Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "खिड़की" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce खिड़की in Hindi?

खिड़की is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kʰɪɽ.kiː/. It means “window.” KHIṚ-kee — a puff after the first k, a retroflex flap, then a dry k and a long ee.

KHIṚ-kee — a puff after the first k, a retroflex flap, then a dry k and a long ee.

खिड़की /kʰɪɽ.kiː/

khiṛkee

This word contains two velar stops differing only in aspiration, so it is really a minimal pair inside a single word: puff on the first, nothing on the second. The beat sits on the long final vowel.

Listen: खिड़की

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Sound it out

khi Aspirated ख with a strong breath after the release, plus a short lax इ.

ṛ ड़ curls the tongue tip up and back and flicks it forward once against the roof of the mouth, closing the first syllable.

kee Unaspirated क this time — no breath at all — opening into a long tense ई.

Hear it in a sentence

खिड़की से समुद्र दिखता है।

Khiṛkee se samudra dikhtaa hai.

You can see the sea from the window.

Listen: खिड़की से समुद्र दिखता है।

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"Khiṛkee se samudra dikhtaa hai" uses se for the vantage point and samudra, whose final schwa is deleted so it ends in a consonant cluster. Dikhtaa then supplies another aspirated ख, so the sentence has two puffs and one silent k.

Where English speakers slip

Learners either aspirate both k's or neither, and substitute a plain d for the flap. That last one is the most damaging. Practise the two velars back to back with a hand in front of your mouth, then insert the retroflex flick between them.