Hindi vowels (स्वर)
The Hindi vowels — स्वर (svar) — are the backbone of pronunciation. Each one has two faces: an independent letter and a matra you hang on a consonant. Here is the complete set, precisely laid out.
Hindi has 11 vowels in everyday use. Each appears in two forms. The independent form — like आ — is used when a vowel begins a word or stands on its own. The matra — like ा — is the dependent sign you attach to a consonant to change its built-in vowel. The vowel अ is special: it is the inherent "a" already inside every consonant, so it has no matra. This is the foundation of the whole Devanagari alphabet.
The full vowel chart
| Letter | Matra | Roman | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| अ | (none — inherent) | a | कम kam — less |
| आ | ा | aa | काम kaam — work |
| इ | ि | i | किताब kitaab — book |
| ई | ी | ee | नदी nadee — river |
| उ | ु | u | गुरु guru — teacher |
| ऊ | ू | oo | फूल phool — flower |
| ए | े | e | मेज़ mez — table |
| ऐ | ै | ai | है hai — is |
| ओ | ो | o | मोर mor — peacock |
| औ | ौ | au | और aur — and |
Anusvara, visarga and ऋ
Three more signs are taught with the vowels even though they are not pure vowels:
- अं — anusvara (am). A single dot above the line that nasalises the preceding vowel, as in हंस (hans, "swan") and अंगूर (angoor, "grape").
- अः — visarga (ah). A pair of dots adding a soft outgoing breath. It is rare and appears mostly in Sanskrit loanwords, such as प्रातः (praatah, "dawn") and दुःख (duhkh, "sorrow").
- ऋ — ri. An old vocalic "r", now pronounced ri in Hindi. It survives in Sanskrit-derived words like ऋतु (ritu, "season") and कृपया (kripaya, "please"), where it appears as the matra ृ.
How a matra attaches to a consonant
This is the mechanism that makes the script work. Take the consonant क (ka, with its inherent short a) and replace that a with a different vowel by adding the right matra:
| Consonant + matra | Result | Roman |
|---|---|---|
| क + ा | का | kaa |
| क + ि | कि | ki |
| क + ी | की | kee |
| क + ु | कु | ku |
| क + ू | कू | koo |
| क + े | के | ke |
| क + ै | कै | kai |
| क + ो | को | ko |
| क + ौ | कौ | kau |
Notice that the matra does not always sit after the letter. The "i" matra ि is written before the consonant even though it is pronounced after it — so कि is read ki, not ik. Other matras go above (े), below (ु) or to the right (ा). Learning where each one lands is half the battle.
Where to go next
With the vowels in hand, the natural next step is the consonant chart, where these matras come to life on real letters. After that, the Devanagari script guide walks through reading and writing whole words. To hear vowels in context, the spellings on the numbers page are a clean, well-known starting set.
Translate your own text
Curious how a word you know is built from these vowels and consonants? Type it in English below and read the Devanagari result.