This isn’t a lesson in Hindi per se, but it might be useful (or perhaps even interesting) to know. You don’t have to read this and you won’t miss anything if you don’t. If you find it confusing please just skip past it! 

If you’ve ever studied language or linguistics you may have come across what’s called The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). IPA is basically a whole bunch of a letters and symbols that are used to represent every single possible sound in all the worlds spoken languages. Although this might seem rather complex its actually so helpful when learning a language because each letter or symbol represents a single sound, there’s absolutely no ambiguity and it’s universally used. 

In fact you’ve probably seen IPA without realising because IPA is used in a lot of dictionaries to help with pronunciation of some words. For example have a look at this entry from Cambridge Online Dictionary;

The IPA is the /‘hɪn.di/ part - this tells you how to pronounce the word. So when you see a word you don’t know how to pronounce IPA can tell you. This is why IPA is so useful when learning a foreign language, simply because it can tell you exactly how to pronounce every single word in that language. 

To give you an idea of IPA, below is a table of all Pulmic Consonants in IPA (click on the picture to see a bigger version with audio files - click on the letters). Hindi doesn’t use a lot of these so don’t worry too much if the sounds seem strange. 

So now are you ready to see the IPA symbols for Hindi? Great!

NOTE Don’t get confused with my transliteration system and IPA. My transliteration is what you always see in italics after a Hindi word and I chose this system because it’s easiest for me to type and for you to read. IPA is a system that’s used around the world but is difficult for me to type and has a lot of awkward symbols making it impractical for me to use on the blog. 

Please use this website to hear the sound of each IPA symbol, by clicking on the letter. This should really help your pronunciation skills. Please use this table as reference only! Don't waste time memorising it!

Key: Hindi Letter my transliteration [associated IPA symbol(s)] 

Vowels 

अ  a  [ə]    आ  aa  [a:]      इ  i  [ɪ]        ई  ee  [i:]      उ  u  [ʊ]      ऊ  oo  [u:] 

ऋ  ṛ  [ɻ̩]     ए  e  [ e:]       ऐ  ai  [ɛ:]     ओ  o  [o:]    औ  au  [ɔ:]      

Nasalised Vowel

अँ  an  [ə̃]  

Main Consonants 

क  ka  [kə]    ख  kha  [kʰə]    ग  ga  [gə]     घ  gha  [gʰə]      ङ  na  [ŋə]

च  ca  [tʃə]    छ  cha  [tʃʰə]    ज  ja  [dʒə]    झ  jha  [dʒʰə]     ञ  na  [ɲə]

ट  ta   [ʈə]     ठ  tha  [ʈʰə]       ड  da  [ɖə]     ढ  dha  [ɖʰə]       ण  na  [ɳə]

त  ta   [t̪ə]     थ  tha  [t̪ʰə]      द  da  [d̪ə]     ध  dha  [d̪ʰə]       न  na  [nə]

प  pa   [pə]    फ  pha  [pʰə]    ब  ba  [bə]    भ  bha  [bʰə]      म  ma  [mə]

य  ya   [jə]    र  ra  [ɾə]       ल  la  [lə]   व  va  [ʋə] or [wə]   

स  sa   [sə]   श  sha  [ʃə]    ष  sha  [ʂə], usually [ʃə]  

ह  ha   [ɦə], sometimes [hə]

Extra Consonants 

क़  qa  [qə], usually pronounced [kə]   ख़  kha  [xə], usually pronounced [kʰə]  

ग़  ga  [ɣə], usually pronounced [gə]   

ज़  za  [zə]    ड़  ra  [ɽə]   ढ़  rha  [ɽʰə]   फ़  fa  [fə]

Example Words

आप  aap  [a:p]  - You (Formal) 

खाना  khaanaa  [kʰa:na:]  - Food, To eat

ठीक  theek  [ʈʰi:k]  - Ok

सुन्दर  sundar  [sʊnd̪əɾ]  - Beautiful

Please make sure you visit this site, which gives an audio file (by clicking on the letter) for each IPA symbol. 

Unfortunately there are some exception where some letters are pronounced slightly differently to their standard pronunciations. This would take a lot of explanation and gets quite technical. If you are interested then please read Hindi - Urdu Phonology on Wikipedia. 

Again I stress, this is only extra information for those interested. Don’t get confused if you don’t understand, it’s really not important.