Yesterday a Detroiter was having trouble understanding 'sunAyA' v/s 'suniyE' in Hindi (one is make others listen and the other is listen).

I've explained him the difference and identified a couple more of similar construct in Hindi. I wonder why they've chosen such similarly sounding words for complementary actions

sunthA - सुनता - listen
sunAtha - सुनाता - make others listen (or, tell)

seekhtA - सीखता - learn
sikhAtA - सिखाता - make others learn (i.e. teach)

samajtA - समझता - understand
samjAtA - समझाता - make others understand (i.e. explain)

If someone is newly learning to read Hindi (with its many rules as to when to add "a" and when not etc), this can be really confusing!