Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "नौकरी" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce नौकरी in Hindi?

नौकरी is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /nɔː.kɾiː/. It means “job.” NAU-kree — a dental n, the steady rounded vowel of "caught," and a k pressed straight against a tap.

NAU-kree — a dental n, the steady rounded vowel of "caught," and a k pressed straight against a tap.

नौकरी /nɔː.kɾiː/

naukree

A tight consonant cluster sits between two long vowels of very different qualities, and it adds no beat, so the word stays at two syllables however much the roman spelling suggests otherwise.

Listen: नौकरी

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Sound it out

nau The nasal is made on the teeth, and औ is one long open-mid rounded vowel with no jaw movement in it.

kree A dry velar stop running directly into a single tap, then a long tense ई — the k and r meet with no vowel between them.

Hear it in a sentence

मुझे नई नौकरी मिली है।

Mujhe naee naukree milee hai.

I have got a new job.

Listen: मुझे नई नौकरी मिली है।

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"Mujhe naee naukree milee hai" makes naee and milee feminine to agree with naukree, and naee has two vowels in hiatus with nothing between them. So the sentence pairs a vowel-on-vowel junction with a consonant-on-consonant one.

Where English speakers slip

Reading au as the diphthong of "now" is one habit; inserting a vowel into the kr- cluster is the other. Freeze the first vowel in a rounded position, and release the k straight into a single flick of the tongue tip with nothing between them.