Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "सफ़ेद" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce सफ़ेद in Hindi?

सफ़ेद is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /sə.feːd̪/. It means “white.” suh-FAYD — that dot under फ़ makes it an f, and the final d is dental.

suh-FAYD — that dot under फ़ makes it an f, and the final d is dental.

सफ़ेद /sə.feːd̪/

safed

The first syllable is light and the second is heavy — long vowel plus a coda — so -fed carries the word. This is another instance where the written schwa is short and functional rather than an actual vowel worth pronouncing fully.

Listen: सफ़ेद

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Sound it out

sa s plus a bare schwa, over almost before it starts; this syllable exists to launch the stressed one.

fe फ़ with a nuqta is a true labiodental f, upper teeth to lower lip, borrowed along with the word from Persian. Then a long steady e with no glide.

d Dental द to close: tongue tip on the upper teeth, voiced, unaspirated, and lightly released.

Hear it in a sentence

यह फूल सफ़ेद है।

Yeh phool safed hai.

This flower is white.

Listen: यह फूल सफ़ेद है।

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"Yeh phool safed hai" combines two Persian- and Sanskrit-derived items in a row: phool with an aspirated ph, safed with a nuqta f. Saying them back to back is the clearest way to hear that aspirated ph and true f are entirely different sounds in Hindi.

Where English speakers slip

Readers who have learned फ = ph often deliver "saphed" with an aspirated p, which is a genuine mispronunciation rather than a variant. The other slip is an English alveolar d at the end, released with a little breath; the Hindi consonant is dental and quiet, made with the tongue tip forward against the teeth.