Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "छात्र" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce छात्र in Hindi?

छात्र is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tʃʰaː.t̪ɾə/. It means “student.” CHHAA-tr — a real puff after the ch, and a dental t pressed straight against a tap at the end.

CHHAA-tr — a real puff after the ch, and a dental t pressed straight against a tap at the end.

छात्र /tʃʰaː.t̪ɾə/

chhaatra

Word-final schwa deletion removes the vowel the spelling implies, so what looks like three syllables is really two — and the second is barely more than consonants. The long aa carries everything.

Listen: छात्र

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Sound it out

chh छ demands a full closure followed by a real burst of breath; without that puff the sound collapses into च.

aa A long open आ following that burst, holding almost all the word's duration.

tra A stop on the teeth running directly into a single tap, with the final inherent vowel deleted — so the word ends on a consonant cluster.

Hear it in a sentence

छात्र किताब पढ़ रहा है।

Chhaatra kitaab paṛh rahaa hai.

The student is reading a book.

Listen: छात्र किताब पढ़ रहा है।

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"Chhaatra kitaab paṛh rahaa hai" uses the bare stem paṛh, whose ढ़ is the breathy retroflex flap — so the sentence has an aspirated affricate at the front and a breathy flap in the middle. Rahaa agrees masculine with chhaatra.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners restore the deleted final vowel and say "chhaa-tra-a," and they lose the aspiration at the front. Blow after the initial affricate, then press the dental t straight against a single flick and stop — the word genuinely ends on a cluster.