Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "है" in Hindi?

Rhymes with "hay" only in spelling — say the vowel of "head," lengthened, after a voiced h.

है /ɦɛː/

hai

Only one syllable, and as the clause-final copula it sits at the bottom of the intonation contour, often quite quiet. That is normal; do not compensate by lengthening or accenting it.

Listen: है

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Sound it out

h Voiced ह, humming rather than whispering; English speakers make this too breathy and too voiceless.

ai A single long open-mid front vowel, oral and steady. There is no nasalization here — that is exactly what separates hai from haiṁ.

Hear it in a sentence

वह भारतीय है।

Voh bhaarteey hai.

She is Indian.

Listen: वह भारतीय है।

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"Voh bhaarteey hai" leaves gender entirely unmarked — bhaarteey does not inflect and hai is singular for any gender — so the sentence can mean "he is Indian" or "she is Indian." All the pronunciation weight falls on getting hai oral and unrounded.

Where English speakers slip

Two competing errors: reading the roman ai as the diphthong of "high," or as the "ay" of "hay." Neither matches. Standard Hindi ऐ here is a steady lowered front vowel around the quality of "bet," held long. And keep the nose out of it — nasalizing turns a singular into a plural.