Key Hindi sounds, aspiration and retroflex contrasts, vowel length, and stress patterns. Front: the Hindi letter, word, or sound pattern in Devanagari with romanization in parentheses. Back: meaning plus a plain-English pronunciation note.
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- क (ka)
- Unaspirated 'k' sound, like the 'k' in 'skip', with no puff of air.
- ख (kha)
- Aspirated 'kh' sound, a strong puff of air after the k, like the 'k' in 'kite' said forcefully.
- ग (ga)
- Unaspirated 'g' sound, like the 'g' in 'go'.
- घ (gha)
- Aspirated 'gh' sound, a breathy 'g' with no direct English equivalent. Practice adding a puff of air.
- च (cha)
- Unaspirated 'ch' sound, like the 'ch' in 'catch' without extra breath.
- छ (chha)
- Aspirated 'chh' sound, a breathy version of 'ch' with a strong puff of air.
- ट (ta, retroflex)
- Retroflex 't', the tongue curls back to touch the roof of the mouth, giving a harder sound than the English 't'.
- त (ta, dental)
- Dental 't', the tongue touches the back of the front teeth, softer than the retroflex ट.
- ड (da, retroflex)
- Retroflex 'd', tongue curled back, distinct from the dental द.
- द (da, dental)
- Dental 'd', tongue touches the teeth, softer than the retroflex ड.
- ण (na, retroflex)
- Retroflex 'n', tongue curled back. Rare, but appears in some Sanskrit-derived words.
- न (na, dental)
- Dental 'n', the common everyday 'n' sound, tongue at the teeth.
- प (pa)
- Unaspirated 'p', like the 'p' in 'spin', with no extra breath.
- फ (pha)
- Aspirated 'ph', a breathy 'p' sound. In loanwords it is often pronounced like the English 'f'.
- ब (ba)
- Unaspirated 'b', like the 'b' in 'bat'.
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