Hindi words for beginners
Turn familiar Hindi letters into 10 useful words. Read the script, hear the whole word, and use the English meaning to check what you understood.
Try a practice lesson →Choose Listen beside an available recording. Audio plays only when you ask.
Your first 10 Hindi words
| Word | English sound guide | Meaning and reading hint | Recording |
|---|---|---|---|
| आम | aam | mango Long aa, then m. Do not add the a used when naming म. | Listen |
| घर | ghar | house One syllable: breathy gh, central a, then r. The final inherent vowel is dropped. | Listen |
| पानी | paanee | water paa-nee: long aa, dental n, then ee. Hindi uses न here; Marathi पाणी uses ण. | Listen |
| दूध | doodh | milk Long oo between dental d and breathy dh. No final a. | Listen |
| किताब | kitaab | book ki-taab: the left-side ि is read after k; finish with b, without a final a. | Listen |
| आग | aag | fire Long aa, then voiced g; no extra vowel after ग. | Listen |
| आँख | aãkh | eye Nasalize aa, then release kh with air. The tilde marks nasalization, not a separate n. | Listen |
| खिड़की | khiṛkee | window khiṛ-kee: preserve the flap ड़, and drop its inherent a inside this word. | Listen |
| लड़का | laṛkaa | boy laṛ-kaa: the flap ड़ joins the next syllable without its own a. Retain the explicit final aa. | Listen |
| मेज़ | mez | table Steady e, then z. Retain the nukta in writing; no final a. | Listen |
Find familiar forms inside each word
Read each word with its own English meaning and hint. Use those examples to check attached signs and joined forms; isolated-letter labels alone do not determine a whole word’s pronunciation.
Compare these course examples using their own reading hints. Find a familiar letter or vowel sign in each word.
- आम — aam, mango. Long aa, then m. Do not add the a used when naming म.
- घर — ghar, house. One syllable: breathy gh, central a, then r. The final inherent vowel is dropped.
Read, remember, and check
- Choose a few written forms and compare their English hints.
- Cover the hints and identify the letters in a different order.
- Practise with matching, mixing, flashcards, or a visual quiz.
Cover a word’s English meaning, recall it, then check the table. This is a small reading vocabulary, not a phrasebook or a complete language course.
Prepared by Learn Akshara from our beginner Hindi curriculum. English spellings are approximate learning aids. Writing-system reference: The Unicode Standard, South Asian Scripts. AI-generated pronunciation is a learning aid, not a guarantee of accuracy. See our audio sources and credits.