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44 letters, why they are ordered the way they are, and how the vowel marks work.
Devanagari is not an alphabet in the English sense. It is an abugida: each consonant already contains a short 'a' sound, so क is 'ka' rather than 'k'. To change that vowel you attach a mark called a matra — का, कि, की, कु. To remove it altogether you add a small stroke underneath, the halant: क्. That single fact explains most beginner confusion about why Hindi words look longer than they sound.
The traditional order is a phonetics lesson in disguise. It begins at the back of the mouth with क ख ग घ ङ, moves forward to the palate with च छ ज झ ञ, then the retroflex ट ठ ड ढ ण made with the tongue curled back, then the dental त थ द ध न against the teeth, and finally the lips with प फ ब भ म. Every group follows the same five-step pattern: plain, aspirated, voiced, voiced-aspirated, nasal. Learn that pattern once in the first group and the other four cost you almost nothing.
Eleven vowels, thirty-three consonants. You will also meet five consonants written with a dot underneath — क़ ख़ ग़ ज़ फ़ — used mostly in words borrowed from Persian, Arabic and English, and conjuncts where two consonants join into one shape. Most learners read simple words within four to six weeks.
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