Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "लंबा" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce लंबा in Hindi?

लंबा is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ləm.baː/. It means “long.” LUM-baa — a bright l, a schwa, and a nasal that assimilates to the following b, so it is a plain m.

LUM-baa — a bright l, a schwa, and a nasal that assimilates to the following b, so it is a plain m.

लंबा /ləm.baː/

lambaa

Short closed syllable, then long open one: the weight is at the end, and the long aa is also the masculine agreement marker. The anusvara adds no length of its own, so the first syllable stays genuinely quick.

Listen: लंबा

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Sound it out

lam Clear front l with a bare schwa, closed by the anusvara — which takes its place from the following ब and therefore surfaces as m.

baa A plain voiced stop with no breath at all — add a sigh and it becomes भ — opening into a long aa.

Hear it in a sentence

यह एक लंबा सफ़र था।

Yeh ek lambaa safar thaa.

It was a long trip.

Listen: यह एक लंबा सफ़र था।

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"Yeh ek lambaa safar thaa" ends with thaa, whose aspirated dental थ is the sentence's hardest sound. Safar has two schwas and a tap, so the whole clause has only two long vowels — in lambaa and thaa — which makes those two stand out.

Where English speakers slip

Learners open the first vowel into "lahm" and reduce the final aa to a schwa, exactly inverting the Hindi pattern. Keep the first vowel neutral and the last one long. The l should also stay clear, not darken before the nasal as English l does.