The dependent vowel signs े, ै, ो, and ौ replace a consonant's inherent a with the vowels written in this guide as e, ai, o, and au. They occur in extremely common words and grammatical endings, from में meṃ “in” and को ko to है hai “is” and कौन kaun “who.” All unlabelled forms here are neutral contemporary Standard Hindi.
The spelling system keeps four separate signs even though the exact pronunciation of ै and ौ varies across phonetic environments and accents. This page teaches their orthographic identity and reliable reading; detailed vowel quality and connected speech belong on the pronunciation page.
Four signs, four spellings
| Vowel | Independent | Sign on क | Reading | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| e | ए | के | ke | मेरा merā, “my” |
| ai | ऐ | कै | kai | कैसा kaisā, “what kind/how” |
| o | ओ | को | ko | सोना sonā, “to sleep/gold” |
| au | औ | कौ | kau | कौन kaun, “who” |
After a consonant, the dependent sign is used; at the beginning of an orthographic syllable, Hindi uses the independent letter. Thus को contains क + ो, while ओर or “direction/side” begins with ओ. The same division gives कौ beside word-initial औ in और aur “and.”
मेरी ट्रेन दस बजे आएगी।
merī ṭren das baje āegī.
My train will arrive at ten o'clock.
तुम कैसे हो?
tum kaise ho?
How are you?
वह रोज़ नौ बजे सोता है।
vah roz nau baje sotā hai.
He goes to sleep at nine every day.
आज मौसम बहुत अच्छा है।
āj mausam bahut acchā hai.
The weather is very nice today.
Contrasts that change the word
The signs े and ै are not interchangeable. मेल mel can mean “fair,” “mail,” or “contact/accord” depending on context, whereas मैल mail means “dirt.” The consonantal frame म–ल stays constant; only the vowel sign changes.
स्कूल में कल किताबों का मेला लगेगा।
skūl meṃ kal kitāboṃ kā melā lagegā.
There will be a book fair at the school tomorrow.
बारिश के बाद जूतों पर मैल लग गया।
bāriś ke bād jūtoṃ par mail lag gayā.
After the rain, the shoes got dirt on them.
The o/au contrast is equally meaningful. Compare ओर or “direction/side” with और aur “and.” Here the vowels are independent because they begin the words, but they display the same orthographic opposition as ो versus ौ after a consonant.
दाईं ओर मुड़िए और फिर सीधे जाइए।
dāīṃ or muṛie aur phir sīdhe jāie.
Turn to the right and then go straight.
The loan-vowel spelling ऑ and ॉ
Modern Hindi also uses independent ऑ and dependent ॉ in established loans, names, and transliterations. Frequent examples include ऑटो oṭo “auto-rickshaw,” डॉक्टर ḍokṭar “doctor,” कॉफ़ी kofī “coffee,” and बॉल bol “ball.” The candra mark distinguishes ॉ from ordinary ो in writing even though this guide's deliberately compact learner romanization writes both vowels as o.
ऑटो पाँच मिनट में आएगा।
oṭo pā̃c minaṭ meṃ āegā.
The auto-rickshaw will arrive in five minutes.
डॉक्टर ने कॉफ़ी पी।
ḍokṭar ne kofī pī.
The doctor drank coffee.
The minimal spelling contrast बोल bol “speak; speech” versus बॉल bol “ball” exposes a useful limit of the romanization: it helps pronunciation, but it is not fully reversible into Devanagari. Preserve the established spelling instead of replacing ॉ mechanically with ो.
यह बॉल उठाओ और साफ़ बोलो।
yah bol uṭhāo aur sāf bolo.
Pick up this ball and speak clearly.
The much rarer ऍ/ॅ may appear in specialized transliteration, particular names, or attempts to represent another language more exactly. They are not ordinary substitutes for ए/े in established Hindi words. Full phonetic variation in loans belongs in Pronunciation; the practical reading rule here is to recognize ऑ/ॉ as a real, Unicode-encoded part of contemporary Hindi spelling.
Extremely common grammatical forms
These signs often occur in endings and function words. के ke is one form of the possessive marker, को ko marks recipients and many objects, and है hai is the singular present copula. The letter-to-sound lesson therefore supports grammar from the first sentences.
Adjective and verb agreement can also change the final sign. In the following pair, masculine singular लड़का सोता changes to plural लड़के सोते. English changes neither “boy” nor “sleeps” in this same coordinated way.
