INTRODUCTION

And now, in this unit, we’ll look at another very important letter in the Urdu alphabet that acts as both, a consonant and a vowel -the ‘chhoTii he’ ( Devanagri: छोटी हे | IPA:  /t͡ʃʰoːʈiː heː/ | Pronunciation:   ).

ه
  • chhoTii he
  • छोटी हे

Above: The letter ‘chhoTii he’

‘chhoTii he’ imparts the ‘h’ ( ह |  ) sound as in the English words “hat”, “mayhem”, “oh” etc. or as in Hindi words such as “हम”, “कहना”, “वाह” etc.

INTERESTING

You would have noticed by now that there are two distinct letters in Urdu for the ‘h’ sound - ‘he’ from the 'jiim' group and this new letter we’ve just come across, the ‘chhoTii he’.

It is important to note that ‘he’, the one from the 'jiim' group, is used only in words of Arabic origin.


Here’s a comparison for you to refresh your memory:

ح
  • he
  • हे
vs
ه
  • chhoTii he
  • छोटी हे

Above: Comparative showing both the ‘he’ and the ‘chhoTii he’

And here’s an animated view of how this letter is written:

Above: How the letter ‘chhoTii he’ is written

And now, let’s quickly move on and look at words that we can make with the ‘chhoTii he’.