Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "सीखना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce सीखना in Hindi?

सीखना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /siːkʰ.naː/. It means “to learn.” SEEKH-naa — a long ee, then a k with a distinct puff of air before the ending.

SEEKH-naa — a long ee, then a k with a distinct puff of air before the ending.

सीखना /siːkʰ.naː/

seekhnaa

Since no schwa is written or pronounced between ख and न, the word stays at two beats, and the puff of air is what makes the junction audible. Both syllables carry long vowels, so the rhythm is even apart from that breath in the middle.

Listen: सीखना

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Sound it out

see The s is unremarkable, and the vowel is exactly the tense long ई that English supplies in "seek."

kh Aspirated ख. English "seek" ends with an unaspirated or unreleased k, so this puff has to be added consciously.

naa The breath from ख runs straight into this teeth-contact nasal, and the word closes on an unreduced long vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ।

Maiṁ Hindee seekh rahaa hooṁ.

I am learning Hindi.

Listen: मैं हिंदी सीख रहा हूँ।

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"Maiṁ Hindee seekh rahaa hooṁ" uses the bare stem seekh, where the aspiration is now word-final and easy to swallow entirely. Hindee just before it ends in a long ee too, so the sentence has two identical vowels back to back across a word boundary.

Where English speakers slip

Final and pre-consonantal aspiration is the weak point: English speakers say "seek-naa" with a plain k, which erases the ख/क contrast. Push air out after the release even when the k is not word-initial — that is exactly where English instincts tell you not to.