The Bengali Alphabet: A Beginner's Guide to Bangla Script

The Bengali language alphabet has 43 basic letters on our chart: 11 vowels and 32 consonants. It is an abugida, which means every consonant already carries a vowel sound, close to the o in “got”, and the other vowels are written as signs (called kar) attached to the consonant. Learn the vowels, then the consonants row by row, then the vowel signs, and you can sound out real Bengali words.

This guide uses the letters, names and sounds from our free Bengali alphabet chart, and every practice word comes from our list of the 3,802 most common Bengali words.

#What kind of script is Bengali?

Bengali (Bangla, বাংলা) is written in its own script, used for the national language of Bangladesh and in the Indian state of West Bengal. The same script, with a few differences, is also used for Assamese.

The key word for a learner is abugida. In an alphabet like English, vowels and consonants are equal: you write k and then o. In an abugida, the consonant letter already includes a vowel. The letter ক on its own is read ko, not k. To say ki or ku instead, you attach a vowel sign to ক. The standalone vowel letters are used at the start of a word, or right after another vowel.

Our alphabet data sums up how it looks: “Like Devanagari it hangs from a line along the top and a consonant carries its vowel already — but the shapes are rounder and the built-in vowel is closer to an o than an a.” That comparison is useful, because Devanagari (the script of Hindi) and Bengali share an ancestor and put their letters in the same order. We come back to it below.

Letter counts depend on what you include. Bengali school charts in Bangladesh usually count 11 vowels and 39 consonants, because they add seven letters and marks that our chart leaves for later: ড়, ঢ়, য়, ৎ, ং, ঃ and ঁ. You’ll meet all seven further down. Treat 43 as the working total a beginner needs, not an official one.

#Bengali vowels

These are the vowels in their standalone form. The sounds are rough English approximations, enough to sound a word out.

Two things surprise beginners:

• অ is named “a” but said like the o in “got”. This is the vowel every consonant carries. The name comes from the shared Indian tradition; the sound is Bengali’s own.
• ই and ঈ, উ and ঊ, are “short” and “long” on paper only. Modern Bengali lost the difference in vowel length, so ই and ঈ are both said i, and উ and ঊ are both said u. Our chart keeps the traditional split (bit vs see), but in everyday speech you won’t hear it. The difference still matters for spelling, so learn which one a word uses.

Two of these vowels are also everyday words on their own. ও (o) is a word for “he, she” and is the 52nd most common word on our list; এ (e) is another, at 105th.

#Bengali consonants

Our chart lists 32 consonants. The first 25 fall into five rows of five, and each row follows the same pattern: a plain sound, the same sound with a puff of air, a voiced sound, the voiced sound with a puff of air, and a nasal. Learn the pattern once and each new row is quick.

Our chart names them with a (ka, kha, ga), the way they are written across Indian scripts. Bengali speakers usually say the names with their own built-in vowel: ko, kho, go. Both refer to the same letters.

The remaining 7 don’t fit a row:

A few notes for English speakers:

• য is a j, not a y. In Devanagari the matching letter य is ya; in Bengali য sounds like জ. For the y sound Bengali uses য় (the same letter with a dot), as in সময় (time, #349 on our list).
• ণ and ন sound the same today. ণ was once said with the tongue curled back; in modern Bengali it is almost always the same n as ন. The difference survives in spelling.
• শ, ষ and স are usually all sh. Our chart gives স as s, and it does keep an s sound in some clusters, such as স্ত in রাস্তা (road, #281) or স্ক in স্কুল (school, #496). In many other words, like সময় (time), it is said sh.
• There is no separate v letter. ব covers b, and loanwords with a v are usually written with ভ or ব.
• The two t-rows really are different. ট and ত are both named “ta”, but one is said with the tongue curled back and the other with the tongue on the teeth. You’ll hear the difference from a native speaker, not from a table.

#How vowel signs (kar) work

Every consonant carries a built-in o sound (written অ when it stands alone). To put any other vowel after a consonant, you attach that vowel’s sign. In Bengali these signs are called kar: আ-কার (aa-kar), ই-কার (i-kar) and so on. Here they are on ক:

Notice where the signs sit. The i, e and oi signs are written before the consonant even though you say them after it. The o and ou signs wrap around it, one part on each side. The u, uu and ri signs hang below, and a few consonants take a different-looking u sign: রু (ru) and হু (hu) are the ones you’ll see most.

#The built-in vowel: when you say it and when you don’t

The built-in vowel is where Bengali reading gets interesting. Two rough rules cover most beginner words:

• At the end of a word it is usually silent. নাম (name) is naam, not naamo. কলম (pen) is kolom, ঘর (house) is ghor, শহর (city) is shohor.
• Some words keep it, and then it sounds like the o in “go”. Many adjectives do this: বড় (big) is boro, ছোট (small) is chhoto. It is also kept after a consonant cluster.

The spelling won’t tell you which applies, so this is one of the things to check with a native speaker as you go. The mark ্, called hasanta, is the written way to show “no vowel here”, but in everyday words it is usually left out and you simply know.

