Ten English Heart Idioms and Their Hindi Equivalents
English keeps an unusual amount of its emotional vocabulary in one organ. You can lose heart, follow your heart, speak from the heart, or break someone else's, and in none of those cases is anyone talking about circulation.
Hindi does the same thing with dil, which is why these ten pairs line up so neatly. What follows is not a translation exercise. It is a look at where the two languages agree, and at the two or three places where the English phrase and the Hindi one carry different weather.
Why this is worth knowing
Idioms are the part of a language that dictionaries handle worst. A learner who knows every word in bleeding heart still has no way to work out that it is usually said with a raised eyebrow. Pairing an idiom with its equivalent in another language is the fastest way to see what it is really doing, because the equivalent had to be chosen by someone weighing tone as well as sense.
The entries
have a heart-to-heart
apnapan, conversation, deep
dil ki baat karna
The English phrase carries an expectation of privacy that the Hindi does not insist on; a heart-to-heart is arranged, whereas dil ki baat can simply happen.
aching heart
dard hona, dil ka dard, dil ke tukde
toota hua dil
This one is closer to a physical complaint than most; both languages use it for grief that has settled in and stopped being acute.
bleeding heart
bhaavuk, caring, compassionate
dil ka soft banda
Said of someone else it is nearly always a criticism, which is worth knowing before using it as a compliment.
lose heart
confidence, confidence down, determination
Dil toot jana
Note that this is about giving up rather than about romance, and it is the sense English speakers most often get wrong when translating in the other direction.
break someone's heart
betrayal, bezatti feelings, dard
Dil ko tod dena
The English is transitive and blames someone; the Hindi construction does the same, which is not true of every pair on this list.
cross one's heart
dil se bol raha hoon, honest, kasam khana
kasam se promise
A children's gesture that survived into adult speech, and one of the few idioms here that is usually accompanied by a movement of the hand.
follow one's heart
apna gut feeling, desire, dhadkan
Dil ki sun lo yaar
Advice, almost always, and usually given by someone who has already decided what they want you to do.
from the heart
emotional, genuine, dil ki baat
dil se feel karke
The phrase does no work on its own; it modifies whatever verb it attaches to, which is why it sits so easily in both languages.
heart and soul
apna sab kuch, commitment, complete
Jaan laga dena
The strongest commitment phrase on the list, and the one most likely to appear in a job reference or a eulogy.
sick at heart
devastated, dil ka tukda tukda hona, distressed
dil se toot jana
Distinct from an aching heart in that it includes revulsion, not only sorrow.
Questions readers ask
What does dil ki baat karna mean in English?
It means to talk about what is really on your mind, the way an English speaker would describe having a heart-to-heart. The Hindi is slightly broader: it covers any candid conversation, not only a planned one.
Is calling someone a bleeding heart an insult?
Usually, yes. It suggests that a person's compassion has outrun their judgement. The Hindi dil ka soft banda is gentler and can be affectionate, so the two are not safely interchangeable.
What is the difference between lose heart and break someone's heart?
To lose heart is to run out of resolve, and it happens to you. To break someone's heart is something you do to another person, almost always romantically. They share a word and very little else.
Why do so many idioms use the heart rather than the head?
Both English and Hindi inherited a much older division of labour in which the heart held feeling and the head held thought. The anatomy was wrong, but the phrases outlived the theory and are now simply how the languages work.
How do you say from the heart in Hindi?
Dil se, most often extended to dil se feel karke or dil se bola. It attaches to a verb rather than standing alone, in the same way the English phrase does.
Where to go next on LLOS
The pairs that translate cleanly are the ones both languages inherited from the same older idea of what a heart is for. The ones that do not — bleeding heart in particular — are worth more attention, because that is where a language has decided something on its own.