The Hindi alphabet — the varnamala, or "garland of letters" — has 13 vowels (svar) and 33 consonants (vyanjan), written in the Devanagari script. It is organized phonetically: letters are ordered by where and how the mouth produces them, so the chart itself is a pronunciation lesson. Both charts below include romanization, IPA, English equivalents, and each vowel's dependent matra sign.
Each vowel has two written forms: the independent letter, used at the start of a word or syllable, and the dependent matra sign attached to a consonant — क + ा = का (kā). The first vowel, अ, has no matra because every plain consonant already contains it. One quirk: ि is written before the consonant it is pronounced after — क + ि = कि (ki).
| Letter | Matra | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| अ | — | a | a | /ə/ | a in "about" — the inherent vowel inside every consonant |
| आ | ा | aa | ā | /aː/ | a in "father" |
| इ | ि | i | i | /ɪ/ | i in "sit" |
| ई | ी | ee | ī | /iː/ | ee in "see" |
| उ | ु | u | u | /ʊ/ | u in "put" |
| ऊ | ू | oo | ū | /uː/ | oo in "boot" |
| ऋ | ृ | ri | ṛ | /ɾɪ/ | ri in "trip" — a Sanskrit vowel, pronounced "ri" in Hindi |
| ए | े | e | e | /eː/ | a in "gate", but pure, with no glide |
| ऐ | ै | ai | ai | /ɛː/ | e in "bed", held longer |
| ओ | ो | o | o | /oː/ | o in "go", but pure, with no glide |
| औ | ौ | au | au | /ɔː/ | aw in "saw" |
| अं | ं | anusvara (an) | aṁ | /ə̃/ | nasal hum, like the n in "long" — it nasalizes the vowel |
| अः | ः | visarga (ah) | aḥ | /əh/ | a light echo of h after the vowel; rare outside Sanskrit loans |
The first 25 consonants form five vargas (classes) of five, ordered by where the tongue strikes, moving forward through the mouth: velar (क-वर्ग, at the throat) → palatal (च-वर्ग) → retroflex (ट-वर्ग, tongue curled back) → dental (त-वर्ग, tongue on the teeth) → labial (प-वर्ग, at the lips). Within each varga the pattern repeats: unvoiced, unvoiced aspirated, voiced, voiced aspirated, nasal. The final eight are the semivowels and sibilants. Every letter is read with its inherent a: क = ka.
| Letter | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| क | ka | k | /k/ | k in "skit" — no puff of air |
| ख | kha | kh | /kʰ/ | k in "kit", with a strong puff |
| ग | ga | g | /ɡ/ | g in "go" |
| घ | gha | gh | /ɡʱ/ | g with a breathy release, like "doghouse" said quickly |
| ङ | nga | ṅ | /ŋ/ | ng in "sing"; never begins a word |
| च | cha | c | /tʃ/ | ch in "church" — no puff of air |
| छ | chha | ch | /tʃʰ/ | ch in "church", with a strong puff |
| ज | ja | j | /dʒ/ | j in "jam" |
| झ | jha | jh | /dʒʱ/ | j with a breathy release, like "hedgehog" said quickly |
| ञ | nya | ñ | /ɲ/ | ny in "canyon" |
| ट | ta (retroflex) | ṭ | /ʈ/ | t with the tongue tip curled back — the "Indian" t |
| ठ | tha (retroflex) | ṭh | /ʈʰ/ | that curled-back t, with a strong puff |
| ड | da (retroflex) | ḍ | /ɖ/ | d with the tongue tip curled back |
| ढ | dha (retroflex) | ḍh | /ɖʱ/ | curled-back d with a breathy release |
| ण | na (retroflex) | ṇ | /ɳ/ | n with the tongue tip curled back |
| त | ta (dental) | t | /t̪/ | t with the tongue on the teeth, as in Spanish or French |
| थ | tha (dental) | th | /t̪ʰ/ | dental t with a puff — not the th of "think" |
| द | da (dental) | d | /d̪/ | d with the tongue on the teeth, as in "width" |
| ध | dha (dental) | dh | /d̪ʱ/ | dental d with a breathy release |
| न | na | n | /n/ | n in "net" |
| प | pa | p | /p/ | p in "spin" — no puff of air |
| फ | pha | ph | /pʰ/ | p in "pin", with a strong puff |
| ब | ba | b | /b/ | b in "book" |
| भ | bha | bh | /bʱ/ | b with a breathy release, like "clubhouse" said quickly |
| म | ma | m | /m/ | m in "map" |
| य | ya | y | /j/ | y in "yes" |
| र | ra | r | /ɾ/ | flapped r, like the tt in American "butter" |
| ल | la | l | /l/ | l in "lamp" |
| व | va | v | /ʋ/ | between v and w — "vine" with relaxed lips |
| श | sha | ś | /ʃ/ | sh in "ship" |
| ष | sha (retroflex) | ṣ | /ʂ/ | sh with the tongue curled back; in Hindi, same as श |
| स | sa | s | /s/ | s in "sun" |
| ह | ha | h | /ɦ/ | h in "ahead" — breathy and voiced |
Every consonant letter carries a built-in a sound: क is ka, म is ma. Matras replace that vowel, and a small stroke called halant (क्) silences it. But spoken Hindi also deletes the inherent a in predictable places — always at the end of a word, and often mid-word: राम is pronounced Rām, not Rāma, and नमकीन comes out nam-kīn. This "schwa deletion" is the main gap between Hindi spelling and Hindi speech, and the reason word-final consonants sound bare.
