A1 · Devanagari and the sounds of Hindi
The dot below: z, f, q and the flapped ṛ
the nukta and the letters ड़ and ढ़
A dot under a letter marks a sound from Persian, Arabic or English, or the flapped r of लड़का.
At a glance
- Remember
- A dot under j, ph, k, kh or g marks a borrowed sound; under d and dh it marks a flap, and that dot is never optional.
- Form
- ज़ — ज़रूर, बाज़ारz
- Signal words
- ज़
- फ़
- क़
- ख़
- ग़
- ड़
- ढ़
- Trap
- Wrong:वह लडका मेरा भाई है।Right:वह लड़का मेरा भाई है।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
How it is written and said
Each row gives the rule first, then examples in Hindi that show it.
| z | ज़ — ज़रूर, बाज़ार |
| f | फ़ — फ़ोन, साफ़ |
| q, deep in the throat | क़ — क़रीब, क़लम |
| kh as in “loch” | ख़ — ख़ुश, ख़बर |
| gh, a gargled g | ग़ — ग़लत |
| the flapped r | ड़ ढ़ — लड़का, पढ़ना |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The dot turns ज into z and फ into f.
मुझे ज़रूर बताइए।Do let me know.
क़, ख़ and ग़ are sounds from Persian and Arabic words.
मैं बहुत ख़ुश हूँ।I am very happy.
ड़ and ढ़ are flaps: the tongue curls back and flicks forward.
वह लड़का मेरा भाई है।That boy is my brother.
At the start of a word it is always ड or ढ, without the dot.
डाकघर बंद है।The post office is closed.
Example sentences
मेरा फ़ोन कहाँ है?Where is my phone?
बाज़ार आज खुला है।The market is open today.
यह जवाब ग़लत है।This answer is wrong.
स्टेशन क़रीब है।The station is close by.
बच्चे किताब पढ़ रहे हैं।The children are reading a book.
घर के सामने एक पेड़ है।There is a tree in front of the house.
6 more example sentences
यह एक राज़ है।This is a secret.
कमरा साफ़ है।The room is clean.
आज की ख़बर क्या है?What is today’s news?
मेरी क़लम कहाँ है?Where is my pen?
उनकी लड़की दिल्ली में पढ़ती है।Their daughter studies in Delhi.
यह बड़ा शहर है।This is a big city.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The dot under ड is easy to drop because it looks like the optional dot of ज़ and फ़. It is not optional: ड़ is its own letter with its own sound, and लड़का, बड़ा, पढ़ना are always written with it.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The grid of consonants was made for Sanskrit, and it has no letters for z, f or the throaty sounds of Persian and Arabic, which reached Hindi with many everyday words. Hindi marks them with a dot below the nearest letter, the nukta: ज़ z (ज़रूर, certainly), फ़ f (फ़ोन, साफ़, clean), क़ q, said deep in the throat (क़रीब, near), ख़ like the ch of Scottish “loch” (ख़ुश, happy) and ग़, its voiced partner (ग़लत, wrong).
Many speakers do not make all of these sounds and say ज़ as j or फ़ as ph. The spelling of this site still writes the dot in the common words, so that you learn which words have the sound, and the answer check does not count a missing dot on these five letters as a mistake.
Two more letters with a dot are a different matter. ड़ and ढ़ are native Hindi sounds: the tongue curls back and flicks forward once, a flap that English does not have. They never begin a word; between vowels and at the end of a word they are very common: लड़का(boy)बड़ा(big)पेड़(tree)पढ़ना(to read)
For these two the dot is not optional. लडका without it is a misspelling, and the answer check treats it as one.
A closer look
Why many speakers drop the borrowed sounds
For a large part of Hindi speakers, z, f, q, kh and gh are not native sounds, and in relaxed speech ज़रूर sounds like jarūr and फ़ोन like phon. Speakers who grew up with Urdu, and many newsreaders, keep them. Both are normal Hindi; the spelling with the dot simply records which words came from where.
One dot, two words
A few pairs differ only by the dot: राजis rule or kingdomराज़a secret; सजाmeans decoratedसज़ाpunishment; खानाis foodख़ानाa compartment Context almost always decides, which is why speakers can do without the sound.
Worth knowing (2)
-
English f and z
English loanwords use the same letters: फ़िल्म, फ़्रिज, ज़ीरो. English v, on the other hand, is simply व.
कल हम फ़िल्म देखेंगे।We will watch a film tomorrow.
-
A dot that decides the meaning
सज़ा with the dot is a punishment; सजा without it means decorated. In writing, the dot is the only thing that tells them apart.
उसे सज़ा मिली।He was punished.
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