Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "सड़क" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce सड़क in Hindi?

सड़क is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /sə.ɽək/. It means “street / road.” suh-RUCK with the retroflex flap ड़ in the middle — a quick backward flick, not a d and not an r.

suh-RUCK with the retroflex flap ड़ in the middle — a quick backward flick, not a d and not an r.

सड़क /sə.ɽək/

saṛak

Speed is the thing here: two schwas, weight only by position in the closing syllable, and a flap that gives the word an abrupt centre while adding no duration at all.

Listen: सड़क

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Sound it out

sa Plain s with a bare schwa; light and fast.

ṛa ड़ curls the tongue tip up and back and flicks it forward once against the roof of the mouth, followed by a second schwa.

k The final velar stop is dry and often barely released — nothing like the audible burst English gives a word-final k.

Hear it in a sentence

सड़क ध्यान से पार कीजिए।

Saṛak dhyaan se paar keejiye.

Cross the street carefully.

Listen: सड़क ध्यान से पार कीजिए।

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"Saṛak dhyaan se paar keejiye" uses dhyaan, which opens with the breathy-voiced ध inside a cluster — one of the harder onsets in the course. The instruction ends with the polite imperative keejiye, so courtesy sits in the verb ending.

Where English speakers slip

Substituting a plain d produces "sadak," which is a recognisable variant in some regional speech but not the standard sound, and substituting an English r produces something unrecognisable. Practise the flap in isolation until the tongue reliably curls back and brushes forward in one motion.