Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "दोस्त" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce दोस्त in Hindi?

दोस्त is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /d̪oːst̪/. It means “friend (gramm. masc., used for any gender).” dohst — dental d and dental t bracketing a long, motionless o.

dohst — dental d and dental t bracketing a long, motionless o.

दोस्त /d̪oːst̪/

dost

The -st cluster at the end takes no time at all, which is what stops this sounding like two beats. All the duration belongs to the long vowel in the middle.

Listen: दोस्त

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Sound it out

d Voiced dental द on the back of the upper front teeth. English speakers place it a centimetre further back, which nudges it toward retroflex ड.

os A long ओ with the lips fixed throughout, closed by a plain s.

t Dental त, again on the teeth, released almost silently. Both stops in the word share exactly one tongue position.

Hear it in a sentence

वह मेरा सबसे अच्छा दोस्त है।

Voh meraa sabse achchhaa dost hai.

He is my best friend.

Listen: वह मेरा सबसे अच्छा दोस्त है।

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"Voh meraa sabse achchhaa dost hai" uses sabse to form the superlative, literally "good from all," and meraa stays masculine because dost is grammatically masculine no matter who the friend is. Achchhaa's geminated affricate is the sentence's hardest sound.

Where English speakers slip

Both stops come out alveolar and the o gets diphthongised into English "dose," so the word ends up sounding like "dosed." Move the tongue tip forward to the teeth for both consonants and hold the vowel in a single lip position from start to finish.