Devanagari

Hindi Alphabet
Hindi is written in a script called Devanagari [देवनागर�], pronounced
“dave-uh-nah-gurry”. Once you learn it, you can pronounce any
अ आा इ� ई ी
uh ah ie ee

V O W E L S + M AT R A S
Hindi word you see because, with few exceptions, Hindi is phonetic.
It’s also the writing system used in Nepali and Marathi. उु ऊू एे ऐै
oo ooo ay eh
ABOUT THE ALPHABET
• Devanagari is technically a syllabary, or a phonetic writing system, ओो औौ ऋृ �ँ� ���
instead of an alphabet. This means that each Devanagari letter or oh aw ri +n
letter grouping represents a syllable.
• The standard Hindi alphabet, as agreed by the Government of क ख ग घ ङ

VELAR
India, has 11 vowels and 35 consonants. However, the traditional ka kha ga gha ng
Hindi alphabet is considered to be made of 13 vowels and
33 consonants.
च छ ज झ ञ

PA L ATA L
• Each Devanagari consonant is followed by a vowel. The inherent cha chha ja jha nya
vowel is अ [uh], the first letter of the alphabet, like the sound
at the end of “soda.” It’s as if whenever you see “d” or “g”, you

RETROFLEX
automatically pronounce “duh” or “guh”. ट ठ ड ढ ण
.ta .tha .da .dha .na
• When the other 10 vowels modify a consonant, a matra, or
vowel marker, is used. Each vowel has a corresponding matra.
त थ द ध न

D E N TA L
HOW HINDI IS WRIT TEN ta tha da dha na
• Most letters include a vertical bar ा on the right side that usually
indicates the end of the syllable sound. It’s usually touching the प फ ब भ म
LABIAL

letter, but it’s written separately in some consonants: pa fa ba bha ma

ग [ga], ण [na], and श [sha].
SEMIVOWELS

• Letter groupings are called conjuncts. This means that successive य र ल व

consonants with no vowel between them physically join together. ya ra la va
Most of them involve removing the vertical bar and squishing letters
together, but a few have special characters that look like entirely
SIBILANTS/

श ष स ह
A S P I R AT E

new letters. This is where the alphabet count differs for standard
and traditional Hindi! sha sha sa ha

• The horizontal line on top of letters indicates where words start and
Common Characters
stop. It’s always drawn after the consonants, vowels and matras in
a single word are written. Some Hindi letters break this line:
अ [uh], आ [ah], ओ [oh], औ [au], थ [tha], ध [dha], भ [bha], श [sha].
� � � � ड़
ksha shra gya tra rdha

Online pronounciation aid

TE R M S TO K N OW http://tiny.cc/hindiletters
Devanagari Conjunct
The writing system on which Hindi is based Two or more consonants that are grouped in
writing to make a single syllable
Matra
Vowel indicator that modifies a consonant Transliteration
Also called “Romanization”
Using Roman/English letters to write a
foreign alphabet

WEEK 1