This is lesson 4 of our Hindi reading guide. You can find the previous lessons here:

• Lesson 1: Intro
• Lesson 2: Hindi Alphabet
• Lesson 3: Matras

In Hindi you can combine two letters to remove the 'a' sound in between. The first letter is only written half, like so:

Every letter looks different when you combine it. Here are the most common ones (combined with क). There is no need to spend much time on these. You should be able to read them even without memorizing.

As you can see, the र is a little special. There are three ways to combine it with another letter:

There are some irregular combinations, that do not show up often. I still recommend writing them down on paper and memorizing them.

These were all letter combinations. But they are not the only way to combine letters.
As in any language, you can combine letters to make words. Hindi has 4 extra rules that change pronunciation by removing an 'a' sound from the word. Once you memorized these rules you know how to read Hindi.
The 'a' sound gets removed...

• ...at the end of a word:
  • काम = kaam (not kaama)
  • खुद = khud (not khuda)
• ...from the second letter in a 3-letter-word that ends in a long sounding Matra:
  • आदमी = aadmi (not aadami)
  • कुरसी = kursii (not kurasii)
• ...from the second letter in a 4-letter-word that does NOT end in a long sounding Matra:
  • अदरक = adrak (not adarak)
  • बचपन = bachpan (not bachapan)
• ...from the third letter in a 4-letter-word that ends in a long sounding Matra:
  • समझना = samajhnaa (not samajhanaa)
  • खरीदना = khariidnaa (not khariidanaa)

Congratulations. You know how to read Hindi!
Be sure to practice reading, else you will forget it. To start, check out our practice texts over here.
You should also download our free Hindi Alphabet Chart:

Happy practicing!