Russian → Hindi
Hindi uses 41 sounds. You already own 14 of them from Russian. The other 27 are the work — and 23 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: alveolar → postalveolar
Hindi: tea · written "c", "ch", "च"
The word the whole world borrowed — chai, çay, chá.
Your /t͡s/ is the one in цена́ (price).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
Hindi: evening · written "sh", "श"
Your /s/ is the one in сон (sleep).
the move: aspirated
Hindi: food · written "kh", "ख"
A puff of air. kaam 'work' vs khaam 'raw'.
Your /k/ is the one in кот (cat).
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 год (year).
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 там (there).
the move: aspirated
Hindi: fruit · written "ph", "फ"
Often said as /f/ nowadays, especially in loanwords.
Your /p/ is the one in по́чта (post).
the move: close, but not identical
Hindi: brother · written "bh", "भ"
Your /b/ is the one in брат (brother).
the move: longer
Hindi: mango · written "aa", "आ", "ा"
Your /a/ is the one in мать (mother).
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 кот (cat).
the move: velar → retroflex
Hindi: fear · written "ḍ", "ड"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in год (year).
the move: alveolar → dental
Hindi: sunshine · written "dh", "ध"
Your /d/ is the one in дом (house).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar, aspirated
Hindi: small · written "chh", "छ"
Your /t͡s/ is the one in цена́ (price).
the move: alveolar → retroflex
Hindi: Ganesh · written "ṇ", "ण"
Retroflex n.
Your /n/ is the one in нос (nose).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar, voiced
Hindi: to go · written "j", "ज"
Your /t͡s/ is the one in цена́ (price).
the move: fricative → flap
Hindi: tree · written "ṛ", "ड़"
The tongue flicks forward off the roof of the mouth. A single quick beat.
Your /ʐ/ is the one in жена́ (wife).
the move: trill → tap
Hindi: night · written "r", "र"
A tap, as in Spanish pero.
Your /r/ is the one in рука́ (hand, arm).
the move: fricative → approximant
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 /v/ is the one in вода́ (water).
the move: velar → retroflex, aspirated
Hindi: cold · written "ṭh", "ठ"
Your /k/ is the one in кот (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.
Genuinely new
Nothing in Russian 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.
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.
a lie
Closest thing you own: — but alveolar → postalveolar, voiced.
hand
VOICED, unlike English h — the folds vibrate.
Closest thing you own: — but labiodental → glottal.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Russian | Hindi | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Stress-timed, heavily reduced | Syllable-timed, with deletion |
| Stress | Contrastive, and NOT written. За́мок is a castle and замо́к is a lock. Worse, it moves within a word’s own declension — рука́ but ру́ку, окно́ but о́кна — so knowing the word is not the same as knowing where to hit it. Dictionaries mark it; native writing does not. | 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
32 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 Russian 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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