🇮🇳 Hindi Days of the Week
Learn and practice hindi days of the week with Web Speech API. Click the play button to hear the correct pronunciation.
How to pronounce the Hindi days of the week
Every Hindi weekday ends in वार vār, meaning "day", attached to the name of a planet. The system is a direct parallel to the Roman one behind the English and Romance names, which makes the logic familiar even though the words are not.
| Hindi | Romanised | IPA | Planet |
|---|---|---|---|
| सोमवार | somvār | /soːmʋaːr/ | Som — the Moon |
| मंगलवार | maṅgalvār | /məŋɡəlʋaːr/ | Mangal — Mars |
| बुधवार | budhvār | /bʊdʱʋaːr/ | Budh — Mercury |
| गुरुवार | guruvār | /ɡʊɾʊʋaːr/ | Guru / Brihaspati — Jupiter |
| शुक्रवार | śukravār | /ʃʊkɾəʋaːr/ | Shukra — Venus |
| शनिवार | śanivār | /ʃənɪʋaːr/ | Shani — Saturn |
| रविवार | ravivār | /ɾəʋɪʋaːr/ | Ravi — the Sun |
The sounds English does not have
Breathy voiced consonants. The dh in बुधवार budhvār is a single sound,
/dʱ/, not a d followed by an h. It is produced with the vocal folds partly open so
that breath escapes during the consonant, giving a murmured quality. English has nothing equivalent, and replacing
it with a plain /d/ changes the word.
Dental stops. Hindi t and d are dental — the tongue touches the back of the upper teeth — whereas English uses the alveolar ridge behind them. The difference is small but consistently audible to native speakers.
The v sound. The consonant written v in vār is /ʋ/, a labiodental
approximant midway between English v and w. It has less friction than English /v/.
This is also why many Hindi speakers find the English v and w contrast difficult in the other
direction.
Retroflex sounds appear elsewhere in Hindi and are worth knowing about: the tongue tip curls back to touch the roof of the mouth, producing a quality English speakers often hear as a "thick" consonant.
Usage notes
- All seven are masculine: सोमवार को somvār ko, "on Monday".
- "On" is the postposition को ko, placed after the day rather than before it.
- Sunday has a common colloquial alternative, इतवार itvār, used far more often in speech than ravivār, which sounds formal.
- Thursday also has two names: guruvār and the longer bṛhaspativār.
- Devanagari is written left to right with a horizontal line, the shirorekha, joining the tops of the letters in a word.
Useful phrases for practice
- आज कौन सा दिन है? Āj kaun sā din hai? — What day is it today?
- आज सोमवार है। Āj somvār hai. — Today is Monday.
- शुक्रवार को मिलते हैं। Śukravār ko milte hain. — See you on Friday.
- मैं शनिवार को काम करता हूँ। Main śanivār ko kām kartā hūn. — I work on Saturdays.
- सप्ताहांत saptāhānt — the weekend.
- पिछले हफ़्ते / अगले हफ़्ते pichle hafte / agle hafte — last week / next week.