Consonant types
There are 32 consonants in Bengali. They are divided into five main types:
- Gutteral (made in the back of your throat). E.g. গ /g/
- Palatal (made with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth). E.g. ড /d/
- Retroflex (made with your tongue curled back). E.g. র /r/
- Dental (made with the tongue touching the back of your top teeth). E.g. ত /t/
- Labial (made with your lips). E.g. প /p/
Aspirated consonants
Also, some consonants are aspirated, which means they are pronounced with a puff of air and others are unaspirated.
In the romanization, consonants without an “h” are usually unaspirated. E.g. /g/ is unaspirated whereas /gh/ is aspirated.
Multiple characters for some sounds
Some sounds have multiple characters. This is because in the past they had distinct sounds but over time they have changed so as to be indistinguishable.
For example, শ ,ষ and স all have the English /sh/ sound or sometimes /s/.
The inherent vowel
If a consonant is not written with a vowel marker, the consonant is generally pronounced with a following inherent /ɔ/ sound (which similar to the /o/ in English “on”). So the sound of the letter ক /k/ is /kɔ/.
Romanization
In the Romanization system used in these classes the /ɔ/ is written as /o/.
However you will find that in Google Translate the ‘a’ of ‘saw’ is written as /a/ and that ‘a’ as in the English ‘far’ is written as /ā/.
Consonant names
The consonant’s names are generally their sound along with the inherent vowel. For example the letter ত has the sound /t/ so with the inherent vowel it’s /tɔ/ which in this course is written as /to/.
But some letters don’t follow this rule, such as where multiple characters represent the same sound.
Writing Bengali with Latin letters
In addition to the Bengali script, Bengali words can be written with the Latin script (Romanized). The Latin script is often used by people writing in social media or when writing text messages. As a learner this helps you know how to pronounce a Bengali words when you haven’t yet learned the Bengali script.
There is no universally accepted system for the spelling of Bengali words with Latin letters.
In this course, Romanized words and sounds are always written between two slashes like this /ami/.
1) The sound ‘o’ as in the English ‘hot’ is written as /o/. The sound ‘a’ as in the English ‘saw’ is written as /a/.
2) By contrast in the Google Translate’s Bengali Romanization the ‘o’ of ‘hot’ is written as /a/ and the ‘a’ of ‘saw’ is written as /ā/.
4) /c/ is pronounced like the ch of chair.
6) ã, õ and ē are nasalized versions of a, o and ē.
7) In the Google Analytics scheme you’ll see various other dots and circles above or below letters. Just ignore them. They have a meaning for the way the letters sound, but ignore them and just go by how the audio sounds.
The inherent vowel
If a consonant is not written with a vowel marker, the consonant is generally pronounced with sound /ɔ/ following it. This sounds similar to the ‘o’ in the English ‘lost’).
Google Translate’s silent /a/
Usually the inherent vowel is not pronounced at the end of words, but Google Translate, which represents it with /a/ unhelpfully writes it in anyway.
In these Brainscape classes that has generally been removed to remove confusion, but may sometimes have been missed. Listen to the audio.
ক
/k/
Ko
Similar to the English “k” as in “bake”.
খ
/kh/
Ko
Say /k/ and breath out as you say it.
This is an aspirated ক.
গ
/g/
Go
This is an aspirated ক. Similar to the English “g” as in “go.”
ঘ
/gh/
Gho
This is an aspirated গ.
Say /g/ and breath out as you do.
ঙ
/ng/
Ungo
This is like the “ng” in “sing” in English.
হ
/h/
Ho
Similar to the English “h” as in “hot”.
চ
/ch/
Tcho
This is the /tch/ sound in watch, catch and latch.
ছ
/ch/
Cho
The is the /ch/ sound in chick, child and chill.
জ
/j/
Borgiyo-jo
Similar to the English “j” as in “joy.”
Some Bengali dialects will pronounce this more like the y in the English yellow.
ঝ
/jh/
Name: Jho
This is an aspirated জ
য
/j/
Ontoshto-jo
This is pronounced the same as জ
ঞ
/ñ/
Iñgyo
This is like the Spanish ñ. Similar to a nasally “ny” sound in “canyon“.
ট
/t/
To
This is a retroflex “t”.
Roll your tongue back against the roof of your mouth and blow it out to make the sound. Some Bengalis call this a hard “t“.
ঠ
/th/
Tho
This is an aspirated ট
ড
/d/
Do
This is a retroflex “d” sound. Pronounce it by curling your tongue back and flicking it forward across the roof of your mouth.
ঢ
/dh/
Dho
This is an aspirated ড.
Like ড it is refroflex. Try pronouncing a “d” sound with your tongue curled back, while breathing out. (Good luck!)
ণ
/n/
Modhhenno-no
This is historically a retroflex “n” sound.
র
/r/
Boey-sunnyo-ro
This is pronounced similar to an English /r/, but with a gentle tap to the pallet behind the top teath.
There is a good explanation of the difference between র, ড় and ঢ় here.
ড়
/r/
Doyey-unno-ro
| This is a retroflex ”r”.
Roll your tongue back and tap it against your pallet as you voice the ”r”. It’s like র pronounced with the tongue further back.
There is a good explanation of the difference between র, ড় and ঢ় here.
ঢ়
/rh/
Ddhoey-sunno-ro
This is an aspirated ড়
There is a good explanation of the difference between র, ড় and ঢ় here.
ত
/t/
To
This is a dental “t” sound. It’s like the Spanish “t”.
Press the tip of your tongue against the back of your upper teeth to stop the flow of air completely for an instant.
Some Bengalis call this a soft ”t”.
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Vowels16
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Consonants38
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Vowel markers on consonants9
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Conjunct Consonants82
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Other script marks8
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Numbers55
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Pronouns and possessives42
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Grammar words19
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Ling 1) Introduction43
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Ling 2) Basic sentences41
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Ling 3) Numbers and family46
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Ling 4) Numbers and counting41
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Ling 5) Activities47
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Ling 6) Foods & tastes56
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 131
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 231
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 331
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 430
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 531
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 1494
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Complete Bengali - Chapter 1533
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Navigation19
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Time, dates, months & seasons46
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Nature24
