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Hindi · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "सोना" in Hindi?
SOH-naa, with a long o that does not move and a dental n — identical in shape to the word for gold.
sonaa
Two heavy open syllables, evenly weighted; there are no clusters, no aspiration and no retroflexion anywhere, which makes this a good word for concentrating purely on vowel length and monophthong quality.
Listen: सोना
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
मैं आज जल्दी सोने जा रहा हूँ।
Maiṁ aaj jaldee sone jaa rahaa hooṁ.
I am going to sleep early today.
Listen: मैं आज जल्दी सोने जा रहा हूँ।
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"Maiṁ aaj jaldee sone jaa rahaa hooṁ" puts the verb in its oblique infinitive form sone before jaa, because an infinitive preceding a motion verb takes the -e ending. So the long aa you learned in the citation form is replaced by a long e here.
Where English speakers slip
The vowel is the trap: English "so" ends with the lips tightening into a w-glide, and that movement is audible to Hindi ears. Freeze the lips. Do not confuse the verb with the homophonous noun for gold either — context, not pronunciation, separates them.