Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "हूँ" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce हूँ in Hindi?

हूँ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɦũː/. It means “am (I am).” Like "hoon" with the n dissolved into the vowel: a long nasal oo, and an h that buzzes rather than whispers.

Like "hoon" with the n dissolved into the vowel: a long nasal oo, and an h that buzzes rather than whispers.

हूँ /ɦũː/

hooṁ

With only one syllable, prominence is not in play at all — but that syllable is heavy, built on a long vowel plus nasality, and shortening it is what makes a beginner's sentence sound clipped and un-Hindi.

Listen: हूँ

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Sound it out

h Hindi ह is voiced — the vocal folds are already vibrating as the breath comes out, unlike the airy voiceless h of English "hoot."

oo Long ऊ, held clearly longer than the vowel of "book" and rounder; length here is not emphasis, it is part of the word.

ṁ Nasalize the vowel all the way through instead of closing to an -ng. The back of the tongue must never contact the soft palate.

Hear it in a sentence

मैं डॉक्टर हूँ।

Maiṁ ḍokṭar hooṁ.

I am a doctor.

Listen: मैं डॉक्टर हूँ।

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"Maiṁ ḍokṭar hooṁ" hides a nice trap in the middle: ḍokṭar is an English loan respelled with retroflex ड and ट, so even in a borrowed word the tongue curls back. Then hooṁ closes the sentence, and Hindi puts the verb last as a matter of course.

Where English speakers slip

Two habits fight this word. First, English speakers finish it with a real velar -ng as in "hung," which adds a consonant Hindi is not asking for. Second, they cut the vowel short to something like "hun." The target is a single long nasalized ũː with a voiced onset — think of humming the vowel with your mouth open.