Hindi Varnamala
, just
as the English alphabet, has vowels and consonants. Here you can familiarize
yourself with the Hindi alphabet - Hindi Varnamala.
Hindi is mostly written in a script called Nagari or Devanagari. Hindi is normally spoken using a combination of 52 sounds - 10 vowels, 40 consonants, nasalisation and a kind of aspiration. These sounds are represented in the Devanagari script by 52 symbols: for 10 vowels, 2 modifiers and 40 consonants. You will also need to learn to recognize a character that traditionally represented a vowel but does not any longer, and four common conjunct consonants, which is actually a total of 57 symbols to remember to begin with.
Once you have learnt the basic characters you will then be easily able to learn the shorthand (matra) symbols for the vowels and the conjunct characters.
Vowels
Hindi alphabet have ten vowels and two modifiers which are given below. The symbols shown below the alphabets are known as "matra" symbols. Matra symbols are used when consonants and vowels are to be written together.
 |
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
| a | aa/A | e/i | ee/ii | u | oo/uu |
  |
 |
  |
 |
 |
 |
| e | ai | o | ou | aM | aH |
Vowels Not In Common Use
| ऋ | ॠ | ऌ | ॡ | ॐ |
| r^ | r^^ | l^ | l^^ | AUM |
Consonants
Consonants in Hindi alphabet are shown below -
 |
 |
 |
 |
ङ |
| ka | kha | ga | gha | nga |
 |
 |
 |
 |
ञ |
| cha | chha | ja | jha | nja |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Ta | Tha | Da | Dha | Na |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ta | tha | da | dha | na |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| pa | pha / fa | ba | bha | ma |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ya | ra | la | va/wa | Sha |
 |
 |
 |
 |
त्र |
| shh | sa | ha | ksh | tra |
| ज्ञ | ||||
| jnja |
Dot+Consonants (Extensions)
| ऩ | ऱ | ऴ | क़ | ख़ | ग़ | ज़ | ड़ | ढ़ | फ़ | य़ |
| .na | .ra | .La | .ka | .kha | .ga | .ja | .Da | .Dha | .fa | .ya |
Special Symbols
The following symbols are pronounced using nasal in conjunction with other consonants.
|
Anusvara |
Visarga |
Chandra bindu |
Chandra |
Nukta |
' virama |
udatta |
| M | H | .~ dot + tilda |
~ tilda |
.N | ` grave accent |
.^ dot + ^ |
|
anudatta |
Danda |
Double Danda |
Avagraha |
Grave accent |
Accute accent |
|
|
._ dot+ under score |
| vertical line |
|| | // | \ | / |
Writing Hindi Alphabet
To practice writing Hindi alphabet, use the English keystrokes noted down below the Hindi letter. You'll need your regular English keyboard and a Hindi writing software (can be downloaded free from Web - see Resources section).