English Tongue Twisters:

A good cook could cook as much cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.

I saw a saw that could out saw any other saw I ever saw.

Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said "this butter's bitter! But a bit
of better butter will but make my butter better" So she bought some better
butter, better than the bitter butter, and it made her butter better so itwas
better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter!

If you understand, say "understand".

If you don't understand, say "don't understand".
But if you understand and say "don't understand".
How do I understand that you understand? Understand!

I thought, I thought of thinking of thanking you.

Red bulb blue blub red bulb blue bulb

I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't
wish the wish you wish to wish.

Sounding by sound is a sound method of sounding sounds.

Double bubble gum, bubbles double gum.

If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?

I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn't have thought so
much.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

She sells sea shells sea shells on the sea shore

If one doctor doctors another doctor does the doctor who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor
the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does the doctor doctor the way the doctor who
doctors doctors?

Hard To Tell:

A duel was fought between Alexander Shott and John Nott. Nott was shot and Shott was not. In this
case it was better to be Shott than Nott. Some said that Nott was not shot. But Shott says that he
shot
Nott.
It may be that the shot Shott shot, shot Nott, or it may be possible that the shot Shott shot, shot
Shott himself. We think, however, that the shot Shott shot, shot not Shott, but Nott.
Anyway it is hard to tell which was shot and which was not.

Dental and Retroflex Consonants

It is very important to learn to pronounce dental and retroflex consonants correctly. Dental means that
the tip of the tongue touches your front top (sometimes bottom too) teeth when making the sound.
Retroflex means that your tongue curls back and touches the palate, the roof of your mouth.

Aspiration
Most consonants in Hindi have an aspirated form, and a non-aspirated form. If air is released when the
sound is made, it is an aspirated sound. If there is little or no breath released, then it is non-aspirated.
This is hard to learn at first, but will become easier with practice. Try saying "pay" with your hand in
front of your mouth so that you can feel the amount of breath. Learn to say it both with and without
releasing your breath. Practice this with other consonants, like "k" and "g."

Practice
In order to learn to read well, you must practice reading. Even if you aren't understanding what your
are reading, practicing is still good for you. You will begin to recognize words and you will learn the
words faster after having practiced reading. You can read newspapers and childrens stories for good
practice. Also, expect to see more tools on this site available soon to help you improve your reading.

Velar Consonants

- 'k' non-aspirated
- 'kh' aspirated
- 'g' non-aspirated
- 'gh' aspirated

Note:

, and are correctly pronounced further back in the throat than the respective non-dotted

versions. The normal Hindi-speaker, however, will probably not make this distinction.

Palatal Consonants

- 'ch' non-aspirated
- 'chh' aspirated
- 'j' non-aspirated
- 'jh' aspirated
- 'z' non-aspirated
Note:
as

is correctly

pronounced as a normal 'z.' Some Hindi-speakers may pronounce it the same

- 't' non-aspirated
- 't' aspirated
- 'd' non-aspirated
- 'd' aspirated
- flapped 'r' non-aspirated
- flapped 'r' aspirated
- 'n' non-aspirated
Remember that in making all of these sounds, the tongue is curled back touching the same part of the
palate. The flapped 'r' is made with the tongue as it uncurls and "flaps" or bounces off of the palate. It
sounds similar to the 'rd' in 'burden.'

Dental Consonants

- 't' non-aspirated
- 't' or 'th' aspirated
- 'd' non-aspirated
- 'dh' aspirated
- 'n' non-aspirated
These sounds are all made by touching the tip of your tongue to your top front teeth.

Labial Consonants

- 'p' non-aspirated
- 'ph' aspirated
- 'f' aspirated
- 'b' non-aspirated
- 'bh' aspirated
- 'm' non-aspirated
This dotted

is always pronounced as 'f.' Some speakers, however, will pronounce both and as

'f.'

Semi-vowel Consonants

- 'y' non-aspirated
- 'r' non-aspirated
- 'l' non-aspirated
- 'v' non-aspirated

can be a tricky sound. Under normal circumstances, it is between 'v' and 'w.' The lips do not make
contact with the teeth. When this consonant is at the end of a word, it can make the 'o' sound in 'over.'

Sibilants

- 's' in 'sun'
- 'sh' in 'shame'
- 'sh' in 'shame'
Although

is correctly pronounced with the tongue curled back, it is generally spoken just like .

Aspirate

- 'h' in 'hot'
When

is not followed by a vowel marker, the inherent sound is often not the standard 'a' in 'alive,'

but sometimes like 'i' in 'hit' or 'e' in 'felt.'

Before learning grammar, it is important to be able to read and correctly pronounce Hindi words. Try to
say the word by reading it, then check yourself by listening to it. You may have to listen several times
before you can say it correctly. Do not worry about the meaning of these words, some of them are not
even real words. Just focus on saying them correctly. In the words below, each of the common letters is
used at least once.

Now try these simple sentences.

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