Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "पूछना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce पूछना in Hindi?

पूछना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /puːtʃʰ.naː/. It means “to ask.” POOCHH-naa — an unaspirated p at the front, a long oo, and a strong puff of air after the ch.

POOCHH-naa — an unaspirated p at the front, a long oo, and a strong puff of air after the ch.

पूछना /puːtʃʰ.naː/

poochhnaa

First syllable heavy with a long vowel and an aspirated coda, second heavy with a long vowel. The aspiration adds real duration in the middle, so the two beats are separated by an audible breath rather than a clean consonant junction.

Listen: पूछना

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Sound it out

poo प with no breath on release, followed by a long ऊ. The absence of aspiration on the p is unnatural for English speakers at the start of a stressed syllable.

chh छ is the aspirated affricate: full closure, then a distinct burst of air. Losing the puff collapses it into च.

naa A teeth-contact nasal arriving straight on the tail of that aspirated release, then the long ending vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

क्या मैं आपसे कुछ पूछ सकता हूँ?

Kyaa maiṁ aapse kuchh poochh saktaa hooṁ?

Can I ask you something?

Listen: क्या मैं आपसे कुछ पूछ सकता हूँ?

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

"Kyaa maiṁ aapse kuchh poochh saktaa hooṁ?" attaches -se to aap to mean "from you," and puts the bare stem poochh before saktaa. Kuchh directly before it also ends in छ, so the sentence contains two aspirated affricates in a row — a good place to check that both puffs are there.

Where English speakers slip

The two aspiration errors are mirror images: no puff where छ needs one, and an unwanted puff on the initial p where प needs none. English gives you exactly the wrong distribution by default, so this word is worth practising with a hand in front of your mouth to feel where the air actually goes.