Why do you see मेरा to mean “my” but other times you see मेरी to also mean “my”? The reason is “gender”. Let us start with an obvious example. Sons are masculine and daughters are feminine. So I would say “my son” by saying “मेरा बेटा”. However, if I were to say, “My daughter”, I would say “मेरी बेटी” You see this same pattern when you talk about “my sister”, and “my brother”.
My brother is मेरा भाई
My sister is मेरी बहिन
मेरा goes with a masculine noun
मेरी goes with a feminine noun
But it is not just people that have gender. A “table” has a gender in Hindi too! मेज़ means table in Hindi and it is feminine. Therefore it is correct to say मेरी मेज़
Bed also has a gender in Hindi. पलंग is bed in Hindi and it is masculine. Therefore say “मेरा पलंग”.
How do you know if a noun is masculine or feminine? You have to look it up in the dictionary and remember it.
Here are some other common nouns with their gender. See if you can figure out if you should say “मेरा or मेरी”
अख़बार –newspaper (masculine)
अलमारी – cupboard (feminine)
आम – mango (m)
इमारत – building (f)
In the paid subscriber area, you can hear each word by itself along with “mera/meri”:
Here are the additional words we go over.
उपहार – gift (m)
कमरा – room (m)
कहानी – story (f)
काम – work (m)
किताब – book (f)
खाना – food (m)
खिड़की – window (f)
खिलौना – toy (m)
गाँव – village (m)
गीत – song (m)
घर – house (m)
चपाती – chapatti (f)
चप्पल – sandal (f)
चम्मच – spoon (m)
चाँदी – silver (f)
चाबी – key (f)
चीज़ – thing (f)
छाता – umbrella (m)
छुरी – knife (f)
जगह – place (f)
जन्मदिन – birthday (m)
ज़मीन – land (f)
जवाब – reply, answer (m)
जानवर – animal (m)
दिल – heart (m)