Everyday Hindi has compact words for the fractional quantities people mention most often. डेढ़ means 1½, ढाई means 2½, सवा adds a quarter, पौने subtracts a quarter from the following number, and साढ़े adds a half to a number of three or more. These are not decorative alternatives to decimals: they are the ordinary forms used for time, prices, distances, ingredients, and approximate plans.
English speakers often try to translate each fraction word by word. Hindi instead organizes these expressions around a small lexical system. Learn the special high-frequency values first; the patterns then let you decode amounts such as सवा लाख and पौने तीन घंटे without calculating aloud.
आधा: the agreeing word for one half
आधा “half” behaves like a variable adjective. It agrees with the noun: masculine direct आधा, feminine आधी, and masculine plural or oblique आधे.
मुझे आधा किलो टमाटर चाहिए।
mujhe ādhā kilo ṭamāṭar cāhie.
I need half a kilo of tomatoes.
आधी बोतल पानी अभी बची है।
ādhī botal pānī abhī bacī hai.
Half a bottle of water is still left.
आधे घंटे के बाद मुझे फ़ोन करना।
ādhe ghaṇṭe ke bād mujhe fon karnā.
Call me after half an hour.
The oblique आधे in आधे घंटे के बाद is required because the measure phrase is followed by के बाद. English half never changes; Hindi shows the noun’s gender and case on आधा.
डेढ़ and ढाई: special values, not calculated phrases
डेढ़ means exactly 1½ and ढाई means exactly 2½. Both are fixed forms: they do not agree for gender. The following noun or unit takes the form idiomatic for that kind of quantity.
हमने डेढ़ घंटे तक डॉक्टर का इंतज़ार किया।
hamne ḍeṛh ghaṇṭe tak ḍokṭar kā intazār kiyā.
We waited for the doctor for an hour and a half.
स्टेशन यहाँ से ढाई किलोमीटर दूर है।
sṭeśan yahā̃ se ḍhāī kilomīṭar dūr hai.
The station is two and a half kilometers from here.
उसने डेढ़ लीटर दूध ख़रीदा और ढाई किलो चावल लिया।
usne ḍeṛh līṭar dūdh xarīdā aur ḍhāī kilo cāval liyā.
She bought one and a half liters of milk and took two and a half kilos of rice.
Measure-unit words such as किलो, लीटर, and किलोमीटर normally remain unchanged after a numeral. Countable duration nouns often appear in the plural after a quantity greater than one, hence common डेढ़ घंटे and ढाई घंटे. With साल, however, डेढ़ साल is idiomatic because साल has the same surface form in direct singular and direct plural.
The broader interaction between numerals and noun number is covered under plural marking with numerals and quantifiers.
There is no productive logic that turns एक into डेढ़ or दो into ढाई. These two values must be memorized. They are so frequent that replacing them with एक दशमलव पाँच and दो दशमलव पाँच sounds needlessly technical in ordinary conversation.
सवा: one quarter more
सवा means “one and a quarter” before a unit by itself and “a quarter more than” an expressed number:
| Expression | Value | Typical reading |
|---|---|---|
| सवा किलो | 1.25 kg | one and a quarter kilos |
| सवा दो किलो | 2.25 kg | two and a quarter kilos |
| सवा सौ रुपये | ₹125 | one hundred twenty-five rupees |
| सवा लाख रुपये | ₹1,25,000 | one lakh twenty-five thousand rupees |
दुकानदार ने सवा किलो आम तौले।
dukāndār ne savā kilo ām taule.
The shopkeeper weighed out one and a quarter kilos of mangoes.
बैठक सवा दो बजे शुरू होगी।
baiṭhak savā do baje śurū hogī.
The meeting will start at 2:15.
इस मशीन की मरम्मत में सवा लाख रुपये लगेंगे।
is maśīn kī marammat meṃ savā lākh rupaye lageṅge.
Repairing this machine will cost one lakh twenty-five thousand rupees.
सवा लाख exposes both Hindi systems at once: the fraction word adds ¼ of one lakh, producing 1,25,000. The same value is internationally grouped 125,000. Do not read the Indian commas as “one hundred twenty-five” of some unspecified unit; the first grouping is एक लाख.
पौने: one quarter less than the next number
पौने points forward. पौने तीन is one quarter less than three, therefore 2¾—not 3¼. This “next-number” viewpoint is the main conceptual difficulty for English speakers.
ट्रेन पौने आठ बजे पहुँचेगी।
ṭren paune āṭh baje pahũcegī.
The train will arrive at 7:45.
हमें पौने तीन मीटर कपड़ा चाहिए।
hameṃ paune tīn mīṭar kapṛā cāhie.
We need two and three-quarter meters of cloth.
