Marathi words for beginners
Turn familiar Marathi letters into 10 useful words. Read the script, hear the whole word, and use the English meaning to check what you understood.
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Your first 10 Marathi words
| Word | English sound guide | Meaning and reading hint | Recording |
|---|---|---|---|
| आई | aai | mother aa-i: preserve the vowel sequence. Read this familiar Marathi word as a whole. | Listen |
| घर | ghar | house One syllable: breathy gh, central a, then r. Do not pronounce a final inherent a. | Listen |
| पाणी | paaṇee | water paa-ṇee: use the curled-tongue nasal ण and a sustained final i. Hindi पानी has dental न. | Listen |
| नळ | naḷ | tap Short central a followed by curled-tongue ḷ, with no final a. | Listen |
| माळ | maaḷ | garland Open aa followed by curled-tongue ḷ; do not replace ळ with ल. | Listen |
| हात | haat | hand Open aa, then dental t. The unmarked त ends the word without an extra vowel. | Listen |
| केळी | keḷee | bananas ke-ḷee: steady e, curled-tongue ḷ, then sustained final i. | Listen |
| कप | kap | cup One syllable with central a; finish at p, not pa. | Listen |
| कागद | kaagad | paper kaa-gad: keep the medial central a, but drop the final inherent vowel after dental द. | Listen |
| झाडू | dzhaaḍoo | broom dzhaa-ḍoo: Marathi झ here commonly has a dental dz release with breathiness, followed by curled-tongue ḍ and final oo; regional readings vary. | 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.
- आई — aai, mother. aa-i: preserve the vowel sequence. Read this familiar Marathi word as a whole.
- घर — ghar, house. One syllable: breathy gh, central a, then r. Do not pronounce a final inherent a.
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 Marathi 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.