Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "हाथ" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce हाथ in Hindi?

हाथ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɦaːt̪ʰ/. It means “hand.” haath — a voiced h, a long open aa, and an aspirated dental stop, not the th of English "bath."

haath — a voiced h, a long open aa, and an aspirated dental stop, not the th of English "bath."

हाथ /ɦaːt̪ʰ/

haath

The vowel holds the whole syllable and the aspirated release adds a breathy tail at the end. That tail is easy to mistake for extra length, but it belongs to the consonant, and it should not tempt you into adding a vowel after it.

Listen: हाथ

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Sound it out

h Voiced ह with the vocal folds vibrating; English's whispered h is noticeably airier.

aa A long open आ with the duration of "palm," not the shorter vowel of "hat."

th थ blocks the airflow completely with the tongue tip on the upper teeth, then releases it with a strong puff. It is a stop, never a fricative.

Hear it in a sentence

मुझे अपना हाथ दीजिए।

Mujhe apnaa haath deejiye.

Give me your hand.

Listen: मुझे अपना हाथ दीजिए।

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"Mujhe apnaa haath deejiye" uses apnaa rather than a plain possessive, because the hand belongs to the subject of the imperative. Deejiye afterwards has a plain dental द, so the sentence contrasts an aspirated and an unaspirated dental within two words.

Where English speakers slip

Almost everyone reads th as the fricative of "bath," which Hindi does not have at all. The airflow must stop completely before the puff. A secondary error is putting the closure on the alveolar ridge, which drifts toward the retroflex ठ.