complex and to master them some more information is necessary:
Retroflex consonants
There is a crucial difference between dental and retroflex consonants in Hindi. In dental consonants, the tongue touches the upper front teeth, whereas retroflex consonants are pronounced with the tongue turned back to the roof of your mouth. For example, set your mouth up to pronounce a “regular” d, but then curl your tongue right up so that the bottom part of it touches the top part of your mouth. As you try to pronounce the original d, you will feel your tongue “flapping” forward. American English has also some of these retroflex sounds, most commonly in the middle of words like “bidder”, “heart”, and “bitter”, or at the end of words like “bad”, “butter”, and “bat”. The three retroflex consonants are: ḍ, ṭ, and ṇ. Strictly speaking ṣ is also a retroflex, but in practice it is rarely distinguished from an English “sh”.
Aspirated consonants
Hindi also distinguishes breathed or aspirated consonants from light or non-aspirated ones. Aspirated consonants are those pronounced with an audible expulsion of breath, i.e. a discernable, heavy puff of air. The aspirated consonants are marked by an h following them (except for sh which is always pronounced as the English “sh”) and they are: bh, ch, dh, ḍh, gh, jh, kh, ph, th and ṭh.
On the other hand, non-aspirated consonants are pronounced far lighter—i.e. with minimal breath—than their English equivalents. For the matter of making yourself understand it is vital to emphasize the difference between aspirated and unaspirated consonants.
Nasalization
Hindi has several nasal consonants which affect the vowel placed before them in a similar way to the “n” in French (e.g. “bon”) or the Portuguese “m” (e.g. “bem”). These nasal sounds are: ṃ, ñ and ṅ but even the consonants m, n and ṇ can cause light nasalization when positioned in front of another consonant, e.g. Mumbaī (Mumbai)
The consonants are:
| Hindi letter | Approximate English equivalent | |
| ब | b | box, “light” |
| भ | bh | box, “breathed” |
| च | c | champion |
| छ | ch | church, “breathed” |
| द | d | dog, “light” |
| ध | dh | dog, “breathed” |
| ड | ḍ | like d, “flapped”—in the middle of a word often like a “flapped” r |
| ढ | ḍh | like ḍ, “breathed” |
| फ़ | f | fat |
| ग | g | give, “light” |
Note: In Arabic and Persian loanwords the g sound is sometimes produced further back against the epiglottis, and is in those cases underlined: g. However not all speakers of Hindi use this sound and g may thus be rendered as g at all times. The difference in sound is minute and can only be detected by advanced speakers. The g sounds a tiny bit “scratchy”.
| घ | gh | give, “breathed” |
| ह | h | hat |
| ज | j | jet, “light” |
| झ | jh | jet, “breathed” |
| क/क़ | k | kick, “light” |
Note: As with g, in Arabic and Persian loanwords the k sound is sometimes produced against the epiglottis, and in those cases is underlined: k.
| ख/ख़ | kh | kick, “breathed” |
Note: In Arabic and Persian loanwords kh is sometimes pronounced as the ch in Scottish loch—in this case we underline it: kh—however not all speakers of Hindi use this sound and kh may thus be rendered as kh at all times.
| ल | l | let |
| म | m | mat |
| ṃ | like m, “lightly nasalized” | |
| न | n | need |
| ण | ṇ | like n, “flapped” |
| ñ | like n, “nasalized” | |
| n. | ink | |
| प | p | pet, “light” |
| फ | ph | pet, “breathed” |
| र | r | rat, but rolled as in Scottish English or Italian |
| ṛ | “flapped” r as in the American butter | |
| स | s | sit |
| श | sh | shine |
| ष | ṣ | like s, “flapped”—but most often pronounced like sh |
| त | t | ten, “light” |
| थ | th | ten, “breathed” |
| ट | ṭ | like t, “flapped” |
| ठ | ṭh | like ṭ, “breathed” |
| व | v | way |
| ज़ | z | zebra, “light” |
English loan words
Note that there are numerous English loan words in Hindi and they are generously used in casual conversation. These loan words get the Great Indian Masala Treatment, craftily adjusting them to local tongues and ears. The result may at first be unintelligible to native English speakers. It will take time (or ṭāim, as Hindi speakers would say) to get used to the Indianized pronunciation.
The consonants t and d are usually pronounced like the retroflex consonants ṭ and ḍ (see ṭāim), and o sometimes becomes a slightly nasalized a or ā (as in prāblam = problem, affis = office, lāṭ = lord, the latter being hardly recognizable from the original).
Synonyms
The Hindi vocabulary is augmented by many words from non-Indian languages (mostly Persian and Arabic), and consequently, there are often several synonyms for any one word in English. As we will see, there are five synonyms for the humble word “but”; some are derived from Sanskrit, others from foreign sources. There are also five Hindi words for “blood” (khūn, rakt, rudhir, lahū, lohu). It is advisable to memorize all the synonyms that will crop up in the course of our little book: Regionally and individually a different synonym may be preferred—and you wouldn’t want to get stuck because of that silly fifth word for “but”, would you?
Hindi loan words in English
Languages don’t just travel on one-way streets: During the time of the British Raj, the British colonial period in India, the foreign rulers imported many words from Indian languages. Some were corrupted beyond recognition, but “something is better than nothing”, as the Indians say. Here are a few of the most common words taken from Hindi:
• Bandanna (from bāndhnā, to bind)
• Bungalow (from baṅglā, a one-storeyed house)
• Cha (from cāy, tea; the basis of the quaint old Briticism “Fancy a cuppa cha, my dear?”)
• Curry (from kaṛhī, a spicy sauce or soup)
• Dacoit (from ḍākū, robber)
• Juggernaut (from Jagannāth, another name for God Vishnu)
• Jungle (from jaṅgal, a thick forest or wasteland)
• Maharaja (from mahārājā, great king)
• Mahout (from mahāvaṭ, a keeper or driver of elephants)
• Pyjamas (from pājāmā, a kind of loose cotton pants)
• Punch (the drink), from pāñc (five), since the original beverage was concocted from five ingredients
• Shampoo (from
