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Hindi · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "चिड़िया" in Hindi?
chi-ṛi-YAA — three beats, with a retroflex flap in the middle and a long aa only at the end.
chiṛiyaa
Two short syllables run into one long one, so the word rises toward the end. Keeping both इ vowels genuinely short is what preserves that rise; lengthening either flattens the word into three equal beats.
Listen: चिड़िया
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
चिड़िया हर सुबह गाती है।
Chiṛiyaa har subah gaatee hai.
The bird sings every morning.
Listen: चिड़िया हर सुबह गाती है।
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"Chiṛiyaa har subah gaatee hai" makes gaatee feminine to agree with chiṛiyaa, and subah's final h fades almost to nothing in speech. The flap in the noun is the sentence's only retroflex sound.
Where English speakers slip
The flap gets replaced by a plain d or an English r, and the ch picks up the small puff English gives it, which nudges it toward छ. Release the affricate dry, and practise the flap as a single quick backward-then-forward brush of the tongue tip.