Aspiration — the puff of air — is phonemic in Hindi. क (ka) and ख (kha) are different letters that build different words: कल (kal, tomorrow) vs खल (khal, villain). English aspirates automatically (compare the p of "pin" with "spin"), so the skill to learn is control: suppress the puff in the plain column, exaggerate it in the aspirated one. The breathy-voiced letters घ, झ, ढ, ध, भ add voice and murmur together and have no English counterpart at all.
Hindi splits English's single t and d into two precise rows. The dentals त and द touch the tongue to the back of the teeth, as in Spanish or Italian. The retroflexes ट and ड curl the tongue tip up and back against the roof of the mouth. English t and d land in between — closer to retroflex to Indian ears, which is why English loanwords are spelled with them (डॉक्टर, "doctor") and why using dentals everywhere is the classic foreign accent.
Devanagari descends from Brahmi, the script of Emperor Ashoka's rock edicts (3rd century BC) and the ancestor of nearly every script of South and Southeast Asia — from Bengali and Tamil to Thai and Tibetan. Brahmi evolved through the Gupta script into Nagari, and by roughly 1000 AD Devanagari had settled into the form used today.
The name means "script of the divine city" (deva + nāgarī), reflecting its prestige as the leading vehicle for Sanskrit. Its signature is the shirorekha, the headline that letters hang from — in handwriting it is often drawn after the word is finished, stitching the letters together. The alphabet's ordering is older still: vowels first, then consonants arranged by point of articulation, a phonetic analysis worked out by Sanskrit grammarians more than two thousand years ago.
Today Devanagari writes Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit, and over a hundred other languages, making it one of the most widely used scripts on earth. Modern Hindi extends the core varnamala with nukta letters — a dot added beneath a letter for borrowed or dialect sounds, as in ज़ (za), फ़ (fa), and the flapped ड़ and ढ़ — which is why counts of the "full" alphabet often run to 52.
The core varnamala has 46 letters: 13 vowels (svar) and 33 consonants (vyanjan). Broader counts reach 52 by adding the nukta letters (क़, ख़, ग़, ज़, ड़, ढ़, फ़) used for Persian, Arabic, and English loan sounds, plus the conjuncts क्ष, त्र, and ज्ञ that are taught alongside the alphabet.
A matra is the dependent form of a vowel — the sign attached to a consonant instead of written as a full letter. क + ी = की (kī), क + ो = को (ko). Independent vowel letters appear only where no consonant precedes, usually at the start of a word (आम, mango). Every vowel except अ has one; अ needs none because it is already inside every plain consonant.
No — and script is the biggest visible difference between them. Everyday spoken Hindi and Urdu are largely mutually intelligible, but Hindi is written left to right in Devanagari while Urdu is written right to left in a Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq style). A Hindi speaker cannot read an Urdu newspaper, or vice versa, without learning the other writing system.
Because it is sorted by articulation, not tradition or accident. Vowels come first, then consonant rows march forward through the mouth — throat (क), palate (च), curled tongue (ट), teeth (त), lips (प) — with each row running unvoiced, aspirated, voiced, breathy, nasal. Ancient Sanskrit phoneticians designed this layout over two millennia ago, and it doubles as a map of exactly how each sound is produced.
No. Devanagari has no upper or lower case — each letter has a single form, so nothing changes at the start of a sentence or a name. Emphasis in print is handled with bold type or size instead of capitals. For learners this is good news: 46 core letters really means 46 shapes, not 92.