Last time we looked at Consonant Conjuncts, in Lesson #43, we learnt how how the consonant र ra changes when in a conjunct. We saw words like धर्म dharm religion and प्रेम prem love. Today we’re going to learn about some special characters (sometimes called ligatures) that arise from conjuncts. We’ll see a few of the most common ones (there are in fact many more!). This will really improve your reading skills. In these examples some of the characters that arise seem unrelated to the consonants it’s composed from, this is just something you have to get used to! I’ll introduce each conjunct and we’ll see at least one word that uses it.

1. क् k + ष sha = क्ष ksha

As seen in: पक्षी pakshee Bird (masc) and लक्ष्मी lakshmee Lakshmi - A Hindu Goddess.

2. त् t + र ra = त्र tra

As seen in: सत्रह satrah 17, as we learnt in Lesson #19 Numbers 11-20

3. श् sh + र ra = श्र shra

As seen in: श्री shree and श्रीमती shreematee meaning Mr. and Mrs. respectively. You use these just the same as English: श्री कुमार shree kumaar Mr. Kumar. 

4. द् d + ध dha = द्ध ddha

As seen in: बौद्ध धर्म bauddh dharm Buddhism. Notice how this uses the word धर्म dharm religion which we have already learnt! 

These are four of the most common conjuncts you’ll see in Hindi writing. There are many more and we’ll cover them as they appear in these lessons. If you are interested then Wikipedia has a table showing all possible conjuncts in Hindi here, but that is quite advance and complicated for us. Practice over these new letters so that you remember them.