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Twelve pairs of real Hindi words that differ in exactly one sound — the sounds your first language probably taught you to ignore. Getting these right is the difference between being understood and being nearly understood.
The full table is below and needs no JavaScript.
Hold a sheet of paper a few centimetres in front of your mouth and say the two words in any aspiration pair. The paper should move clearly for the second word and stay still for the first. If it moves for both, you are aspirating everything; if it moves for neither, you are aspirating nothing. Both are the normal starting points and both take about a fortnight of deliberate practice to fix.
Aspiration treated as decoration. Five pairs of Hindi consonants differ only by a puff of air, and every one of them changes the word.
English t and d. They sit between Hindi's dental त द and retroflex ट ड, so they are heard as neither. The dental pair is made with the tongue against the upper teeth, as in Spanish or Italian; the retroflex pair with the tongue curled back.
Reduced vowels. English turns unstressed vowels into a neutral "uh". Hindi keeps every vowel at full value, so नमस्ते is na-mas-te — three clear syllables, not nuh-mus-tuh.
| Word | Word | What differs |
|---|---|---|
| कल kal — yesterday / tomorrow | खल khal — villain | क vs ख — unaspirated vs aspirated k |
| पल pal — a moment | फल phal — fruit | प vs फ — unaspirated vs aspirated p |
| तीन teen — three | थीं theen — were (feminine plural) | त vs थ — unaspirated vs aspirated dental t |
| दिन din — day | धीन dheen — subject to | द vs ध — unaspirated vs aspirated dental d |
| चल chal — move / walk | छल chhal — deceit | च vs छ — unaspirated vs aspirated ch |
| ताल taal — rhythm | टाल Taal — postpone | त vs ट — dental vs retroflex t |
| दाल daal — lentils | डाल Daal — branch / to put | द vs ड — dental vs retroflex d |
| सात saat — seven | साथ saath — together / with | त vs थ at the end of a word |
| बल bal — strength | भल bhal — (in भला — good) | ब vs भ — unaspirated vs aspirated b |
| गाल gaal — cheek | घाल ghaal — (in घालमेल — mix-up) | ग vs घ — unaspirated vs aspirated g |
| आम aam — mango / common | अम am — (short a) | आ vs अ — long vs short vowel |
| दीन deen — poor / faith | दिन din — day | ई vs इ — long vs short i |
Devanagari is easy to get slightly wrong when it is typed by hand — a missing matra, the wrong nukta. If something here looks off to you, trust a native speaker over this page and please tell us so it gets fixed — it takes a moment and a real person reads it. Romanised spellings are a guide to the sound, not a standard: there is no single official way to write Hindi in Latin letters.
A puff of air after a consonant. English has it but never uses it to tell words apart — the p in 'pin' is aspirated and the p in 'spin' is not, and no English speaker notices. In Hindi it always changes the word: क and ख are different letters. This is the single most common source of foreign accent.
One made with the tongue curled back towards the roof of the mouth. ट ठ ड ढ ण have no English equivalent — English t and d land between Hindi's retroflex and dental sets, so an English speaker's 'ta' is heard as neither.
It can show you what to listen for and give you minimal pairs to practise against, which is most of the battle. It cannot tell you whether the sound coming out of your mouth is right — you cannot hear your own errors, which is exactly why they last. That part needs another person.
You cannot hear your own errors — that is what an error is. A learner practising these pairs alone for six months does not arrive with six months of progress; they arrive with one wrong habit, now automatic. Ten minutes of someone saying yes or no is worth more here than any amount of solo drilling.
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