Learning to read Hindi is easy if you plan to learn two letters at a time and systematically follow the plan. When you look at the letters of the alphabet, associate them with some known information to remember them easily.
Hindi Vowels
First learn some words related to each letter through this Google Classroom Lesson.
Revise the words related to each letter, for example, a se ‘anaar’ pomegranate, ‘akhbaar’ newspaper, ‘avasar’ opportunity and ‘anumati’ permission.
Observe the Hindi letter ‘a’ अ
The shape of the letter might remind you of number three and the English letter T linked together.
By adding one more line to it we get the longer ‘aa’ sound. Some of the words that begin with the ‘aa’ sound are ‘aam’ mango, ‘aayinaa’ mirror and ‘aaloo’ potato.
If you remove the T part we get the ‘u’ sound /u/ the middle sound of the word good. Some of the words beginning with ‘u’ sound are ‘ulloo’ owl, ‘unnees’ nineteen, and ‘udhyaan’ garden.
Note that all the Hindi letters have a line on top. Check the difference in the way ‘a’, ‘aa’ and ‘u’ are written. In the first two the line is on the T part and in the third the line is on the 3.
To make this a longer ‘oo’ sound we just need to add a tail to it.
This is the middle sound in words like, cool, tool, fool, etc. Some of the words that begin with this letter are ‘oont’ camel, ‘oon’ wool and ‘oorjaa’ energy.
Practise writing these letters and identify these letters in newspaper headlines, notice boards, flyers, etc.
The last two letters of the alphabet ‘am’ ‘aha’ also use the first ‘a’ and add a dot above and a colon mark next to it. So they are also easy for you to read and write.
If you learn this much you will be able to identify 6 letters of the Hindi alphabet. Go through this book and learn to say some of the words that begin with these letters. Learn the meaning of the words.
ओ and औ – o and au – These letters also use the long aa sound form आ and has a line on top to make o. If we put two lines on top it becomes au.
If you learn these you will know eight vowel letters in the Hindi alphabet.
इ (i sound as in ink), ई (ee sound as in eel) look similar to the English letter s.
ए (ae as in aeroplane) and ऐ (ai as in train) are the last two important vowel letters you need to learn. What does this shape remind you of?
Two more letters are in the group but they are not used in many words. So it is ok if you spend less time learning them. They are ऋ ru and ॠ roo. ऋ is used for the word Rshi, which means a sage.
Once you learn all the vowels check if you are able to identify them. Read the following letters and match them.
A. ई। 1. a
B. ओ। 2. aa
C. अं। 3. i
D. उ। 4. ee
E. अ। 5. u
F. ए। 6. oo
G. औ। 7. um
H. आ। 8. ae
I. इ। 9. i
J. ऊ। 10.o
K. ऐ। 11. aha
L. अ:। 12. au
Take this quiz and check how well you know the vowels in Hindi.
Scan the QR code to access the quiz.
Learn to write Hindi letters with the help of a App downloaded from Google Play.
After learning all the vowels go on to the consonants and learn five letters at a time.