Hindi is written with the Devanagari script, a 4,000-year-old abugida descended from Brahmi. Because Devanagari is phonetic, you can type it by sound — and the easiest way is phonetic typing: you type English letters and they convert to Devanagari.
How phonetic Hindi typing works
Type namaste and you get नमस्ते. Type kitab for किताब (book) and shukriya for शुक्रिया (thank you). The mapping is intuitive:
- k → क, kh → ख, g → ग, gh → घ
- ch → च, Ch → छ, j → ज, jh → झ
- t → त, th → थ, d → द, dh → ध
- sh → श, s → स, h → ह
- a → अ, aa → आ, i → इ, ii → ई
Vowels and the inherent 'a'
In Devanagari every consonant carries an inherent vowel a: क is "ka". To change it, vowel signs attach above, below, before or after the consonant: क + ि = कि (ki), क + े = के (ke). Phonetic typing handles this automatically — you just type the letters.
Conjuncts
When consonants join without a vowel they form conjuncts: क + ष = क्ष (ksha), त + र = त्र (tra). Our keyboard knows common conjuncts such as kr, pr, shr and str.
Start typing Hindi
Open the Hindi phonetic keyboard and type pyaar for प्यार (love), dost for दोस्त (friend) or jai hind for जय हिन्द. The live preview shows your Devanagari as you type.