Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "महँगा" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce महँगा in Hindi?

महँगा is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mə.ɦə̃.ɡaː/. It means “expensive.” muh-HUNG-gaa — the chandrabindu nasalizes the middle vowel, and in fast speech the whole first half compresses toward "mehṅ-gaa."

muh-HUNG-gaa — the chandrabindu nasalizes the middle vowel, and in fast speech the whole first half compresses toward "mehṅ-gaa."

महँगा /mə.ɦə̃.ɡaː/

mahaṁgaa

Two light nasal-tinged syllables lead into one long-vowelled one, so the word climbs toward its ending. Many speakers contract the first two into a single syllable, which shortens the word to two beats without changing where the weight sits.

Listen: महँगा

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Sound it out

ma m with a bare schwa, very light.

haṁ Voiced ह plus a nasalized schwa. Because the following consonant is ग, the nasality often surfaces as a velar quality, but the vowel itself carries it rather than a separate n.

gaa Unaspirated ग and a long aa — the masculine ending and the only long vowel in the word.

Hear it in a sentence

यह रेस्टोरेंट बहुत महँगा है।

Yeh resṭoreṇṭ bahut mahaṁgaa hai.

This restaurant is very expensive.

Listen: यह रेस्टोरेंट बहुत महँगा है।

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

"Yeh resṭoreṇṭ bahut mahaṁgaa hai" pairs it with resṭoreṇṭ, spelled with retroflex ट and ण, so the tongue curls back repeatedly before reaching the nasalized vowel of mahaṁgaa. The adjective is masculine here; with a feminine noun it becomes mahaṁgee.

Where English speakers slip

Two errors compete: pronouncing a full n before the g, and dropping the nasality altogether. Neither matches. The soft palate should lower during the vowel while the tongue stays out of the way, and only then does the ग closure form. Adding breathiness to that g would also push it toward घ.