INTRODUCTION

And now, we come to the 'kaaf' group which again, consists of two letters - ‘kaaf’ ( Devanagari: काफ़ | IPA:  /ka:f/ | Pronunciation:  ) and ‘gaaf’ ( Devanagri: गाफ़ | IPA:  /ga:f/ | Pronunciation:  ).

گ
  • gaaf
  • गाफ़
ك
  • kaaf
  • काफ़

Above: The letters ‘kaaf’ & ‘gaaf’

And once again, we come back to the pattern where the letters in a group share the same base shape. In this case, the ‘kaaf’ and ‘gaaf’, both share the same base shape. They are differentiated only by the number of slants, called markaz, above them.

19.1.1: ‘kaaf’

This is the letter ‘kaaf’ ( Devanagri: काफ़ | IPA:  /ka:f/ | Pronunciation:   ).

It has the sound of ‘k’ as in the English words “kitten”, “baking”, “beak” etc. or Hindi/Urdu words such as “कमरा”, “बकरी”, “चमक” etc.

IMPORTANT

Note that ‘k’ here, is denoted as क   in Devanagari. This is clearly different from the ‘q’ (क़)  sound we came across with ‘qaaf’.

kaaf

काफ़


19.1.2: ‘gaaf’

This is the letter ‘gaaf’ ( Devanagri: गाफ़ | IPA:  /ga:f/ | Pronunciation:    ).

It has the sound of ‘g’ as in the English words “garden”, “nagging”, “bag” etc. or Hindi/Urdu words such as “गर्दन ”, “मगर ”, “राग” etc.

IMPORTANT

Note that the ‘g’ sound here, is denoted as ग  in Devanagari. This is clearly different from the ‘G’ (ग़)  sound we saw with the ‘Gain’.

gaaf

गाफ़

And now, let’s quickly head on to learning new words with these letters.