Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "अगर" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce अगर in Hindi?

अगर is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ə.ɡəɾ/. It means “if.” uh-GUR — two schwas and one tapped r, with no strong vowel anywhere in the word.

uh-GUR — two schwas and one tapped r, with no strong vowel anywhere in the word.

अगर /ə.ɡəɾ/

agar

Both syllables have short vowels, so nothing is heavy by vowel; the second is closed by the tap and takes what little prominence there is. This is one of the flattest words in the list rhythmically, and giving it English-style stress makes it sound emphatic.

Listen: अगर

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

Sound it out

a A bare initial schwa. Begin the voice smoothly rather than with the glottal punch English uses before an initial vowel.

ga Unaspirated ग, voiced from the start of the closure, plus a second schwa.

r A single tap closing the word. It is over in an instant and leaves the schwa uncoloured.

Hear it in a sentence

अगर बारिश हो, तो छाता लीजिए।

Agar baarish ho, to chhaataa leejiye.

If it rains, take an umbrella.

Listen: अगर बारिश हो, तो छाता लीजिए।

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

"Agar baarish ho, to chhaataa leejiye" is the standard agar ... to frame, and the correlative to is obligatory in a way English "then" is not. Chhaataa opens with the aspirated छ, so the second clause starts with a puff of air right after to.

Where English speakers slip

American speakers turn the final syllable into an r-coloured "-ger" with the tongue bunched through the whole vowel. Hindi wants a plain schwa followed by one flick of the tongue tip. The initial vowel also tends to get a hard glottal onset; let it start softly instead.