pronunciation guide for bengali alphabet

How to pronunciation Bengali Alphabet in English

Bengali is one of the official languages of India and is quite popular language in the whole world. It is spoken mainly in West Bengal state of India and in some parts of the neighboring states of West Bengal. Bengali and Oriya languages have many things in common.

Microsoft Windows allow the usage of this language and support the font for Bengali. Below is the list of alphabets used in Bengali with the guide to pronounce it as the sounds are present in the English language.

Vowels of Bengali Alphabet

অ	As ‘a’ in mal
আ	Stressed অ
ই	As ‘I’ in ill
ঈ	As ‘e’ in eke
উ	As ‘u’ in Ubuntu
ঊ	As ‘ou’ in you
ঋ	As ‘ri’ in risk
ৠ	Double sound of “ri”
এ	As ‘e’ in par se
ঐ	As ‘a’ in as
ও	As ‘o’ in go
ঔ	Stressed and long sound of ‘o’

Consonants of Bengali Alphabet

ক	As ‘k’ in kite
খ	Coupled sound of ‘k’, ‘h’= ‘kh’
গ	As ‘g’ in gun
ঘ	Coupled sound of ‘g’, ‘h’= ‘gh’
ঙ	As ‘gn’ in gnome. Does not produce a particular sound: Just used for articulation of tongue while pronouncing the next word
চ	As ‘ch’ in chair
ছ	This sound is not available in English. The tongue touches a bit away (to the inner side) from the teeth while pronouncing ‘ch’ as in chair.
জ	As ‘j’ in jug
ঝ	This sound is not available in English. This is produced using the naval sounds while the tongue touches the upper part of mouth cavity.
ঞ	Just like ‘gn’ of gnome with a slight up movement of tongue. No particular sound just articulation while speaking.
ট	As ‘t’ in top
ঠ	Hard sound of ‘t’. Not available in English.
ড	As ‘d’ in dark
ঢ	Coupled sound of ‘d’ and ‘h’= ‘dh’. Not available in English but as ‘dh’ in Indian musical instrument ‘dhol’.
ণ	Nasal sound when the tongue touches a bit away from teeth. In ন, the tongue touches the roots of the teeth.
ত	Soft sound of ‘t’ as used in the name of country Bharat
থ	As ‘th’ in thermo
দ	As ‘th’ in the
ধ	Not available in English. Again, naval sound produced by coupling soft ‘d’ and ‘h’= ‘dh’.
ন	As ‘n’ in man
প	As ‘p’ in push
ফ	Sound of ‘f’ if pronounced with closed lips. ‘f’ of German language.
ব	As ‘b’ in ban
ভ	Not available in English. Coupled sound of ‘b’ and ‘h’= ‘bh’.
ম	As ‘m’ in mass
য	As ‘y’ in yacht
র	As ‘r’ in run
ল	As ‘l’ in love
শ	As ‘sh’ in shot
ষ	Sound of ‘sh’ when the tongue touches the roots of the teeth. In শ, the tongue touches the upper part of mouth cavity.
স	As ‘s’ in sound
হ	As ‘h’ in has
জ্র	Coupled sound of ‘j’ and ‘n’= ‘jn’
ত্র	Coupled sound of soft ‘t’ and ‘r’—‘tr’.
ক্ষ	Coupled sound of ‘k’, ‘s’, ‘h’= ‘ksh’. A bit similar to ‘x’
শ্র	coupled sound of ‘s’, ‘h’, ‘r’=’shr’. As ‘shr’ in shroud

Variations of consonants in Bengali

ক়	Sound of ‘k’ produced from the throat: equal to ‘q’ of English.
খ়	Sound of ‘kh’ produced from the throat. As ‘kh’ used in the name of ‘khan’.
গ়	Sound of ‘g’ produced from the throat.
জ়	As ‘z’ in zebra
ড়	Next variation of ‘d’. Not available in English and very difficult to produce for foreigners. As ‘re’ in Crore.
ঢ়	Not available in English. Next variation of coupled sound of ‘dh’.
ফ়	As ‘f’ in fast. As ‘v’ in German language

Symbols used in Bengali

ঁ	Sound of ‘n’ with the previous consonant along with some other symbols used for that consonant
ং	Sound of ‘m’ with the previous consonant
ঃ	Sound of ‘h’ with the previous consonant
া	Sound of stressed ‘a’ with the previous consonant
ি	Sound of ‘i’ as in ill with the previous consonant
ী	Sound of ‘e’ as in eke with the previous consonant
ু	Sound of ‘u’ as in Ubuntu with the previous consonant
ূ	Sound of ‘ou’ as in you with the previous consonant
ৃ	Sound of ‘rhy’ as in rhythm with the previous consonant
ে	Sound of ‘ai’ as in aim with the previous consonant
ৈ	Sound of ‘a’ as in as with the previous consonant
ো	Sound of ‘o’ as in go with the previous consonant
ৌ	Stressed sound of ‘o’
্	Halant. This is used to make the consonant half making it disjointed from the sound of অ.
.	Symbol of ‘.’ Full stop in English.

Numeric symbols of Bengali (0-9)

০
১
২
৩
৪
৫
৬
৭
৮
৯

Apart from these symbols, there are two types of half-sound of ‘r’ that is used in Hindi. One after the bearing consonant and one before the bearing consonant. The symbol is not present as such in the Vrinda Font but can be made by pressing the Shift+3 keys. This symbol will put the half-sound of ‘r’ in the foot of the consonant and its sound would come after the consonant. Typing র and then using the key ‘d’ to make it half and then pressing the next consonant would make the symbol of ‘r’ that is sounded before the bearing consonant. This symbol will be placed above the consonant.

Microsoft uses “Vrinda” font for Bengali language.