Hindi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "थोड़ा" in Hindi?

Q: How do you pronounce थोड़ा in Hindi?

थोड़ा is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /t̪ʰoː.ɽaː/. It means “a little / few.” THOH-ṛaa — an aspirated dental at the front and a retroflex flap in the middle: the tongue travels from the teeth to the roof of the mouth.

THOH-ṛaa — an aspirated dental at the front and a retroflex flap in the middle: the tongue travels from the teeth to the roof of the mouth.

थोड़ा /t̪ʰoː.ɽaː/

thoṛaa

What gives this word its character is the extreme tongue movement in the middle — front teeth to hard palate in a single step. That travel takes real time and lends the word a deliberate, unhurried gait.

Listen: थोड़ा

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Sound it out

th थ is a dental stop with a strong puff of air, not the fricative English spells the same way. The tongue tip touches the upper teeth.

o Long ओ held in one lip position, without English's closing glide.

ṛaa ड़ is a retroflex flap: curl the tongue tip up and back, then flick it forward so it brushes the roof of the mouth once. Then open into a long aa.

Hear it in a sentence

मेरे पास थोड़ा समय है।

Mere paas thoṛaa samay hai.

I have a little time.

Listen: मेरे पास थोड़ा समय है।

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"Mere paas thoṛaa samay hai" uses the mere paas possession frame and makes thoṛaa masculine to agree with samay. Samay ends in a य glide, so the sentence finishes on two very front sounds after the retroflex flap in the middle.

Where English speakers slip

Two big substitutions: the fricative th of "thought," and a plain d or English r for ड़. Neither exists in the word. The th must be a full stop released with breath, and the flap is a single quick backward-then-forward brush — closer to a very fast American d in "muddy" but with the tongue much further back.