Lesson #2: Vowels Part 1; a and aa | Learning Hindi! http://www.learning-hindi.com/post/727352299/lesson-2-vowels-part-1-...

Learning Hindi!
namaste and welcome to Learning Hindi! We teach the beautiful language of Hindi in short, easy and
fun lessons. Best of all, everything is completely free!
Image by LilSunshinePhotography

Ask me anything!
Lessons

Home
About
Lessons
SearchIntroduction
Vowels
Legal Consonants
Links Conversational
Beginner's Grammar
June 23rd, 2010 179 Comments
Intermediate
Numbers
Lesson #2: Urdu
Vowels Part
All Lessons
1; a and aa
One big difference between Hindi and English is that Hindi vowels have two forms, one form for when they
stand alone and another for when the vowel joins to a consonant. Confused? Dont worry, Ill explain
everything as we go through and by the end youll have it mastered!

Ready to get straight into it and learn your very first Hindi vowel? Excellent! So here it is;

If you cant see the play button or if it wont work then click here for instructions on how to fix it!

Click the play button above to hear the letter pronounced, be sure to listen to it many times to make sure you
remember it!

This is the letter a. It looks kind of like a 3 with a capital T after it and then a little small line in the

middle joining them up. Can you see? Look at it again, a. Listen to it again.

It is pronounced as a, like the sound at the start of the English words, alive, apply, alert. It makes a very

1 of 6 13-07-2014 09:00
Lesson #2: Vowels Part 1; a and aa | Learning Hindi! http://www.learning-hindi.com/post/727352299/lesson-2-vowels-part-1-...

short sound. Can you practice saying it; a. Now practice writing it; a. Practice saying it and writing it

at the same time! Listen to it more and more; a.

Dont worry if youre currently really confused with all the Hindi letters - everyone is to start
with, even Mr Chimp above! With a little work youll get there, promise.

So are you ready to learn a word that starts with a? The Hindi word acchaa means good. Can
you see the a in this word? Where is it? Yeah thats right, its right at the beginning! acchaa
good!

Click the play button above to hear our two sample words for this letter; acchaa - Good and
namaste - Hello.

Now a is a very special vowel because it doesnt change the consonant at all. Whenever you see a

consonant with no modification at all then it should have the a sound. Can you remember this

from Lesson #1 Saying Hello, we saw the letters na and ma which make up the word
namaste - Hello. Well these letters, na and ma, have no modifications so they are both
pronounced with an a. Following?

2 of 6 13-07-2014 09:00
Lesson #2: Vowels Part 1; a and aa | Learning Hindi! http://www.learning-hindi.com/post/727352299/lesson-2-vowels-part-1-...

Guardian.co.uk

The greeting namaste has two a s in it! Can you remember we usually make this hand gesture
when greeting someone with namaste.
Do you think youre ready for the next vowel? Wll here it is;

aa

This is the letter aa. What does it look like? Well its very simialar to a but aa has an extra

vertical line on the right hand side. Can you see the difference? acchaa good!

We pronounce aa as a long a sound, this is like the a in father. F-aa-ther. Listen to it several times.

Say it out loud a few times; aa. Write it out a few times; aa Got it? aa. Are you ready to learn a

word that uses aa?

What do you think aag could mean? Whats in the picture? Fire! Can you see the at the start of

aag fire? acchaa - good!

3 of 6 13-07-2014 09:00
Lesson #2: Vowels Part 1; a and aa | Learning Hindi! http://www.learning-hindi.com/post/727352299/lesson-2-vowels-part-1-...

Click the play button above to hear two sample words with the letter aa; aag - Fire and

naam - Name

Now when we want to add an to a consonant we add this symbol, at the end of the

consonant. Remember the letter na from namaste - Hello? Well when we add aa to na
it becomes naa. Can you see the extra line here; na and naa Got it? na should have a very

short a sound and naa has a long aa sound. Great!

The word naam means name in Hindi. We learn how to ask someone their name in Lesson #20 and

this uses the word naam. Have a quick check and see if you can recognise the word naam
there!

And thats it for today! Weve learnt the first two vowels of Hindi, a and aa do you think you can

you remember these for next time? acchaa good! Make sure you listen to the audio files over and
over again to help improve your pronunciation!

Click here to go back to the Vowels Section.

Tags:letters june2010 lesson 2 vowels a aa

Share
Share this:
TwitterPinterestFacebookGoogle+
http://tmblr.co/ZJelGyhMeFh

4 of 6 13-07-2014 09:00
Lesson #2: Vowels Part 1; a and aa | Learning Hindi! http://www.learning-hindi.com/post/727352299/lesson-2-vowels-part-1-...

179 Comments

Shiva Senthil

Easy way to remember: 3T and 3. This is exactly like Tamil! (Except the letters of course)

LearningHindi Moderator

Good advice! That's interesting to hear, thanks for sharing :)

Jaspreet

Thank you so much for creating this website. I have been able to learn so much and in such an
easy, thorough and enjoyable way! I think what your doing is brilliant and I really appreciate it :)

LearningHindi Moderator

Namaste! That's awesome, thanks for sharing. I'm really glad that we are able to help you
:) Be sure to just ask if you ever have any questions.

Sunny

Thank you very much. You are what Internet is all about. Thank you

LearningHindi Moderator

Thank you! You are welcome :) I hope we are able to help you learn the beautiful
language of Hindi!

mitra

George, thank you so much for this amazing site! I'm learning how to write in a language that I've
only ever spoken. I really appreciate the help, thanks!

LearningHindi Moderator

That's awesome! You're welcome, I hope we are able to help you :D

kai

wouldent aag be writen without the vertical line at the end so it dosent sound like aag"a"?

5 of 6 13-07-2014 09:00
Lesson #2: Vowels Part 1; a and aa | Learning Hindi! http://www.learning-hindi.com/post/727352299/lesson-2-vowels-part-1-...

Back To Top

Latest Tweet Connect

@reinarios7 koee baat naheen - it's no problem! I really hope we can
Email Facebook
help you :) Twitter
Soundcloud
29 days ago

Learning Hindi
@learning_hindi

The contents of this website are, unless otherwise mentioned, licenced under a CC-BY-NC 3.0 unported
licence.
Provenance Theme by Pixel Union. Powered by Tumblr.

6 of 6 13-07-2014 09:00