Hindi Basics & Devanagari Vowels

Question 1

The Hindi Alphabet is called…

Answer 1

Devanagari

Question 2

अ

Answer 2

transliteration: a [SHORT]
pronounced: “uh” - like the “a” in alive
*this vowel does not modify a consonant at all

Question 3

आ
ा

Answer 3

transliteration: aa [LONG]
pronounced: “aah” - like the “a” in father
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ा to the RIGHT of the consonant. (if you see a circle before the symbol just ignore it, the symbol you add to the consonant looks like a tall capital “T”)

Question 4

इ
ि

Answer 4

transliteration: i [SHORT]
pronounced: “i”
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ि to the LEFT side of the consonant even though the vowel sound follows the consonant

Question 5

ई
ी

Answer 5

transliteration: ee [LONG]
pronounced: “ee” like ee in feet
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ी to the RIGHT of the consonant.

Question 6

उ
ु

Answer 6

transliteration: u [SHORT]
pronounced: “oo” like oo in boo
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ु UNDER the consonant

Question 7

ऊ
ू

Answer 7

transliteration: oo [LONG]
pronounced: “ooh” like oo in boo EXCEPT it’s longer than उ
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ू UNDER the consonant

Question 8

ए
े

Answer 8

transliteration: e [SHORT]
pronounced: “ay” like ay in lay (but a little more like “eh”)
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: े to the TOP of the consonant

Question 9

ऐ
ै

Answer 9

transliteration: ai [LONG]
pronounced: “eh”
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ै to the TOP of the consonant

Question 10

ओ
ो

Answer 10

transliteration: o [SHORT]
pronounced: “ouh” like o in domain or ough in dough
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ो to the RIGHT of the consonant

Question 11

औ
ौ

Answer 11

transliteration: au [LONG]
pronounced: “ouh”
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ौ to the RIGHT of the consonant

Question 12

ऋ

ृ

Answer 12

transliteration: ri
pronounced: “ree” like rea in read
*when you modify a consonant with this vowel, you add this symbol: ृ UNDER the consonant [note that this flick goes in a different direction than ऊ ‘s flick which opens downwards and उ’s flick which opens to the right]
[note: this letter is only ever found in words of sanskrit origin}

Question 13

Nasalized Vowel Notes

Answer 13

for every vowel in Hindi besides “ri”, there is a nasalized version of the vowel which should be treated as a separate vowel in itself. The nasalized version just looks like the regular vowel plus the “चन्द्रबिन्दु” (candrabindu) - literally a “moon dot”. It looks like an upwards facing crescent moon with a dot above it and goes ABOVE the vowel. (for example: अँ ) It’s transliteration is “n” but NO “n” sound is actually added - it just means its the nasalized version. Nasalization means you say something “through your nose”.

Question 14

अँ

Answer 14

transliteration: an

Question 15

आँ

Answer 15

transliteration: aan

Question 16

इँ

Answer 16

transliteration: in

Question 17

ईं

Answer 17

transliteration: een

Question 18

उँ

Answer 18

transliteration: un

Question 19

ऊँ

Answer 19

transliteration: oon

Question 20

एँ

Answer 20

transliteration: en

Question 21

ऐं

Answer 21

transliteration: ain

Question 22

ओं

Answer 22

transliteration: on

Question 23

औं

Answer 23

transliteration: aun

Question 24

How many vowels are in Hindi?

Answer 24

12 Vowels

Question 25

How many consonants are in Hindi?

Answer 25

36 consonants

Question 26

Hindi is read in what direction?

Answer 26

Hindi is read left to right, just like in English

Question 27

Does Hindi use articles?

Answer 27

No - unlike English, Hindi doesn’t use any articles. So there are no words for “the” or “a” in Hindi.

Question 28

Different Sentence Structure

Answer 28

Verbs always go at the end of the sentence in Hindi

Question 29

Noun Genders?

Answer 29

Yup. Nouns in Hindi all have genders. Just like languages such as Spanish and French, there is a masculine and a feminine form, and the sentence’s adjectives and verbs change depending on the gender of the noun.

Question 30

Are there pronunciation changes?

Answer 30

No. Hindi is a phonetic language, meaning that everything in the language is pronounced exactly as it is written.

Question 31

Different Types of Vowels

Answer 31

There are two types of vowels. The first one is an independent vowel, which is used at the beginning of a syllable. The second one is dependent vowel, which is used when the vowel follows a consonant.

Question 32

What’s that line?

Answer 32

There is a horizontal line above each word, and this line connects all the letters in a word.

Question 33

Where are the periods?

Answer 33

Often you will see a “।” ending a sentence instead of a period, but it serves the same purpose.

Question 34

(a) + (h) pronunciation rule

Answer 34

if the (h) consonant is not followed by a vowel/vowel sound, and there is a short (a) directly preceding it → the (a) before the (h) is pronounced like (e) in the English word “get”. This rule is what makes “yah” pronounced like”yeh”. (Voh is just irregular, tho. no one knows why its pronounced voh.)