Hindi pronunciation: 59 minimal pairs to listen to

English has one t and one d; Hindi has two of each, one made on the teeth and one with the tongue curled back, and it keeps the puff of breath after a consonant as a separate sound. That is why the first seven of the 13 groups below are about consonants. The others are vowel length, nasal vowels, the two e-sounds, the dotted letters of the loanwords, v and b, s and sh, and the double consonant.

What happens here: English t is made with the tip of the tongue on the ridge just behind the teeth — exactly between the two places Hindi uses. To a Hindi ear an English t sounds like the curled-back ट, which is why Indian English writes English t with ट (टीचर, टेबल). So an English speaker who says तीन, three, with an English t is heard saying टीन, tin. The dental त needs the tip of the tongue pressed flat against the back of the upper front teeth, almost between them, as for the th of “thin” but stopped instead of breathed out. The retroflex ट needs the opposite: curl the tip up and back until it touches the roof of the mouth behind the ridge, and release it from there. The sound is duller and the vowel after it slightly coloured. Practise the two in a row — तब, टब — and feel the tongue move back.

What happens here: The same split as for t, with the voice on. An English d sits between the two Hindi ones and is heard as the curled-back ड, so दाल, the lentils on every Indian table, comes out as डाल, a branch, or the stem of “to put”. For the dental द, put the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth and keep it soft; for ड, curl it back and let it strike the roof of the mouth. A good check is the word दादा, grandfather: both d-sounds are dental, and an English speaker who says it with English d sounds as if they were saying something else entirely. Listen for the brightness: the dental sound is light and close to the teeth, the retroflex one darker and further back.

What happens here: Many English speakers hear ड़ as an r, and write लड़का as “larka”, so they say मोड़, a bend in the road, as मोर, a peacock. The two are made in different places. Hindi र is a quick tap of the tongue tip on the ridge behind the teeth, like the t in American “water” or the r in Scottish “very”. ड़ starts with the tip curled back, as for ड, and then flaps it forward so that it brushes the roof of the mouth on the way down. The result has a dull, hollow quality that र lacks. It never begins a word: ड़ stands between vowels and at the end, where ड would otherwise stand, which is why बड़ा, पेड़ and गाड़ी all have it.

What happens here: English adds a puff of breath to k at the start of a word (“kill”) and leaves it off after s (“skill”), without ever noticing the difference. Hindi uses that difference to tell words apart. क is always like the k in “skill”: no breath at all, wherever it stands. ख has a strong puff, stronger than English k, and the h is written into the transliteration: kh. An English speaker who says कान, ear, with an English k is heard saying खान, a mine. Hold the back of a hand in front of the mouth: you should feel nothing for क and a clear gust for ख. The kh is a k with a breath after it, not the rough sound of Scottish “loch” — that is the dotted ख़ of the loanwords. The voiced pair works the same way: घ is a g with a breathy release, as in a quick “dog-house”.

What happens here: The same breath, made with the lips, where it is easiest to feel. प is the p of “spin”, with no puff; फ is a p with a strong puff, not an f — फल, fruit, is said with the lips closed first, then opened with a burst of air. Many speakers do let it drift towards f, and nobody will misunderstand that; the mistake to avoid is the other way round, saying पल, a moment, with an English puffed p and being heard as फल. The voiced pair is harder because English has nothing like it. भ is a b followed by a breathy, murmured release, as if a sigh were slipped in before the vowel: भाई, brother, is not “bye” but b-hāī said as one syllable. Say बोला and भोला in a row and let the second one breathe.

What happens here: Hindi th is not English th. थ is the dental त with a puff of breath after it, so थाली, a metal plate, is t-hālī, and never the th of “thin”. An English speaker who sees th in the transliteration and says the English sound is understood with some effort; one who says a plain t is heard saying ताली, a clap. The same goes for ध, a dental d with a breathy release: धो, wash, against दो, two. And for छ: च is the ch of “church” without any breath, छ the same with a strong puff, written chh. The useful trick is to think of the h as part of the consonant, not as a sound after it: the two letters make one sound, and the vowel follows straight on.

