Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "खत्म करना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce खत्म करना in Hindi?

खत्म करना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kʰət̪m kəɾ.naː/. It means “to finish.” khutm KUR-naa — an aspirated kh, a dental t, and an m closing the syllable with no vowel before it.

khutm KUR-naa — an aspirated kh, a dental t, and an m closing the syllable with no vowel before it.

खत्म करना /kʰət̪m kəɾ.naː/

khatm karnaa

The first word is one heavy closed syllable with a short vowel, so its weight comes entirely from the cluster; the phrase then dips into kar's schwa and rises again on -naa. The optional epenthetic vowel in khatam adds a light beat without changing the pattern.

Listen: खत्म करना

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Sound it out

kha Aspirated ख with a bare schwa; the puff comes immediately, at the start of the word.

tm A dental त directly against an m, with the schwa between them deleted. Many speakers ease it slightly to khatam, but the compressed cluster is standard.

karnaa The light verb with its schwa, tap and long ending — the familiar rhythm of every karnaa compound.

Hear it in a sentence

मैंने अपना काम खत्म कर लिया।

Maiṁne apnaa kaam khatm kar liyaa.

I finished my work.

Listen: मैंने अपना काम खत्म कर लिया।

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"Maiṁne apnaa kaam khatm kar liyaa" adds the completive kar liyaa and takes the ergative maiṁne, since the whole thing is a perfective transitive. Apnaa agrees masculine with kaam, so the possessive vowel is long.

Where English speakers slip

English has no -tm coda, so learners insert a full vowel and stress it: "kha-TAM." A light schwa there is acceptable in casual speech, but a stressed full vowel is not. The aspiration on kh is the other thing that routinely disappears, leaving a plain k.