Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "पहला" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce पहला in Hindi?

पहला is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pɛɦ.laː/. It means “first.” PEH-laa — the h in पहला lowers the first vowel rather than being pronounced as a separate breath, and the p has no puff.

PEH-laa — the h in पहला lowers the first vowel rather than being pronounced as a separate breath, and the p has no puff.

पहला /pɛɦ.laː/

pehlaa

The ह-colouring pattern shared with kehnaa, rehnaa and shehar is the thing to internalise here: hear it as a vowel change rather than a consonant and the whole family becomes predictable. Rhythmically it gives a short first beat and a long second one.

Listen: पहला

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Sound it out

pe Unaspirated प with a vowel that the following ह has pulled down toward the quality of "bed."

h Voiced ह, largely absorbed into the vowel; you should hear a slight breathiness rather than a separate syllable.

laa A clear front l opening into a long aa, which also marks masculine agreement.

Hear it in a sentence

यह मेरा पहला दिन है।

Yeh meraa pehlaa din hai.

It's my first day.

Listen: यह मेरा पहला दिन है।

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

"Yeh meraa pehlaa din hai" lines up meraa and pehlaa with matching -aa endings, both agreeing with the masculine din. Three long aa vowels in a row make the sentence a good test of whether you are reducing final vowels under English rhythm.

Where English speakers slip

Reading it letter by letter produces "pe-ha-laa" with three syllables and an audible h. Native speech has two beats and an already-lowered vowel. Aspirating the p is the other reflex — the puff belongs to फ, not प, and adding it changes the consonant.