowels: try both "a" and "aa", as in "khana" and "khaana".
• Long "i" and "u" sounds: try "i" and "ee", or "u" and "oo".
• Aspirated consonants: try "chh" and "ch", or "th" and "t".
• The "w" and "v" sounds: try both, as in "hawa" and "hava".
• Final vowels: some words are written with or without a final "a" sound.

If you earned half points, keep the idea and try another spelling. Your describer cannot spell the word for you, but they can say "same word, different spelling" to keep you on track.

Mixed-language games raise questions that an English-only game never meets. Agree on these before the first turn, and write your choices in the room chat so nobody argues mid-game.

• Translation: does saying the English word for a Hindi board word count as saying the word? We suggest yes, because a direct translation gives the answer away.
• Partial translation: is it fine to translate one part of a compound, such as the "pani" in "panipuri"? We suggest treating that like saying part of the word.
• Clue language: may describers give clues in either language, or only in the language of the word? Free choice is more fun for fluent groups.
• Regional words: Hindi varies across regions, and many words come from Urdu, Persian or English. Accept any word a fair listener would recognise as the same thing.
• Spelling disputes: the board spelling decides what the game accepts, not who is right. Treat a close miss as bad luck, not a mistake.

Turn on Taboo reporting and Taboo voting in the lobby if your group expects close calls. Reported words then go to a quick vote after the turn, which settles translation arguments fairly.

Hinglish describing is powerful because you can switch language mid-sentence to dodge a taboo. The practice cards below use our own everyday words with sample banned words, to show each style.

The language switch in that last clue is the core Hinglish trick. When the obvious Hindi words are banned, a familiar English phrase like "tiffin share" often gets there faster.

Proverbs, film dialogue and song lines are strong Hinglish clues, because a whole group often knows the same ones. Check that your teammates grew up with the same references before you rely on them.

A mixed group often includes fluent speakers, people who understand Hindi but rarely speak it, and people who know only a few words. A game can work for all of them if you plan the teams.

• Spread fluent speakers across teams instead of putting them together. Randomize can do it, or use Draft and let captains balance teams.
• Start with Hindi (Easy) or the Hinglish pack, where English words give everyone a fair share of turns.
• Allow clues in English for Hindi words. Learners can then describe words they understand but cannot yet explain in Hindi.
• Use longer turns, such as 90 seconds, so slower describers are not rushed.
• Never laugh at accents or pronunciation. Laugh at the clues instead.

Two lobby settings use the browser's speech recognition, and both listen for English. Guesser voice is not offered for the Hindi packs, so guessers type their answers.

Describer voice check listens for board words said aloud in English, so it is not a reliable referee for Hindi words. In Hindi and Hinglish games, rely on Taboo reporting by the watching team instead.

If your group has its own favourite words, such as family dishes, local places or film titles, you can build a custom word pack. Write the words in Roman letters, the same way the built-in packs do, so guesses match what players naturally type.

Pick one spelling for each word and tell your group which style you used. That small step prevents many spelling misses before the game even starts. If you are unsure how most of your group writes a word, ask in your group chat and go with the most common answer. Avoid words that only one region or one family uses, unless everyone playing shares that background.