Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "अभी" in Hindi?

uh-BHEE — the bh is one breathy-voiced sound, not a b followed by a separate h.

अभी /ə.bʱiː/

abhee

A weightless opening syllable feeds a heavy one, and the breathy release stretches that second syllable further still. The whole word is essentially one long vowel with a sighed onset, so the schwa should barely register.

Listen: अभी

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Sound it out

a A bare initial schwa, begun smoothly with no glottal stop.

bhee भ closes the lips with the voice already buzzing and releases with a warm sigh, which carries into the long ई that follows.

Hear it in a sentence

मुझे अभी जाना है।

Mujhe abhee jaanaa hai.

I have to go now.

Listen: मुझे अभी जाना है।

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Mujhe abhee jaanaa hai" builds an obligation with the infinitive plus hai and takes the dative mujhe. Mujhe itself contains झ, another breathy-voiced consonant, so the sentence asks for breathy voice twice within three words.

Where English speakers slip

The plain-b substitution gives "uh-BEE," losing the feature entirely. English has no breathy-voiced stops, so this needs building from scratch: keep the vocal folds vibrating through the lip closure and push extra air out at the moment of release, letting it bleed into the vowel.