What happens here: English shortens and weakens the vowels it does not stress, and lengthens the ones it does, so an English speaker’s vowel length follows the rhythm of the sentence rather than the word. In Hindi the length belongs to the word. The short a (कम, less) is a quick, neutral sound like the u of “cut”; the long ā (काम, work) is the open a of “father”, held. Short i is the i of “bit”, long ī the ee of “see”; short u the u of “put”, long ū the oo of “food”. The pairs differ in quality as well as length, which helps: मिल and मील are not the same vowel stretched but two different vowels. The commonest slip is to shorten a long vowel in an unstressed syllable — and in Hindi, where stress is weak, that changes the word.

What happens here: English has nasal vowels only before m and n, and an English speaker either drops the nasal entirely or adds an n after it. Both change a Hindi word. The nasal vowel is a vowel said with the soft palate lowered, so that air flows through the nose as well as the mouth, and there is no n at the end: में, in, is meⁿ, not “men”. It matters most where grammar depends on it. है and हैं are “is” and “are”; थी and थीं are “she was” and “they were”; कहा is “said” and कहाँ is “where”. Practise with a hand on the nose: you should feel it vibrate on the nasal vowel and stay still on the oral one. The transliteration on this site marks the nasal vowel with a small ⁿ.

What happens here: English e and o slide into a second vowel: “say” ends in an ee, “go” in an oo. Hindi ए and ओ do not slide; they are long, pure and steady, like the vowels of Scottish “day” and “go”. ऐ and औ are written as if they were the diphthongs ai and au, and in standard Hindi they are mostly simple open vowels instead: ऐ close to the a of “cat”, औ close to the o of British “hot”, held long. So मेल, meeting, and मैल, dirt, differ the way “mail” without its glide differs from “mal-” in “malice”, held. The easiest pair to hear is ओर, direction, against और, and — one of the commonest words of the language.

What happens here: These are the sounds an English speaker usually has no trouble making — z and f are English sounds — and the trouble is the other way round: many Hindi speakers do not make them, and say ज़रा, a little, as जरा, old age, without anybody misunderstanding. So the pairs here are for listening and for spelling rather than for survival. ज़ is an English z; फ़ an English f; ख़ the rough sound at the back of the throat in Scottish “loch”, and ग़ its voiced partner; क़ a k made further back, at the uvula. Say them as written and you will be understood everywhere; learn the dot with the word, because this site writes it, and because राज़, a secret, is not राज, rule.

What happens here: English has two sounds, v with the teeth on the lip and w with rounded lips. Hindi व is one sound between them: the lips come close together without rounding, or the teeth touch the lip lightly, and many speakers say it like w after a consonant (स्वाद, taste) and like v elsewhere. Either is fine. What is not fine is ब, a full stop with closed lips: वार is an attack and बार is a time, an occasion, and वाद, a debate, is not बाद, after. Some regional speakers do merge the two, so you will hear it; keep them apart yourself.

What happens here: English has both sounds and an English speaker can make them easily. The trap is in the reading: the transliteration writes sh for श, and a learner who skims it says s. शादी, a wedding, is a word everybody needs; सादी is the feminine of plain. A third letter, ष, is said like श in modern Hindi and appears in Sanskrit words (भाषा, language). In some regions s and sh merge in everyday speech; the standard keeps them apart, and so should a learner.

What happens here: English writes double letters and never says them: the two t’s of “letter” are one sound. Hindi holds a double consonant: the tongue stops, waits a moment, and then releases, as in English “cat tail” said quickly, with the two t’s merged into one long one. पत्ता is pat-tā, बच्चा is bach-chā. The vowel before a double consonant is short and clipped, which is a second cue. An English speaker who says बच्चा, child, with a single ch says बचा, saved; one who says पक्का, definite, with a single k says पका, cooked. Clap the rhythm: पता has two even beats, पत्ता a heavy first beat and a pause.