Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "कार" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce कार in Hindi?

कार is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kaːɾ/. It means “car.” kaar with a dry unaspirated k, a long open aa, and one quick flick of the tongue — not the English word "car."

kaar with a dry unaspirated k, a long open aa, and one quick flick of the tongue — not the English word "car."

कार /kaːɾ/

kaar

The tap contributes nothing to the syllable's length, so if your version feels long at the end you have replaced the Hindi consonant with an English one. Duration belongs to the vowel alone.

Listen: कार

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Sound it out

k Unaspirated क. English initial k puffs before a stressed vowel, and that puff belongs to ख in Hindi.

aa Long आ that stays pure right up to the final consonant, with no r-colouring bleeding backwards into it.

r A single tap. In American English this same syllable ends with a bunched or retroflexed approximant that lasts as long as the vowel; here it is over instantly.

Hear it in a sentence

मेरी कार नई है।

Meree kaar naee hai.

My car is new.

Listen: मेरी कार नई है।

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"Meree kaar naee hai" makes meree and naee feminine to agree with kaar, and naee itself has two vowels in hiatus with no consonant between them. That vowel sequence is a good contrast with kaar's single long vowel.

Where English speakers slip

Reading it as English "car" gets the aspiration, the vowel colouring and the final consonant all wrong at once. Start from the k of "scar," hold a clean open aa, then touch the ridge once and release. The vowel should sound identical to the one in kaam.