Today we’re going to continue looking at Consonant Conjuncts and how Hindi consonants are modified when used in these conjuncts. We began in Consonant Conjuncts Part 1 by explaining what a conjunct is (the ‘dropping’ of the अ a between two or more consonants - if you don’t remember) and we saw how this is applied when the first letter has a vertical line on it’s right hand side. 

For example we saw;

च् c + छ cha = च्छ cchaa in अच्छा acchaa - Good. 

That should just be revision for you, so now for todays new material.  

The consonant र ra has it’s own special rules for conjuncts depending on whether it is the first or second consonant in the conjunct. 

If र ra is the first consonant in the conjunct

Then it becomes a small hook on top of the letter (Don’t confuse this with े the matra for the vowel ए e) For example; 

र्  r + म ma = र्म rma in धर्म dharm - Religion. 

र्  r + क rka = र्क rka in तुर्की turkee - Turkey (the country)  

Note the location of the hook in the last example, it’s on the right hand side of the की kee even though the r sound comes first! 

If र ra is the second consonant in the conjunct

Then is becomes a small line pointing diagonally down to the left from the middle. As seen in; 

प्  p + र ra = प्र pra in प्रेम prem - Love 

म्  m + र ra = म्र mra in उम्र umr - age (As seen in Lesson #41: How Old are You?)

Take caution as it’s quite a small line so can easy be skipped over!

However when र ra follows a consonant from the Retroflex group its slightly different. Like in;

ट् t + र ra = ट्र tra in ट्रेन tren - Train 

Next time you see these symbols you’ll know what they mean! Why don’t you have a look around the blog and see you can find examples of र ra in a conjunct.

In Consonant Conjuncts Part 3 we’ll see special conjuncts which have their own characters and we’ll see more examples.