Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "अपना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce अपना in Hindi?

अपना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /əp.naː/. It means “one's own.” up-NAA — a schwa, an unaspirated p, a dental n, and a long aa that carries the weight.

up-NAA — a schwa, an unaspirated p, a dental n, and a long aa that carries the weight.

अपना /əp.naː/

apnaa

Prominence, such as it is, lands on -naa, whose long vowel outweighs the closed schwa syllable in front of it. That -aa is also the masculine gender ending, so its length does grammatical work as well as rhythmic work and cannot be reduced.

Listen: अपना

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Sound it out

a Bare schwa opening the word with no consonant. Start the voice cleanly rather than with a glottal stop.

p Unaspirated प in the middle of the word, where English would also keep it fairly dry — this is one of the easier p's.

naa Dental न into a long aa. The n is made on the teeth, giving it a brighter quality than English n.

Hear it in a sentence

यह मेरा अपना कमरा है।

Yeh meraa apnaa kamraa hai.

This is my own room.

Listen: यह मेरा अपना कमरा है।

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

"Yeh meraa apnaa kamraa hai" stacks meraa and apnaa together for emphasis — literally "my own room" — and all three -aa endings agree with masculine kamraa. Say them with equal length so the agreement chain is audible.

Where English speakers slip

English rhythm reduces the final vowel to "UP-nuh" and often shifts the beat forward. Both moves damage the word: the long aa is the masculine marker, and English-style initial stress makes the schwa too prominent. Keep the first syllable quick and let the second one open out.