लड़का जल्दी सोता है, लेकिन लड़के देर से सोते हैं।
laṛkā jaldī sotā hai, lekin laṛke der se sote haiṃ.
The boy goes to sleep early, but the boys go to sleep late.
The matras show the surface forms, but they do not explain the whole agreement system. Treat सोता and सोते as grammatical forms rather than as casual spelling variants.
Spelling is not a phonetic transcript
English speakers may expect each written vowel to map to one unchanging sound. Devanagari is more regular than English spelling, but Modern Hindi is still a living language, not a one-symbol-one-sound cipher. है is consistently written with ै, while its everyday pronunciation is not obtained by simply pronouncing an English word high. Likewise, मौसम retains its established spelling across normal contextual variation.
Bare consonants still present the separate problem of inherent-a deletion. In मौसम mausam, the final म has no vowel sign but does not contribute a final a. In बेहतर behtar “better,” conjunct parsing and schwa deletion shape the reading of the whole word.
यह योजना पहले से बेहतर है।
yah yojnā pahle se behtar hai.
This plan is better than before.
A short reading line
मेरी बहन रोज़ देर से सोती है।
merī bahan roz der se sotī hai.
My sister goes to sleep late every day.
Read मे–, रो–, दे–, से, सो– as consonant-plus-vowel units. Then read the complete words: the romanization omits the final inherent vowel in बहन bahan, because standard pronunciation does too.
Unicode-safe spelling
Enter the base consonant and then the intended Devanagari vowel sign: क + े, क + ै, क + ो, or क + ौ. In NFC text, ो and ौ should be handled as the normal composed vowel signs by your keyboard and normalization process. Do not construct them by pasting visually similar fragments, do not insert spaces within the syllable, and never substitute a Latin o or another look-alike.
A font may position part of a sign above or beside the consonant. That is rendering, not a reason to reorder the characters.
Common Mistakes
1. Using े where the word requires ै
❌ तुम केसे हो?
Incorrect — कैसे is written with ै in its first syllable.
✅ तुम कैसे हो?
tum kaise ho?
How are you?
2. Confusing ओर “direction” with और “and”
❌ हम चाय ओर समोसे लेंगे।
Incorrect for ‘tea and samosas’ — ओर means ‘direction/side.’
✅ हम चाय और समोसे लेंगे।
ham cāy aur samose leṅge.
We'll have tea and samosas.
3. Omitting ौ in कौन
❌ दरवाज़े पर कोन है?
Incorrect — the standard spelling of ‘who’ is कौन with ौ.
✅ दरवाज़े पर कौन है?
darvāze par kaun hai?
Who is at the door?
4. Pronouncing a final inherent a after reading the matra correctly
❌ आज मौसम अच्छा है।
Incorrect reading as āja mausama acchā hai — the final inherent vowels in आज and मौसम are deleted.
✅ आज मौसम अच्छा है।
āj mausam acchā hai.
The weather is nice today.
Key Takeaways
- े, ै, ो, and ौ replace inherent a with the four distinct written vowels e, ai, o, au.
- ऑ/ॉ extends the system in frequent modern loans; this guide writes it as o, so Devanagari spelling remains essential.
- These signs distinguish vocabulary and appear in high-frequency grammatical forms.
- Modern pronunciation does not make the spellings interchangeable.
- Use genuine, NFC-normalized Devanagari sequences and combine letter recognition with knowledge of words, schwa deletion, and conjuncts.
Related Topics
- Independent vowels ए ऐ ओ औA1 — Learn the independent letters ए, ऐ, ओ, and औ, their syllable-initial distribution, and key contrasts such as ओर versus और.
- Vowel signs ा ि ीA1 — Learn how the dependent vowel signs ा, ि, and ी combine with consonants, including the special visual order of ि and the difference between spelling and pronunciation.
- Vowel signs ु ू ृA1 — Learn how ु, ू, and ृ attach below consonants, how special font shapes such as रु and रू work, and why ृ is limited mainly to Sanskrit-derived vocabulary.
- Inherent a and the absence of a vowel signA1 — Understand what a bare Devanagari consonant writes, when Hindi pronounces or deletes its inherent a, and how this differs from using a vowel sign or virama.
- ए ऐ ओ औ in contemporary speechA1 — Pronounce Hindi e, ai, o, and au as contemporary vowel contrasts without importing English-style glides.
- Unicode typing normalization and keyboard-safe spellingC2 — Build Hindi text from valid Unicode sequences, normalize it safely, and avoid invisible controls, Latin lookalikes, and broken combining marks.