Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "स्वागत" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce स्वागत in Hindi?

स्वागत is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /sʋaː.ɡət̪/. It means “welcome.” SVAA-gut, with the s and v pronounced as a genuine cluster at the start — no vowel wedged between them.

SVAA-gut, with the s and v pronounced as a genuine cluster at the start — no vowel wedged between them.

स्वागत /sʋaː.ɡət̪/

svaagat

First syllable heavy (long aa in a closed-ish onset), second light with a schwa, so prominence sits on svaa-. Word-final schwa deletion is what keeps it two syllables rather than the three the spelling suggests.

Listen: स्वागत

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Sound it out

sv स्व is a real onset cluster. English has sw- but not sv-, so the temptation is to insert a helping vowel; instead go straight from the s into the light labiodental-to-bilabial व.

aa Long आ, an open unrounded vowel with real duration — this is the anchor of the word.

gat Unaspirated g, a short schwa, and a dental t with no release puff. The inherent vowel after त is deleted, so the word ends in a consonant.

Hear it in a sentence

हमारे घर में आपका स्वागत है।

Hamaare ghar meṁ aapkaa svaagat hai.

Welcome to our home.

Listen: हमारे घर में आपका स्वागत है।

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Hamaare ghar meṁ aapkaa svaagat hai" strings together three tricky items before the word itself: ghar with its breathy-voiced gh, the nasalized postposition meṁ, and aapkaa with its possessive ending. Svaagat then behaves as a noun with hai, literally "your welcome is," which is why there is no verb "to welcome" in sight.

Where English speakers slip

The predictable failure is "suh-VAA-gut" or "swaa-gut": either breaking the cluster with a schwa or replacing व with a full English w. Hindi व is a single approximant articulated with looser lip contact than English v and less rounding than w, and it needs to arrive immediately after the s with no gap.