Anusvara: The Dot That Adds a Nasal Sound
Launch library · evergreen read
Anusvara, written as a small dot above a letter (ं), adds a nasal sound to whatever vowel it follows. In हंस, hans, meaning swan, the dot nasalises the vowel rather than introducing a fully separate consonant sound. Anusvara is a convenient shorthand in Devanagari, often standing in for a nasal consonant that would otherwise need its own full letter.
Its exact pronunciation shifts slightly depending on the sounds around it, something that becomes easier to hear with practice. For learners, anusvara is worth listening for carefully in spoken Hindi before worrying too much about writing it correctly. Recognising the nasal quality by ear makes the written dot feel far more intuitive once you start reading regularly.
A useful comparison is listening for sant, saint, without anusvara, against its nasalised cousins elsewhere in the language, a good exercise for training the ear to notice the dot's subtle effect on pronunciation. Over time, listening for this nasal quality becomes almost automatic, letting a reader supply the anusvara mentally even before checking the written dot.