Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "समस्या" in Hindi?

suh-mus-YAA — three beats, two schwas, and a long aa carried by a य glide at the end.

समस्या /sə.məs.jaː/

samasyaa

Two throwaway schwa syllables lead into one long-vowelled one, so the word rises steeply at the end. English speakers tend to stress the first syllable because it comes first, which inverts the shape completely.

Listen: समस्या

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Sound it out

sa An ordinary s with a bare inherent vowel; light and quick.

mas m, a second schwa, and an s closing the syllable. Still nothing long.

yaa य as a full palatal glide into a long आ — the only long vowel in the word and the whole of its weight.

Hear it in a sentence

हमें एक समस्या है।

Hameṁ ek samasyaa hai.

We have a problem.

Listen: हमें एक समस्या है।

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"Hameṁ ek samasyaa hai" uses the dative plural hameṁ rather than a nominative subject, so Hindi says the problem exists "to us." Hameṁ ends in a nasalized vowel, giving the sentence its only nasality.

Where English speakers slip

The two schwas get upgraded to full vowels, producing "sah-MAHS-yaa," and the sy- junction sometimes gets a helping vowel. Keep both early vowels colourless and let य ride directly on the s, so the word stays at three beats.