So far we’ve seen two groups of Hindi consonants - that’s a whole ten letters! Can you remember them all? If not then just head back to the Consonants Section and revise back over them a little. Do you think you’re now ready to learn another groupd of consonants? Well here goes, here they are…

What do you think? Do they look confusing to you? Well hopefully by the end of this lesson you’ll know them inside out! This group of consonants is called the Retroflex group. Are you read to get started with the first letter then? 

 ta  

      If you can’t see the play button or if it wont work then click here for instructions on how to fix it!

This is the letter ट ta. What does this letter look like? Easy - it’s just a big hook hanging down! So how do we pronounce this letter? Well it’s a little hard to explain, but it’s basically a bit fat “t” sound. Click on the play button above to hear the letter pronounced. To make the right sound firstly say a normal English “ta”, now say it again but instead of having your tongue behind your teeth roll it back in your mouth a litte - this is the sound of ट ta. Have you got it? Be sure to listen to it a whole bunch of times! Don’t worry because it can take a little practice! 

The Hindi word टूटा tootaa means “broken”, can you see our new letter appears twice in this word? You can head it being spoken by clicking on the play button next to the letter ट ta above! Have you got it? Ready to move on now?

  tha  

This is the letter ठ tha. So what does it look like? This one’s easy - it’s just a circle with a hat! You might have guessed how we pronounce this letter already - it’s the aspirated version of ट ta, so roll your tongue back a little make a “t” sound and breath out loads of air at the same time, got it? Listen to the letter pronounced above! Ready for an example word?

One word you’ll be hearing all the time when you listen to Hindi speakers is the word ठीक theek - it means “ok”, “fine” or “good”. This is a very useful word to know! Can you spot our new letter at the start here? One thing to pay special attention to is the fact that we write this letter as tha but it sounds completely different to the “tha” in the English word “that” - don’t get confused! As usual you can hear this word by clicking play above!  

Ready for the third letter of this group? Well here goes…

  da   

This is the letter ड da. This letter, just like the first letter of this group ट ta, is a big fat ’d’ sound. Make a normal English “d”, like in “date”, and then roll your tongue back a little and you should have the ड da sound perfectly! You can hear it pronounced by clicking play above. 

So what does this letter look like? It’s simple, it’s just an S with a line above it. Now be careful you don’t confuse ड da with the vowel इ i that we learnt in Lesson #3 - they can look quite similar! Notice how इ i has a little flick at the bottomw and ड da does not, can you see? 

The Hindi word डोर dor means string, thread or even rope. Can you spot our new letter at the start here? Great!

There’s one more thing you need to know about this letter - sometimes you’ll see it with a little dot at the bottom like this ड़ - this is actually a completely different letter which we’ll learn about later in Lesson #54.

Ready for letter number four? 

  dha  

This is the letter ढ dha. This letter looks kind of like a hanging G don’t you think? Can you see? And yes, as you have guessed correctly this is the aspirated version of the letter ड da, so to pronounce it roll your tongue back, make a big fat “d” sound and let out lots of air - ढ dha. Listen to the letter being pronounced by clicking play above! 

The word for “lid”, “cap” (as in cap for a bottle), “cover” or “bonnet” etc in Hindi is ढक्कन dhakkan. Can you spot our new letter here? Great! Oh and, just like our last letter, you’ll sometimes see this letter with a dot underneath it like this ढ़ again this is a compeltely different letter and you can learn more about it here.

Ok, deep breath, ready for the last letter of this group?

 ṇa    

This is the letter ण ṇa. This time the dot is underneath the n! What does this letter look like? Well it’s just a sign post hanging up, can you see? How do we pronounce this letter then? Well like the rest of the letters from this group, it’s a big fat “n” sound! So roll your tounge back a little and say “na”. It’s a little tricky to listen to the audio file above until your confident with it! 

Now unlike the final letters of the last two groups, ङ ṅa and ञ ña that we’ve already seen, ण ṇa does come up from time to time so you do need to know it! 

The Hindi word for ‘Arrow’ is बाण baaṇ. Can you see our new letter ण ṇa at the end? Well done!

Phew wow, that’s three whole groups of Consonants your now know, well done you! Make sure you keep praciticing everything you’re learning - otherwise you’ll just forget it! Keep praciticing writing the letters and saying them out loud. 

If you’re getting a little bored of just learning letters now (and don’t worry if you are -Hindi has a lot of letters and it can get a little boring!) then why not head over to Conversational Hindi and start learning a few real life conversational phrases and then just pop back here later and carry on with the letters! 

Click to go back to the Consonants Section.