A1 · Devanagari and the sounds of Hindi
Consonant clusters and the halant
conjunct consonants
When two consonants meet with no vowel between them, the first loses its stroke and leans on the second.
At a glance
- Remember
- Two consonants with no vowel between them join: the first loses its stroke and leans on the second.
- Form
- स्कूल, प्यार, क्याhalf letter + full letter
- Signal words
- ्
- क्ष
- त्र
- ज्ञ
- श्र
- Trap
- Wrong:मैं सकूल जाता हूँ।Right:मैं स्कूल जाता हूँ।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
| half letter + full letter | स्कूल, प्यार, क्या |
| r before a consonant: a hook above | कुर्सी, सर्दी |
| r after a consonant: a stroke below | प्रेम, ट्रेन |
| shapes of their own | क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ, श्र |
| stacked, or with a visible halant | छुट्टी, बुड्ढा |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
A consonant with no vowel of its own loses its vertical stroke and joins the next letter.
मेरा स्कूल पास है।My school is close by.
र before a consonant becomes a hook above the next letter.
यह कुर्सी नई है।This chair is new.
र after a consonant becomes a stroke at its foot.
ट्रेन लेट है।The train is late.
क्ष, त्र and ज्ञ have shapes of their own.
वह मेरा मित्र है।He is my friend.
Letters without a stroke are stacked or keep a visible halant.
कल छुट्टी है।Tomorrow is a holiday.
Example sentences
क्या यह सीट आपकी है?Is this seat yours?
मुझे प्यास लगी है।I am thirsty.
आज ठंड ज़्यादा है।It is colder than usual today.
बच्चे कक्षा में हैं।The children are in the classroom.
सर्दी आ गई है।Winter has come.
दादाजी को बहुत ज्ञान है।Grandfather knows a great deal.
6 more example sentences
पेड़ का पत्ता पीला है।The leaf of the tree is yellow.
यह प्रश्न आसान है।This question is easy.
वह अच्छा लड़का है।He is a good boy.
बच्चे खेल रहे हैं।The children are playing.
विद्यार्थी कक्षा में हैं।The students are in class.
मेरा दफ़्तर दूर है।My office is far away.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Written as a full letter, स brings its a with it and सकूल reads sakūl. The s and the k of “school” meet with no vowel between them, so the first is a half letter: स्कूल.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
A consonant letter always carries an a. To write two consonants with nothing between them, Hindi takes the a away from the first one by cutting off its vertical stroke and joining what is left to the next letter: स + क gives स्क in स्कूल (school), प + य gives प्य in प्यार (love), क + य gives क्य in क्या (what). Read the half letter first.
र behaves differently. Before another consonant it becomes a small hook above the next letter: कुर्सी(chair)सर्दी(winter) After a consonant it becomes a slanting stroke at the foot: प्रेम (love), क्रिकेट; under ट and ड a small caret: ट्रेन, ड्रामा.
Three clusters have shapes of their own and are learnt like letters: क्ष (ksh) in कक्षा (class), त्र (tr) in मित्र (friend) and ज्ञ (said gy) in ज्ञान (knowledge). श्र (shr) in श्री is common too.
Letters without a vertical stroke, such as ट ठ ड ढ द, cannot lose one. They are stacked, the first above the second (छुट्टी, holiday; बुड्ढा, old man), or the first keeps a visible halant, the small slanting stroke ् below it. The halant is the sign for “no vowel here”; fonts differ in how often they show it, and the text is the same either way.
A closer look
Reading a cluster
A cluster is read from left to right like any other letters: the half letter, then the full one with its vowel. प्यारis p-yā-rबच्चा(child) is ba-ch-chā A doubled consonant is held a moment longer: बच्चा is not bachā, and पत्ता (leaf) is not patā (पता means address).
Two ways to draw one cluster
Older printing stacked many clusters that modern fonts write side by side, and some fonts show a halant where others join the letters. द्य in विद्या (learning) can look quite different from one book to the next. The letters underneath are the same; only the drawing changes.
Worth knowing (2)
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श्री before a name
श + र is written श्र, and the word you will see most often with it is श्री, a respectful title before a man’s name, much like “Mr”.
श्री वर्मा आज दफ़्तर में नहीं हैं।Mr Varma is not in the office today.
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A nasal before a consonant is a dot
A cluster that begins with a nasal is written with the anusvara on this site, not with a half nasal letter: हिंदी, ठंडा, संबंध.
मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ।I am learning Hindi.
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