Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "जवान" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce जवान in Hindi?

जवान is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dʒə.ʋaːn/. It means “young.” juh-VAAN — a dry j, a schwa, then the ambiguous व sound and a long aa.

juh-VAAN — a dry j, a schwa, then the ambiguous व sound and a long aa.

जवान /dʒə.ʋaːn/

javaan

Weight falls decisively at the end, where a long vowel plus a consonant coda outclasses the opening schwa. This shape recurs across a whole family of Persian-derived words in the course, so it is worth fixing as a template.

Listen: जवान

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Sound it out

ja Unaspirated ज made slightly further forward than English j, plus a bare schwa.

vaa व sits between English v and w: the lower lip approaches the teeth loosely with little friction, and speakers vary in how v-like it sounds. Then a long open aa.

n Dental न closing the word, with the tongue tip on the upper teeth.

Hear it in a sentence

वह अभी जवान है।

Voh abhee javaan hai.

He is still young.

Listen: वह अभी जवान है।

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"Voh abhee javaan hai" places abhee between the pronoun and the adjective, and abhee has a breathy-voiced भ that contrasts with the plain ज of javaan. Both are voiced affricate-or-stop sounds, but only one carries the sigh.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers commit to a hard buzzing v, which is not wrong exactly but is more forceful than most Hindi speakers use; the natural sound is looser, with less friction. The bigger error is aspirating the j or turning the final n alveolar, both of which shift the word away from its dental-and-dry character.