Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "होटल" in Hindi?

HOH-ṭul — a voiced h, a motionless long o, a retroflex t, and a bright l.

होटल /ɦoː.ʈəl/

hoṭal

English stress kept inside a nativised sound system: weight up front, then a schwa. The retroflex closure in the middle adds articulatory time without adding any rhythmic weight.

Listen: होटल

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Sound it out

ho ह is voiced rather than whispered, and the long ओ after it stays in one lip position throughout.

ṭal A retroflex ट with the tongue tip curled up and back, a bare schwa, and a clear front l with the tongue body low.

Hear it in a sentence

यह होटल बहुत अच्छा है।

Yeh hoṭal bahut achchhaa hai.

This hotel is very good.

Listen: यह होटल बहुत अच्छा है।

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"Yeh hoṭal bahut achchhaa hai" makes achchhaa masculine to agree with hoṭal, so the loanword has been assigned a gender. Achchhaa's geminated affricate with its aspirated release is the sentence's hardest sound.

Where English speakers slip

An alveolar t and a diphthongised o arrive with the English word, and the final l darkens as well. Curl the tongue back for the stop, freeze the lips through the vowel, and keep the tongue tip forward for a bright l.