Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "सुनना" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce सुनना in Hindi?

सुनना is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /sʊn.naː/. It means “to hear / to listen.” SUN-naa with a doubled n — hold the tongue on the teeth for an extra beat before releasing into the final aa.

SUN-naa with a doubled n — hold the tongue on the teeth for an extra beat before releasing into the final aa.

सुनना /sʊn.naː/

sunnaa

The doubled consonant adds weight by position to the first syllable on top of the second syllable's long vowel, so the word feels solid at both ends. Consonant duration, not accent, is the thing you have to get right.

Listen: सुनना

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Sound it out

su s plus short उ, a lax rounded vowel like the oo of "foot," over quickly.

nn A geminate dental nasal held roughly twice as long as a single n. This length is contrastive in Hindi, not stylistic.

aa The long infinitive vowel released after that extended nasal closure.

Hear it in a sentence

क्या आप मेरी बात सुन रहे हैं?

Kyaa aap meree baat sun rahe haiṁ?

Are you listening to me?

Listen: क्या आप मेरी बात सुन रहे हैं?

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"Kyaa aap meree baat sun rahe haiṁ?" strips the verb to the stem sun before rahe, and at that point the gemination is no longer audible — it only shows in the infinitive and some other forms. Baat ends in a dental t, so the tongue is on the teeth for both baat and sun.

Where English speakers slip

English does not distinguish single and double consonants inside a word, so learners produce a single n and the word loses a distinctive feature. Deliberately extend it: think of "un-natural" said as one word, or "ten nights" run together, and transplant that long n into the middle of sunnaa.