आज तापमान पौने चालीस डिग्री तक पहुँच गया।
āj tāpmān paune cālīs ḍigrī tak pahũc gayā.
Today the temperature reached 39.75 degrees.
The exact decimal interpretation of पौने चालीस is mathematically 39.75, although such phrasing outside time, money, and familiar measures may feel more conversational than technical. Scientific or contractual writing normally prefers digits and decimals.
साढ़े: one half more, from three upward
For 3½ and higher, put साढ़े before the cardinal number. The expression is fixed; it does not change for a feminine noun.
हम साढ़े तीन दिन जयपुर में रहे।
ham sāṛhe tīn din jaypur meṃ rahe.
We stayed in Jaipur for three and a half days.
यह रस्सी साढ़े चार मीटर लंबी है।
yah rassī sāṛhe cār mīṭar lambī hai.
This rope is four and a half meters long.
फ़िल्म साढ़े छह बजे खत्म होगी।
film sāṛhe chah baje khatm hogī.
The film will end at 6:30.
The system deliberately has lexical gaps filled by special words:
| Value | Ordinary Hindi | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| 1½ | डेढ़ | साढ़े एक |
| 2½ | ढाई | साढ़े दो |
| 3½ | साढ़े तीन | ढाई plus one |
General fractional nouns and decimals
When no special everyday word applies, use चौथाई “quarter,” तिहाई “third,” or a denominator construction. एक चौथाई is ¼ and तीन चौथाई is ¾. In precise technical contexts, decimals use दशमलव.
टंकी अभी केवल तीन चौथाई भरी है।
ṭaṅkī abhī keval tīn cauthāī bharī hai.
The tank is only three-quarters full right now.
रिपोर्ट में वृद्धि की दर 2.6 प्रतिशत लिखी है।
riporṭ meṃ vriddhi kī dar do daśamlav chah pratiśat likhī hai.
The report gives the growth rate as 2.6 percent. (formal)
Special fraction words are preferred in ordinary transactions; decimals are clearer when exact hundredths matter. A receipt may print 1.50 लीटर, while a customer naturally says डेढ़ लीटर.
A practical transaction
डेढ़ किलो सेब और सवा किलो अंगूर दे दीजिए; कुल कितने रुपये हुए?
ḍeṛh kilo seb aur savā kilo aṅgūr de dījie; kul kitne rupaye hue?
Please give me one and a half kilos of apples and one and a quarter kilos of grapes; how much is the total?
This sentence keeps the measurement unit किलो unchanged, uses polite दीजिए, and asks for the resulting total with कितने रुपये. The fractions describe quantities; they do not behave like ordinal adjectives and therefore do not take -वाँ / -वीं / -वें endings.
Common Mistakes
❌ हम साढ़े दो घंटे रुके।
Incorrect in standard everyday Hindi — use the lexical form ढाई for 2½.
✅ हम ढाई घंटे रुके।
ham ḍhāī ghaṇṭe ruke.
We stayed for two and a half hours.
❌ पौने तीन बजे का मतलब सवा तीन बजे है।
Incorrect — पौने looks forward and subtracts a quarter.
✅ पौने तीन बजे का मतलब दो बजकर पैंतालीस मिनट है।
paune tīn baje kā matlab do bajkar paĩtālīs minaṭ hai.
A quarter to three means 2:45.
❌ मुझे आधी किलो चीनी चाहिए।
Incorrect — आधा agrees with masculine किलो, not feminine चीनी inside the measure complement.
✅ मुझे आधा किलो चीनी चाहिए।
mujhe ādhā kilo cīnī cāhie.
I need half a kilo of sugar.
❌ उसने 1,25,000 को एक लाख पच्चीस पढ़ा।
Incorrect — the final 25 stands for twenty-five thousand, so हज़ार cannot be omitted.
✅ उसने 1,25,000 को एक लाख पच्चीस हज़ार पढ़ा।
usne ek lākh paccīs hazār ko ek lākh paccīs hazār paṛhā.
He read 1,25,000 as one lakh twenty-five thousand.
Key Takeaways
- आधा agrees, but डेढ़, ढाई, सवा, पौने, and साढ़े are fixed fraction words.
- Memorize डेढ़ 1½ and ढाई 2½; use साढ़े from 3½ upward.
- सवा X is X plus ¼, while पौने X is X minus ¼.
- Keep measure units such as किलो, लीटर, and मीटर unchanged after the quantity.
- Prefer these lexical forms in conversation and use दशमलव when technical precision requires a decimal.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
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- Plural marking with numerals and quantifiersB1 — Choose singular, plural, and oblique Hindi noun forms after numbers and quantifiers such as ek, har, kai, kuch, and sabhī.