Hindi and English have several similar yet distinct phonemes.
/v/
and/w/
– The English/w/
is bi-labial (both lips touching) similar to Hindiव
. The English/v/
, however, is labio-dental (upper teeth touching lower lips), a sound distinct for the English speaker but indistinguishable from/w/
for Hindi speakers./ph/
and/f/
– English uses labio-dental/f/
, Hindi, however, uses bi-labial/ph/फ
. Fun fact: These two sounds were distinct for ancient Greeks. But not to English speakers. So, Telephone and Telefone would have the same pronunciation, that is,/f/
in English./ɹ/
and/r/र
– The English r (/ɹ/
) is retroflex (tongue curling backward likeट
). In fact, that’s the only retroflex sound in English, Hindi/r/
, however, is generated at the alveolar ridge (the ridge right behind your upper teeth). Fun fact: The Sanskritऋ
is pronounced/ɹ/
- English
/t/
vs Hindi/t/त
– The English T sound is unique in many ways. It does not exist even in other major European languages like Spanish, French, and German. Both Hindi’s त and English T are made at the alveolar ridge. The Hindi/Spanish/French/German/t/
is made with the tip of the tongue while the English/t/
is made with the blade of the tongue giving it a thicker sound. /θ/
(th) vstʰ/थ
– The Hindiथ
is dental in nature, the sound is made by touching the tip of the tongue with the back of the upper teeth. While the English/θ/th
sound is interdental, for example, in thinking or thin. This sound is made by putting the tongue tip between the upper and lower teeth while simultaneously touching both./ð/
vs/d/द
– Similar toथ
, the Hindiद
is dental in nature. The English/ð/
is inter-dental in nature. For example, in “this” or “father”, the th sound is produced by the tongue hanging between the middle teeth. The English/d/
is non-retroflex and is pronounced in the same spot as the Hindiद
. So, the transliteration of London as “लंदन” isn’t too far from being correct!/ʒ/
vs/dʒʱ/झ
– Consider the second sound in “vision” or the third sound in “decision”. It gets incorrectly approximated as/z/ज़
or/s/स
./ʒ/
, however, is made by touching the tongue to the ceiling of the mouth and creating friction. It might be easier for Hindi speakers to imagine this as a fricative version ofझ
.