The Devanagari script: the Hindi alphabet

Hindi is written in the देवनागरी (devnaagree) script, from left to right. There are no capital letters. Most letters hang from a line along the top, the शिरोरेखा (shirorekhaa). You write the letters of a word first and then draw one line across the whole word.

Each consonant letter already contains a short “a” sound: क (ka), म (ma), ल (la). So कमल (kamal, lotus) is written ka-ma-la, but the last “a” of a word is usually silent. In longer words the “a” is often silent in the middle too, usually when the next consonant has a vowel sign of its own (never in the first syllable): कमरा (kamraa, room) is said kam-raa, and समझना (samajhnaa, to understand) sa-majh-naa. Our transliteration leaves out every silent “a”, so you can rely on it.

The script is very regular: once you know the letters, you can read almost any word aloud. This page covers the vowels, nasal vowels and letter combinations; the page on consonants goes through every consonant with an example word. Click any letter or word in the tables to hear it.

Every vowel has two shapes. At the start of a word, or after another vowel, it is written as a full letter, such as आ (aa). After a consonant it becomes a small sign, a मात्रा (maatraa), attached to that consonant: क (ka) + ा = का (kaa).

Matras can sit to the right of the consonant, above it, below it, or even on its left. The short i sign ि is written before the consonant but pronounced after it: कि (ki). Short अ (a) has no sign at all, because every consonant already includes it.

ऑ (o) is used only in English words, for the “o” in “office”. ऋ (ri) appears only in words from Sanskrit.

A dot above the top line, the अनुस्वार (anusvaar), or a moon with a dot, the चंद्रबिंदु (chandrabindu), makes a vowel nasal: some air goes out through the nose, as in French “bon”. Our transliteration shows this with an n: हूँ (hoon, am), हैं (hain, are).

Which one to use? The moon ँ goes where nothing else sits above the top line: हूँ (hoon), हाँ (haan, yes), यहाँ (yahaan, here). The dot ं is used when a matra already rises above the line and leaves no room for the moon: मैं (main, I), हैं (hain), नहीं (naheen, not), में (men, in). Many newspapers and signs use the dot for the moon too, so you will also see हां (haan) and यहां (yahaan).

Before a consonant, the dot also stands for an n or m sound: हिंदी (Hindee, Hindi), ठंडा (thandaa, cold). You will also meet two dots after a letter, the विसर्ग (visarg) ः, a short h in a few words from Sanskrit.

When two consonants meet with no vowel between them, the first one loses its built-in “a”. Usually it also loses its upright stroke and becomes a half letter, joined to the next one. Together they form a संयुक्त अक्षर (sanyukt akshar), a conjunct.

A few letters have no stroke to drop, such as द and ट. They join from above or below instead, or show the small slanting stroke ्, the हलंत (halant), which means “no vowel here”.

र (ra) changes shape. Before another consonant it becomes a small hook on top of the next letter, as in धर्म (dharm, religion). After a consonant it becomes a short slanting stroke at the bottom, as in प्रेम (prem, love) and ट्रेन (tren, train).

Four conjuncts look nothing like the letters they are made of, so learn them as if they were letters of their own. ज्ञ (gya) comes from ज + ञ, but in Hindi it is said “gy”.

र (ra) also changes shape when उ (u) or ऊ (oo) follows: the vowel sign sits beside the letter, not below it, as in रुपया (rupayaa, rupee) and ज़रूर (zaroor, of course).