How Nepali writing works

Standard Nepali in Nepal uses Devanagari, left to right, with spaces between words and no capital letters.

Listen to house and tea. These four orientation pages have no quizzes. You can listen without being expected to recognise any sign yet.

A common chart has 33 basic consonants and 11 independent vowel letters. Many Nepali school charts also list the joined forms क्ष, त्र and ज्ञ, and add अं to the vowels, so you will also see totals such as 36 consonants. Spoken Nepali has six basic vowel sounds, and most of them can also be nasal.

A consonant normally carries a Nepali inherent vowel; attached vowel signs replace it. The reading hints write that vowel as a, but listen for its Nepali quality: rounder than the a in “father”.

Vowel signs sit to the right, above, below or even to the left of the consonant. In कि the i sign is drawn first but read after k.