Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "हज़ार" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce हज़ार in Hindi?

हज़ार is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɦə.zaːɾ/. It means “thousand.” huh-ZAAR — that dot under ज़ makes it a z, and the h at the front is voiced.

huh-ZAAR — that dot under ज़ makes it a z, and the h at the front is voiced.

हज़ार /ɦə.zaːɾ/

hazaar

Light first syllable, heavy second, so the beat lands on -zaar; that is a fairly typical Hindi shape, where a schwa syllable exists mainly to get you to the long vowel. Do not give the initial ha- the strong onset an English speaker would give a word-initial h.

Listen: हज़ार

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Sound it out

ha Voiced ह plus a bare schwa, both weak and fast. Nothing about this syllable should be emphatic.

zaa ज़ carries a nuqta, marking a Persian-derived z rather than the native j of ज. Buzz it like the z in "zoo," then open into a long aa.

r A single tap to close. Touch and release; do not let the r ring on or bend the preceding vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

यहाँ हज़ार लोग हैं।

Yahaaṁ hazaar log haiṁ.

There are a thousand people here.

Listen: यहाँ हज़ार लोग हैं।

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

"Yahaaṁ hazaar log haiṁ" needs no plural marker on hazaar or log — log is already inherently plural — and the plural shows only in the nasalized verb haiṁ. Notice yahaaṁ and haiṁ both end in nasalized vowels, bracketing the sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Ignore the nuqta and you get "hajaar," which native speakers will notice immediately, since ज and ज़ are separate consonants for anyone with Urdu or Persian vocabulary. The other slip is a hard American r at the end, which lengthens the syllable and colours the aa; make it a flick.