Hindi's writing system, Devanagari, is one of the most logically organised scripts in the world: its consonants are arranged in a grid by where in the mouth they are made and how. Learning that grid is the key to Hindi pronunciation, because it shows exactly which contrasts English speakers must learn: aspiration, breathy voice, and the difference between retroflex and dental consonants.
How Devanagari works
Devanagari is an abugida: each consonant letter carries an inherent vowel, a [ə]. क is ka. Other vowels are written with marks called mātrā attached to the consonant: का kā, कि ki, की kī, कु ku. Vowels at the start of a syllable have their own independent letters: अ, आ, इ, ई and so on. A horizontal line, the śirorekhā, runs along the top of each word.
The consonant grid
The 25 core consonants are arranged in five rows (by place of articulation) and five columns (by manner). Tap any letter to hear it:
| Voiceless | Voiceless aspirated | Voiced | Breathy voiced | Nasal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Velar (back) | k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| Palatal | c | ch | j | jh | ñ |
| Retroflex | ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| Dental | t | th | d | dh | n |
| Labial (lips) | p | ph | b | bh | m |
After the grid come the approximants and fricatives: y, r, l, v/w, ś (sh), ṣ (sh in modern Hindi), s, h. The romanisation used here is the common scholarly one; note that c is always [tʃ], as in church.
Aspiration and breathy voice
Every row of the grid has four stops, which English speakers tend to reduce to two. The contrast between plain and aspirated, and between voiced and breathy-voiced, changes meaning: kāl "time" vs khāl "skin"; dān "donation" vs dhān "paddy (rice)". The breathy-voiced sounds, gh, jh, ḍh, dh, bh, are made with a murmured, breathy voice and are the hardest for English speakers. See aspirated and breathy consonants.
Retroflex and dental
English t and d are made on the ridge behind the teeth, between Hindi's two series. Hindi dental त द are made with the tongue tip against the back of the upper teeth; retroflex ट ड with the tip curled back behind the ridge. Indian listeners hear English t and d as retroflex, which is why Indian English uses retroflex sounds. Pairs like dāl "lentils" and ḍāl "branch" show the contrast. See retroflex vs dental.
Vowels
| Letter | Mātrā on क | IPA | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| अ a | क | [ə] | ab "now" |
| आ ā | का | [aː] | ām "mango" |
| इ i | कि | [ɪ] | imlī "tamarind" |
| ई ī | की | [iː] | īkh "sugarcane" |
| उ u | कु | [ʊ] | ullū "owl" |
| ऊ ū | कू | [uː] | ūn "wool" |
| ए e | के | [eː] | ek "one" |
| ऐ ai | कै | [ɛː] | ainak "glasses" |
| ओ o | को | [oː] | os "dew" |
| औ au | कौ | [ɔː] | aurat "woman" |
Short and long vowels differ in quality as well as length, like English bit/beat. Note that ऐ and औ are single vowels in standard Hindi, not diphthongs, despite their romanisation. See vowel length and mātrās. Vowels can also be nasal, marked with ँ or ं: hā̃ "yes". See nasal vowels.
The silent inherent vowel
The inherent a is not always pronounced. At the end of a word it is dropped: is kamal, not kamala. Inside words it is often dropped too, following a rule explained in schwa deletion. This is the biggest difference between reading Hindi and reading Sanskrit.
Sounds from Persian and English
Hindi borrowed several sounds, written with a dot (nuqtā) under a letter: क़ q, ख़ x (as in Scottish loch), ग़ ɣ, ज़ z and फ़ f. In everyday speech many speakers pronounce them as the nearest native sound (k, kh, g, j, ph), but ज़ [z] and फ़ [f] are widely used. There are also two flapped sounds, ड़ [ɽ] and ढ़ [ɽʱ], as in laṛkā "boy" and paṛhnā "to read".
Phrases in this drill:
- नमस्ते, आप कैसे हैं?
- मेरा नाम राहुल है।
- मुझे चाय पसंद है।
- धन्यवाद, फिर मिलेंगे।
- यह घर बहुत बड़ा है।
Frequently asked questions
Is Hindi pronunciation difficult for English speakers?
The vowels are fairly easy, and Devanagari spelling is much more regular than English. The main difficulties are consonants: Hindi distinguishes four kinds of stops (plain, aspirated, voiced and breathy-voiced) at five places, including retroflex and dental series that English merges.
Is Devanagari phonetic?
Very nearly. Each letter has a consistent sound, and the alphabet is arranged by where and how sounds are made. The main exception is the inherent vowel a, which is often not pronounced (schwa deletion), and a few Sanskrit letters that are pronounced differently in modern Hindi.
Are Hindi and Urdu pronounced the same?
In everyday speech they are very close, and speakers understand each other easily. Urdu, written in Perso-Arabic script, uses more words of Persian and Arabic origin and keeps sounds like q, x and ɣ more consistently.
Sources and further reading
- Ohala, M. (1999). Hindi. In International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, 100–103. Cambridge University Press.
- Ohala, M. (1983). Aspects of Hindi Phonology. Motilal Banarsidass.
- Shapiro, M. C. (2003). Hindi. In G. Cardona and D. Jain (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, 250–285. Routledge.
- Masica, C. P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press.
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Explore every Devanagari sound
The interactive chart lays out the Hindi letters by place and manner of articulation. Tap any letter to hear it with an example word.
Open the Devanagari chart