Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "दूध" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce दूध in Hindi?

दूध is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /d̪uːd̪ʱ/. It means “milk.” doodh — a plain dental d at the front and a breathy-voiced dental dh at the back, with a long oo between them.

doodh — a plain dental d at the front and a breathy-voiced dental dh at the back, with a long oo between them.

दूध /d̪uːd̪ʱ/

doodh

The breathy release adds a perceptible tail at the end of the syllable, but that tail is aspiration rather than a second beat and must not turn into a vowel. The long oo carries the duration.

Listen: दूध

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Sound it out

d The tongue tip rests against the upper teeth and the stop is released with no extra breath at all.

oo Long ऊ, rounded and held for a full beat.

dh ध is the same dental position but voiced and aspirated together: the folds keep buzzing and a warm sigh escapes on release. The two d sounds in this word differ only in that breath.

Hear it in a sentence

एक गिलास दूध दीजिए।

Ek gilaas doodh deejiye.

A glass of milk, please.

Listen: एक गिलास दूध दीजिए।

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"Ek gilaas doodh deejiye" follows doodh with deejiye, which opens with the plain dental द again — so within two words you get plain, breathy and plain in sequence. That makes the sentence an unusually direct drill for the contrast.

Where English speakers slip

Both consonants come out as identical English alveolar d's, which erases the whole point of the word. First move the tongue tip forward to the teeth for both. Then add breathy voice only to the second: sigh while keeping the voice on as you release it.