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Sandhi

About 6 min · General Hindi · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 346 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Sandhi is a fundamental concept in Hindi grammar that deals with the combination of two sounds (वर्ण) when they come together. When two words join, the meeting point of the last letter of the first word and the first letter of the second word undergoes a specific change—this change is called Sandhi. The term literally means "joining" or "union."

Key ideas

• Sandhi Definition: The phonetic change that occurs at the junction of two sounds when words combine. Formula: First word's last letter + Second word's first letter = Combined sound.
• Sandhi-Vichchhed: The reverse process—separating a combined word into its original two components (e.g., विद्यालय → विद्या + आलय).
• Swar Sandhi (स्वर संधि): Occurs when two vowels (swar) meet. Has five subtypes: Deergh, Gun, Vriddhi, Yan, and Ayadi.
• Vyanjan Sandhi (व्यंजन संधि): Occurs when a consonant (vyanjan) meets either a vowel or another consonant. The first letter changes based on the second letter.
• Visarg Sandhi (विसर्ग संधि): Occurs when Visarg (ः) meets a vowel or consonant. Visarg may convert to स्, र्, or merge with the following sound.

Watch out for

• Confusing Gun and Vriddhi: Gun produces ए/ओ/अर्, while Vriddhi produces ऐ/औ. Remember: Gun = गुण = simple; Vriddhi = वृद्धि = enhanced/bigger sound.
• Misidentifying Yan Sandhi: Students forget that Yan Sandhi requires the second vowel to be DIFFERENT from the first. इ + इ is Deergh (ई), but इ + अ is Yan (य).
• Ignoring implicit अ: Hindi consonants carry implicit अ. In राम + अवतार = रामावतार, the म् has implicit अ, making it अ + अ = आ (Deergh).

Quick reference

• Deergh: Same vowel family → longer vowel (अ+आ=आ, इ+ई=ई, उ+ऊ=ऊ)
• Gun: अ/आ + इ/उ/ऋ → ए/ओ/अर्
• Vriddhi: अ/आ + ए/ओ → ऐ/औ
• Yan: इ/उ/ऋ + different vowel → य्/व्/र् + vowel
• Vyanjan key: Unvoiced → Voiced before voiced sounds

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 17 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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