Zaban
Nepali lessons

Learn to read Nepali.

We’ll start with how one Devanagari letter carries a whole syllable, then read real words and see how a sentence holds together.
Then you can try two short stories and see how much you understand.

13 core chapters · 3 optional references · Free, at your own pace

Starting from scratch

Start with the syllables, then work through the look-alike letters, the words and the sentences. The cards below let you try a greeting or look at the letters first.

Start with the syllables →
Try saying hello

A first hello
in Nepali.

Start with hello and thank you, then try the two words Nepali uses for “is”. The pronunciation and English are there to help.

Try the lesson A reading-first approach

One letter,
one syllable.

A Nepali letter already holds a vowel, so it gives you a whole syllable. See what changes when you hang a mark on it.

See how the letters work
Chapter 1 of 16 · Explore the Nepali path

Start here · Chapter 1 of 16

How this path works

See how the Nepali, the pronunciation guide and the English fit together, and where this guide differs from the reader app. You can use the same approach throughout the lessons.

≈ 2 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter
  • This path starts from no Nepali and ends with a short story whose pronunciation and English begin hidden.
  • A Devanagari letter is not a letter in the English sense: it is a whole syllable, with a vowel already inside it.
  • Knowing when that built-in vowel goes quiet is the single biggest thing between you and a Nepali page.
  • The verb comes last in a Nepali sentence, and the small words come after their noun rather than in front of it.
  • Stop after any checkpoint. The letter tables are for looking things up, not for memorising in one sitting.

This is short preparation for reading a book, not a grammar course. It teaches how a Nepali word comes apart into syllables, where the pieces of a sentence sit, and enough recurring words to get through a first page with help. You never have to write a Devanagari letter by hand.

Every Nepali word here is followed by a pronunciation guide in Latin letters. A bar over a vowel means it is held longer: ā is the a in father, ī the ee in see, ū the oo in moon, while a plain a is the small vowel in about. A dot under a letter — ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, ṣ — means the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. And c on its own is the ch of church; ch is that same sound with a puff of air behind it; ś is a letter most speakers simply say as s.

house

घर

ghar

The large word is the spelling, ghar the pronunciation guide, the English the meaning. At checkpoints, the last two stay hidden until you reveal them.

How to use a checkpoint

Look at the Nepali first. Then reveal.

  1. घर

    Two letters. The second one is quieter than it looks.

    Show answer +
    घरghar“house”. Say “ghar”.
The chapters

What do you want to work on?

If you’re starting from scratch, follow the chapters in order. Otherwise, pick the bit you need. You can skip the reference pages and come back to them.

The script

Your first reading job: one letter is a whole syllable

A Devanagari consonant already carries a vowel, so one letter gives you a syllable. Learn twelve of them, how a mark changes the vowel, and when that built-in vowel goes quiet.

5 chapters in this part
Your first reading job: one letter is a whole syllable≈ 4 minRead ten real words from those twelve letters≈ 1 minLetters that look alike, and sounds the spelling hides≈ 4 minLetters that stack on top of each other≈ 3 minThe Devanagari alphabet: find a letter and its sound≈ 7 min · Optional reference
Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Nepali chapters ↗