Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "चाय" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce चाय in Hindi?

चाय is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tʃaːj/. It means “tea.” chaay — a dry unaspirated ch, a long open aa, and a य glide to close.

chaay — a dry unaspirated ch, a long open aa, and a य glide to close.

चाय /tʃaːj/

chaay

The closing glide contributes almost no time, which is why the word feels shorter than its transliteration suggests. The long aa is the only thing actually being held.

Listen: चाय

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Sound it out

ch च is made slightly further forward than English ch, with the tongue blade at the hard palate, and released with no breath escaping.

aa Long आ with the duration of "palm"; this is where the whole word's length lives.

y A closing palatal glide, so the syllable ends on a consonant rather than a full vowel. It is much shorter than the ee an English speaker would put here.

Hear it in a sentence

यह चाय बहुत मीठी है।

Yeh chaay bahut meeṭhee hai.

This tea is very sweet.

Listen: यह चाय बहुत मीठी है।

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"Yeh chaay bahut meeṭhee hai" uses the feminine meeṭhee, because chaay is a feminine noun, and meeṭhee contains an aspirated retroflex ठ. So the adjective is significantly harder to pronounce than the noun it modifies.

Where English speakers slip

Two adjustments are needed at once: release the affricate dry, since English ch carries a puff that nudges च toward छ, and let the य be a brief glide off the aa rather than a second syllable. Skipping both gives something like "chai-ee."