Mouth-map alphabet
The Hindi alphabet, taught by where each sound is made
Devanagari looks like a long list of squiggles when you first meet it. It isn't. The alphabet was designed by phoneticians over a thousand years ago, and it's already organized by where in your mouth each sound comes from. Learn the map, and pronunciation stops being guesswork.
Practice in Bolo →Opens the app. If you already have a session going, you pick up there.
Five zones, back to front
Every consonant sits in one of five zones. Within a zone, you'll see four variants: soft, soft-aspirated, voiced, voiced-aspirated. Same tongue position, different puff of air and vocal cords.
Throat (velar)
क ख ग घ
k, kh, g, gh
Back of the tongue lifts to the soft palate. Same spot as English k and g.
Palate (palatal)
च छ ज झ
ch, chh, j, jh
Tongue body pushes up to the hard palate. Feels close to English 'ch' in 'church'.
Roof of mouth (retroflex)
ट ठ ड ढ
T, Th, D, Dh
Tongue tip curls back and touches the roof. English has no direct match. Sounds harder, more clipped.
Teeth (dental)
त थ द ध
t, th, d, dh
Tongue tip touches the back of the upper teeth. Softer than English t/d. दाल vs डाल.
Lips (labial)
प फ ब भ
p, ph, b, bh
Both lips close and release. Same spot as English p and b.
Why this beats flashcards
Flashcards teach you 33 unrelated shapes. The mouth map teaches you five positions and one rule (add aspiration, add voicing). Once you feel where a sound comes from, retroflex vs dental stops being a guess. The alphabet becomes a chart of your own mouth.