Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "रहना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce रहना in Hindi?

रहना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɾəɦ.naː/. It means “to stay / to live (somewhere).” REH-naa — the ह in रहना lowers the first vowel toward the sound of "bed" rather than surfacing as its own breath.

REH-naa — the ह in रहना lowers the first vowel toward the sound of "bed" rather than surfacing as its own breath.

रहना /ɾəɦ.naː/

rehnaa

Short first syllable, long second, so the beat falls at the end; the vowel colouring in the first syllable is a quality change, not a length change, so it does not add weight. Two beats total, never three.

Listen: रहना

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Sound it out

re One flick of the tongue tip, then a vowel that the following ह has pulled down from a schwa toward an open-mid quality.

h Voiced ह, largely absorbed into the vowel. This colouring effect runs through a whole family of words — kehnaa, pehlaa, shehar — and recognising it saves a lot of guesswork.

naa Dental n released into the long infinitive vowel, which must not shrink.

Hear it in a sentence

मेरे दादा-दादी गाँव में रहते हैं।

Mere daadaa-daadee gaaṁv meṁ rehte haiṁ.

My grandparents live in a village.

Listen: मेरे दादा-दादी गाँव में रहते हैं।

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"Mere daadaa-daadee gaaṁv meṁ rehte haiṁ" is a plural sentence throughout, and gaaṁv carries a nasalized long aa followed by that same ambiguous व sound. Rehte agrees plural, so the vowel colouring survives into the inflected form.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners reading letter by letter produce "ra-ha-naa" with three clear syllables and a fully pronounced h. Native speech has two beats, with the h folded into the vowel. The r is the other trap: a tap, not the American approximant that would colour the vowel after it.