Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "पीला" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce पीला in Hindi?

पीला is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /piː.laː/. It means “yellow.” PEE-laa with an unaspirated p — think of the p in "spill" rather than in "pill."

PEE-laa with an unaspirated p — think of the p in "spill" rather than in "pill."

पीला /piː.laː/

peelaa

Both syllables carry long vowels, giving an even two-beat rhythm; the temptation is to make the first louder and longer under English influence. Keep them balanced and let the difference be vowel quality rather than emphasis.

Listen: पीला

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

Sound it out

pee प with no breath on release, plus a long tense ई. The absence of the puff is the whole difficulty of this syllable.

laa A clear l and a long aa; the vowel is the masculine agreement marker as well as a sound, so it has to be fully present.

Hear it in a sentence

उन्होंने पीली साड़ी पहनी है।

Unhoṁne peelee saaṛee pehnee hai.

She is wearing a yellow saree.

Listen: उन्होंने पीली साड़ी पहनी है।

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

"Unhoṁne peelee saaṛee pehnee hai" flips the adjective to peelee for the feminine saaṛee, and saaṛee itself contains ड़, the retroflex flap — a single quick backward flick of the tongue, not a full d. The ergative unhoṁne appears because pehnaa is transitive in the perfective.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers aspirate the p automatically and then reduce the final vowel, producing "PHEE-luh." Both changes are meaningful in Hindi: the puff moves the consonant toward फ, and the reduced vowel destroys the gender ending. Practise starting the word from the s of "spill" and then dropping the s.