#The matra: the line along the top

Most Bengali letters hang from a horizontal line called the matra. When you write a word, the matras of its letters join into one continuous line, which is why a written word looks strung together. Not every letter has a full one, and Bengali schoolbooks group the letters this way:

• No matra (10): এ, ঐ, ও, ঔ, ঙ, ঞ, ৎ, ং, ঃ, ঁ
• Half a matra (8): ঋ, খ, গ, ণ, থ, ধ, প, শ
• Full matra: all the rest

This is worth knowing for handwriting, and it also helps recognition: ও and এ stand out in a line of text precisely because they break the matra.

#Seven more letters and marks you’ll see

Our chart leaves these out, but real words use them from day one. All the examples are from our word list:

#Conjuncts, briefly

When two consonants meet with no vowel between them, Bengali usually fuses them into one shape, a conjunct. There are many, but you don’t need to learn them before you start reading. Pick them up word by word:

• ন্ধ (n + dh) in বন্ধু (friend, #162), said bondhu
• স্ত (s + t) in রাস্তা (road, #281), said raasta
• ক্ষ (k + sh) in ক্ষমা (forgiveness, #277). Despite its parts, it is said kh at the start of a word: khoma.
• জ্ঞ (j + ny) in জ্ঞান (knowledge, #654), said roughly gyan
• ন্য (n + y) in ধন্যবাদ (thank you, #70). A য attached after a consonant (the ya-phala) usually doubles that consonant instead of adding a y: dhonnobaad.
• প্র (p + r) in প্রেম (love, #551). A র after a consonant becomes a small stroke underneath.

#Bengali and Devanagari compared

If you know the Hindi script, Bengali is mostly a change of shapes, not a change of system. If you learn Bengali first, Devanagari will feel familiar. Both are abugidas, both hang from a top line, and both list their consonants in the same five rows, in the same order.

Many everyday words are nearly the same in both languages, so you can read them letter by letter across scripts: নাম and नाम (name), দিন and दिन (day), রাত and रात (night), ঘর and घर (house), ভাষা and भाषा (language). If you want to learn both, read our guide to the Hindi alphabet next.

Bengali also sits in a family of Indian abugidas. Our Malayalam alphabet guide covers a southern script that works the same way with more letters, and the charts for the Tamil alphabet and the Telugu alphabet show two more.

#Read your first Bengali words

Put the pieces together. Each of these is on our most common Bengali words list, with its rank.

Start with ঘর and কলম: no vowel signs at all, only the built-in vowel and a silent end. Then মা and নাম add one sign. In দিন the sign comes before the letter, and in চোখ it wraps around it. In ভাই and বই a standalone vowel follows another vowel.

#A learning plan for the Bengali alphabet

The chart with every letter is at /tools/alphabet/bengali. After it comes vocabulary: the most common Bengali words, each with its English meaning. When you can read a few hundred, the Bengali vocabulary test samples words from every part of the list and estimates how many you know.

#Practice reading and speaking with native speakers

A chart gives you the shapes. The sounds, above all the built-in vowel that comes and goes, come from hearing a person and being corrected. On LangX, Bengali is one of the 182 languages you can pick, and matching runs both ways: you see people who speak Bengali and are learning a language you speak.

9:41

Lucía M. Online

Today

Hold any message to correct it — corrections are the most useful thing you can send.

¿Cómo fue tu fin de semana? Cuéntame en inglés si quieres. How was your weekend? Tell me in English if you like. 09:12

Fui a la playa con mi hermana. Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. 09:14 · Read

Correction from Lucía Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. Hacía mucho calor y no llevé agua. The «yo» isn't wrong, it just sounds emphatic — like you specifically forgot. 09:15

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More alphabet guides: Hindi, Malayalam, Russian, Bulgarian, Greek and Korean.

#FAQ

#How many letters are in the Bengali alphabet?

Our chart lists 43 basic letters: 11 vowels and 32 consonants. Bengali schoolbooks usually count 11 vowels and 39 consonants, 50 in all, because they include ড়, ঢ়, য়, ৎ, ং, ঃ and ঁ.

#Is the Bengali script an alphabet or an abugida?

An abugida. Each consonant carries a built-in vowel, said like the o in “got”, and other vowels are written as signs (kar) attached to the consonant. Standalone vowel letters appear at the start of a word or after another vowel.

#Is the Bengali alphabet the same as the Hindi alphabet?

No, but they are close relatives. Hindi uses Devanagari. Both scripts work the same way and order their letters the same way, but the shapes differ, and so do some sounds: the built-in vowel is o in Bengali and a (as in “but”) in Hindi.

#What is the matra in Bengali?

The horizontal line along the top of most letters. Ten letters have none (such as এ, ও and ঙ), and eight have only half (such as খ, গ and প). In Hindi the same word means a vowel sign, which is a common mix-up.

#How long does it take to learn the Bengali alphabet?

It depends on how much you practice. Learning it in the order above, vowels first, then consonant rows, then the kar signs, is faster than memorizing 43 unrelated shapes, and reading real words early makes the letters stick.