Spanish → Hindi
Hindi uses 41 sounds. You already own 13 of them from Spanish. The other 28 are the work — and 24 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: palatal → retroflex
Hindi: Ganesh · written "ṇ", "ण"
Retroflex n.
Your /ɲ/ is the one in año (year).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
Hindi: evening · written "sh", "श"
Your /s/ is the one in sol (sun).
the move: close → near-close
Hindi: day · written "i", "इ"
Your /i/ is the one in sí (yes).
the move: close → near-close
Hindi: something · written "u", "उ"
Your /u/ is the one in luz (light).
the move: aspirated
Hindi: food · written "kh", "ख"
A puff of air. kaam 'work' vs khaam 'raw'.
Your /k/ is the one in queso (cheese).
the move: close, but not identical
Hindi: house · written "gh", "घ"
Breathy, not aspirated — voicing carries on through the breath.
Your /ɡ/ is the one in gato (cat).
the move: aspirated
Hindi: a little · written "th", "थ"
Never the English th sound. Dental t plus a puff.
Your /t/ is the one in todo (all).
the move: aspirated
Hindi: fruit · written "ph", "फ"
Often said as /f/ nowadays, especially in loanwords.
Your /p/ is the one in pan (bread).
the move: close, but not identical
Hindi: brother · written "bh", "भ"
Your /b/ is the one in vaca (cow).
the move: aspirated
Hindi: small · written "chh", "छ"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in chico (boy).
the move: longer
Hindi: mango · written "aa", "आ", "ा"
Your /a/ is the one in casa (house).
the move: velar → retroflex
Hindi: tomato · written "ṭ", "ट"
RETROFLEX: tongue curled back. This is the one English speakers substitute for both — English t sits between the two and sounds foreign either way.
Your /k/ is the one in queso (cheese).
the move: velar → retroflex
Hindi: fear · written "ḍ", "ड"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in gato (cat).
the move: voiced
Hindi: to go · written "j", "ज"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in chico (boy).
the move: close, but not identical
Hindi: he, she, that · written "v", "w", "व"
Between English v and w and genuinely neither — which is why Hindi speakers of English swap the two.
Your /w/ is the one in huevo (egg).
the move: alveolar → dental
Hindi: sunshine · written "dh", "ध"
Your /d/ is the one in dedo (finger).
the move: close-mid → mid, front → central
Hindi: yesterday/tomorrow · written "a", "अ"
The default vowel, built into every consonant letter unless something removes it.
Your /e/ is the one in mesa (table).
the move: velar → retroflex, aspirated
Hindi: cold · written "ṭh", "ठ"
Your /k/ is the one in queso (cheese).
the move: velar → retroflex
Hindi: drum · written "ḍh", "ढ"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in gato (cat).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Hindi sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- k = kʰ = ʈ = ʈʰ → your k vs vs vs train this pair →
- ɡ = ɡʱ = ɖ = ɖʱ → your ɡ vs vs vs
- t͡ʃ = t͡ʃʰ = d͡ʒ = d͡ʒʱ → your t͡ʃ vs vs vs train this pair →
- t = tʰ → your t vs
- d = dʱ → your d vs
- p = pʰ → your p vs
- b = bʱ → your b vs
- s = ʃ → your s vs train this pair →
- ə = eː → your e vs
- ɪ = iː → your i vs train this pair →
- ʊ = uː → your u vs
Genuinely new
Nothing in Spanish sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
tree
The tongue flicks forward off the roof of the mouth. A single quick beat.
Closest thing you own: — but nasal → flap, palatal → retroflex.
is
Not a diphthong in standard Hindi — one open vowel.
Closest thing you own: — but open → open-mid, longer.
and
Closest thing you own: — but close-mid → open-mid, longer.
hand
VOICED, unlike English h — the folds vibrate.
Closest thing you own: — but bilabial → glottal.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Spanish | Hindi | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed | Syllable-timed, with deletion |
| Stress | Fully contrastive, and mercifully written: if a word breaks the default pattern (stress on the second-to-last syllable for vowel/-n/-s endings, on the last otherwise) it carries an accent. Three-way minimal sets are common and the accent is the only thing separating them. | Not contrastive and not written. Stress falls on the heaviest syllable — a long vowel or a closed syllable outweighs a short open one — and where several are equal it goes to the last of them. No two Hindi words are told apart by stress alone, which makes it the least stressful stress system here. |
What you have that Hindi doesn't
14 sounds with no job in Hindi. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Spanish has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Hindi from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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