Lesson #23: Consonants part 7: श sha, ष sha, स sa and ह ha
Finally then we have made it to the very last group of Hindi consonants. How are you feeling about it? Be sure to head back to the Consonants Section if you feel that you’ve forgotten anything. Are you ready to get going then? Here goes, here’s the consonants we’re going to be learning today…
The first three letter of this group are called the sibilants and the final letter is what’s called an aspirate. So let’s get into it. Our first letter for today is…
This is the letter श sha. This is pronounced just like the “sh” in English words like “sheep” or “ship”. Use the audio to hear it pronounced! This letter looks a bit like a 2 with a line on the side of it, can you see?
Image by Wikicommons - under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 licence.
शादी shaadee - Wedding.
Weddings are always a very big celebration in India! The Hindi word for wedding is शादी shaadee. Can you see our new letter here? Be sure to listen to the audio too. Let’s keep going then…
This is the letter ष sha. This letter is pronounced exactly the same as श sha. Historically ष sha was pronounced as a retroflex consonant, with the tongue rolled back, but this is very rare these days.
The word for language in Hindi is भाषा bhaashaa. Can you see our new letter here? As always don’t forget to use the audio above.
Be careful with the letters श sha and ष sha - they both sound identical but there is always only one correct way to spell a word. This is just like in English how we spell “cat” with a “c” and not as “kat”! The letter ष sha is not as common and is only found in Hindi words that come from Sanskrit. Ok, ready to move on?
This is the letter स sa. This letter is another one that’s super easy to pronounce - it sounds exactly like the normal English “s” like in “seat” or “sing”. Listen to the audio above to hear it. Here’s an example word…
Can you see our new letter here? Nice one! Ok let’s move on to our very last letter of the very last group then! Here goes…
This is the letter ह ha. This letter again sounds like the English “h”, like in “hand” or “help”. The letter looks a bit like a funny claw trying to grab on to something, don’t you think?
Can you see our new letter in the word हाथ haath? Excellent! Listen to the audio above to hear the word pronounced!
Now before we finish there’s one more thing we need to learn. Some Hindi speakers will pronounce some words with ह ha differently to what we might expect. The rules for this are easy - if we have the vowel sound अ a both before and after the letter ह ha in a word then some speakers in casual conversation change both अ a sounds to something close to the vowel ऐ ai. Let me give you an example…
The Hindi word बहन bahan means sister. Click the audio above, next to the letter ह ha, to hear two different ways to pronounce बहन bahan: first in the standard bahan (in its technically correct form) and second as baihain (in its casual form used by some Hindi speakers). You can happily use either pronunciation but just be aware that some people pronounce it as baihain.
Phew, that’s it! Wow. You’ve now learnt all of the Hindi consonants! How does it feel? Give your self a pat on the back.
Unfortunately there’s still quite a bit more we need to learn before we’ve mastered everything to know about Hindi consonants, so head on back to the Consonants Section and keep learning!
