Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "पढ़ना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce पढ़ना in Hindi?

पढ़ना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pəɽʱ.naː/. It means “to read.” PURH-naa — that ढ़ is a single backward flick of the tongue with breathy voice on it, not a d and not an r.

PURH-naa — that ढ़ is a single backward flick of the tongue with breathy voice on it, not a d and not an r.

पढ़ना /pəɽʱ.naː/

paṛhnaa

There is no full stop closure anywhere in the first syllable — only a brush of the tongue — so the word feels softer and less punctuated than most two-beat verbs. The breathy release fills that gap, and the long vowel of the ending supplies the beat.

Listen: पढ़ना

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Sound it out

pa Unaspirated प plus a bare schwa; keep the p completely dry.

ṛh ढ़ is a retroflex flap with breathy voice: curl the tongue tip up and back, then flick it forward so it brushes the roof of the mouth once, releasing with a warm sigh. It is one very fast sound, not two.

naa The tongue comes forward to the teeth for the n, then opens into the long infinitive vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

मुझे पढ़ना पसंद है।

Mujhe paṛhnaa pasand hai.

I like to read.

Listen: मुझे पढ़ना पसंद है।

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

"Mujhe paṛhnaa pasand hai" uses the infinitive as the subject of the liking construction, so the verb is functioning as a noun. Pasand follows with two dental consonants at the end, a nice contrast with the retroflex flap you have just made.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers substitute either a plain d or an r, both of which erase the word. ड़ and ढ़ are made by curling the tongue back and then flicking forward — the closest English accident is the very fast d in some pronunciations of "harder," but with the tongue much further back. Add breathy voice and you have ढ़; leave it out and you have ड़, which is a different letter.