Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "कौन सा" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce कौन सा in Hindi?

कौन सा is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kɔːn saː/. It means “which.” kawn SAA — a steady rounded vowel in the first word, a long open aa in the second.

kawn SAA — a steady rounded vowel in the first word, a long open aa in the second.

कौन सा /kɔːn saː/

kaun saa

Neither element takes a strong accent — the two words function as a single interrogative unit. What gives the phrase movement is the shift from a rounded vowel to an open one rather than any difference in emphasis.

Listen: कौन सा

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

Sound it out

kaun Unaspirated क, the single long rounded vowel औ, and a dental n — no diphthong and no puff.

saa Plain s and a long open आ. This second element agrees with the noun, so it can appear as see or se instead.

Hear it in a sentence

आपको कौन सा पसंद है?

Aapko kaun saa pasand hai?

Which one do you like?

Listen: आपको कौन सा पसंद है?

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

"Aapko kaun saa pasand hai?" uses the dative aapko for the person doing the liking, and saa stays masculine because the implied noun is masculine. Change the noun's gender and saa becomes see, which is the whole reason this is a two-word question word.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners diphthongise the first vowel into "cown" and then reduce the second word to a schwa, giving "cown suh." Both vowels are long and neither moves. The agreement on saa is also easy to forget, and getting it wrong is more noticeable than a slight vowel error.