Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "रात" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce रात in Hindi?

रात is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɾaːt̪/. It means “night.” raat — one flicked r, a long open aa, and a dental t released almost silently.

raat — one flicked r, a long open aa, and a dental t released almost silently.

रात /ɾaːt̪/

raat

Everything the syllable has lives in the vowel; the tap at the front and the dental stop at the back take almost no time. That is exactly what an English speaker's rhotic r and released t would change.

Listen: रात

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Sound it out

r A single tap of the tongue tip against the ridge. Beginning a word with a tap is unfamiliar in English, where initial r is a sustained approximant.

aa Long आ, fully open and uncoloured by the r on either side.

t Teeth, not the ridge — the tongue tip sits against the back of the upper front teeth and the release is almost inaudible.

Hear it in a sentence

कल रात मैं जल्दी सो गया।

Kal raat maiṁ jaldee so gayaa.

Last night I went to sleep early.

Listen: कल रात मैं जल्दी सो गया।

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"Kal raat maiṁ jaldee so gayaa" uses kal raat for "last night," relying on context to disambiguate kal. So gayaa is a compound verb where gayaa adds completion, and it agrees masculine with the speaker.

Where English speakers slip

The American r turns the opening into a long rhotic and colours the aa after it. The t then gets alveolar articulation and an audible release. Both fixes are positional: tap once at the front, and put the tongue tip on the teeth at the back.