Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "दवा" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce दवा in Hindi?

दवा is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /d̪ə.ʋaː/. It means “medicine.” duh-VAA — a dental d, a bare schwa, the loose Hindi व, and a long aa.

duh-VAA — a dental d, a bare schwa, the loose Hindi व, and a long aa.

दवा /d̪ə.ʋaː/

davaa

The opening syllable is a bare run-up and the long vowel at the end takes everything. The word is a near-twin of havaa in shape, differing only in its first consonant, which makes that unstressed opening more important than its weight suggests.

Listen: दवा

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Sound it out

da Touch the back of the upper front teeth with the tongue tip, keep the voice on, and follow with a colourless schwa.

vaa The lower lip approaches the upper teeth loosely, with far less friction than English v, opening into a long आ.

Hear it in a sentence

यह दवा दिन में दो बार लीजिए।

Yeh davaa din meṁ do baar leejiye.

Take this medicine twice a day.

Listen: यह दवा दिन में दो बार लीजिए।

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

"Yeh davaa din meṁ do baar leejiye" contains three dental stops — in davaa, din and do — so the tongue tip returns to the teeth repeatedly. Baar's tap between them is the only non-dental consonant of interest.

Where English speakers slip

The initial d lands on the alveolar ridge, which sounds retroflex-adjacent in Hindi, and the व gets a hard English v. Push the tongue forward to the teeth, and loosen the lip contact until the friction almost disappears.