Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "पहले ही" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce पहले ही in Hindi?

पहले ही is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pɛɦ.leː ɦiː/. It means “already.” PEH-lay HEE — the h inside pehle colours the vowel, while the separate hee is a full syllable of its own.

PEH-lay HEE — the h inside pehle colours the vowel, while the separate hee is a full syllable of its own.

पहले ही /pɛɦ.leː ɦiː/

pehle hee

The phrase has one short coloured syllable and two long ones, so it broadens across its three beats. The two ह sounds behave completely differently — one absorbed into a vowel, one carrying its own syllable — which is the point worth hearing.

Listen: पहले ही

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Sound it out

peh Unaspirated प with a vowel that the following ह has pulled down toward the quality of "bed"; the h itself is largely absorbed.

le Clear front l into a long ए held flat.

hee A separate word: voiced ह plus a long ई, the emphatic particle that turns "before" into "already."

Hear it in a sentence

मैं पहले ही खा चुका हूँ।

Maiṁ pehle hee khaa chukaa hooṁ.

I have already eaten.

Listen: मैं पहले ही खा चुका हूँ।

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"Maiṁ pehle hee khaa chukaa hooṁ" adds chukaa, the completive auxiliary that signals a finished action, agreeing masculine with the speaker. Khaa before it has an aspirated ख, so a puff lands between the phrase and the verb.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners either pronounce a full h inside pehle, making it three syllables, or drop the separate hee entirely because it looks redundant. Both matter: the internal h is a vowel colouring, and the standalone hee is what supplies the meaning "already."