If you've just decided to learn Marathi, this is one of the first forks in the road you'll run into: do you start with the script, or with spoken Marathi? Plenty of traditional Marathi teachers and community classes start with the alphabet. Our take at Bhashafy, shaped by watching thousands of learners go through this, leans the other way. Start with spoken Marathi, and treat the script as its own project a little later on. Trying to learn a brand new spoken language and an unfamiliar script at the same time is genuinely overwhelming. In fact, it's one of the most common reasons beginners quit early - they get stuck memorizing the barakhadi chart before ever speaking a usable sentence in Marathi.
Traditional Marathi teachers start with the script because they're used to teaching Marathi-speaking children who are already fluent in the spoken language at home. That isn't the right approach for complete beginners starting from scratch.
If you're the child of Marathi-speaking NRIs and already understand some spoken Marathi from home, you may be ready for the script earlier than a true beginner. Decide the order based on your own starting point and goals.
TL;DR: If you don't already read Devanagari, learn some spoken Marathi first and pick up the script after. That way you'll understand what you're reading, and you won't feel overwhelmed trying to speak a new language and decoding a new script at the same time.
Why learning the script too early fails
If you're starting from absolute zero, learning the spoken language and the script at the same time is a recipe for overload. Here's why so many beginners end up giving up:
- Too much at once: Poorly designed courses make students memorize the whole alphabet, plus all the vowel signs and joined letters, before they ever learn how to say "How are you?" in Marathi. Most beginners burn out after their first ka-kha-ga-gha without learning a single usable sentence.
- Reading without meaning: If you learn to decode letters before you know any words, you end up reading aloud without understanding a thing. When you learn spoken Marathi first, every word you read is one you already know.
- It slows down speaking: Speaking needs muscle memory in your mouth and an ear tuned to native speed. Decoding unfamiliar symbols at the same time gets in the way of building conversational confidence.
Do you already read Hindi or another Indian script?
Before you dive in, take stock of what you already know.
If you read Hindi, Sanskrit or Nepali, you already know Devanagari, the script Marathi is written in. You can read most Marathi words right away. The differences are mostly in pronunciation:
- च (cha) and ज (ja) often sound like "ts" and "dz" in Marathi, as in चार (chaar, said tsaar - four) and जा (zaa - go)
- ळ (la) is a retroflex "l" that Hindi doesn't use, as in शाळा (shaala - school)
- ऐ (ai) and औ (au) are said as "a-i" and "a-u", so पैसे (money) is pa-i-se
- ज्ञ is said "dnya", so ज्ञान (knowledge) is dnyaan, not gyaan
- ॲ (a) and ऑ (o) are used for English sounds, as in बॅग (bag) and ऑफिस (office)
If you read another Indian script, like Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada or Tamil, you also have a big head start. All major Indian scripts share the same underlying structure. The vowels (a, aa, i, ee, u, oo and so on) and the consonant groups (ka-kha-ga-gha-nga, cha-chha-ja-jha-nya and so on) follow the exact same order. You simply have to learn new shapes.
How does an abugida script like Devanagari work?
If you don't know any Indian script - it helps to first understand how the abugida system of Indian scripts works. In Devanagari, a consonant is the base, and vowels attach to it as small marks. That's different from an alphabet like English, where consonants and vowels are separate letters written side by side.
How vowel signs (matras) work
In English, the letter K stands for a consonant sound on its own, and you add a vowel next to it, like in "kite" or "keep".
Devanagari works differently. A consonant carries a built-in "a" sound. So क is not just "k" - it's "ka".
You then change that vowel by adding vowel signs, called matras, around the base letter:
- क → ka
- क + vowel sign → का, कि, की, कु, कू, के, कै, को, कौ (kaa, ki, kee, ku, koo, ke, kai, ko, kau)
Notice how each sign sits around the base letter क (ka) - before it, after it, above it or below it. The same idea runs through almost every Indian script.
When you use the full vowel letters
Full vowel letters (like अ a, आ aa, इ i, ई ee) also exist, but you only use them when a vowel comes at the very start of a word, with no consonant to attach to:
- आई - aai (mother). The word starts with a vowel, so the full letter आ (aa) is used
- इथे - ithe (here). Again, the word starts with a vowel, इ (i)
What are joined letters (conjuncts) in Devanagari?
Next, watch out for conjuncts - two or more consonants joined together with no vowel in between. Think of the "tr" in the English word "tree", or the Marathi word स्त्री (stree - woman).
If you wrote स + त + र + ी (sa + ta + ra + ee) side by side, you'd get "satari" - not what we want. We want "stree", so the built-in "a" of the first consonants "sa" and "ta" has to go. In Devanagari, you do that by writing the first consonant as a half letter, usually by dropping its vertical line, and joining it to the next one:
- स् - half sa (s)
- त्र - ta joined with ra (tra)
- ी - the long ee matra
- Result: स्त्री (stree)
Most half letters are easy to recognize once you've seen a few, since they're usually the left half of the full letter. A handful of conjuncts have their own special shapes, and they come up so often that they're worth learning first:
| Conjunct | Made of | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| क्ष | क + ष (ksha) | पक्षी (pakshi - bird) |
| ज्ञ | ज + ञ (dnya) | ज्ञान (dnyaan - knowledge) |
| त्र | त + र (tra) | मित्र (mitra - friend) |
| प्र | प + र (pra) | प्रश्न (prashna - question) |
| श्र | श + र (shra) | श्रावण (Shraavan - a month of the Marathi calendar) |
| द्ध | द + ध (ddha) | शुद्ध (shuddha - pure) |
One more to look out for: when र (ra) comes first in a cluster, it turns into a small hook on top of the next letter, as in सर्व (sarva - all).
The full Marathi alphabet - vowels (swar) and consonants (vyanjan)
Now let's look at the script as a complete alphabet.
Vowels (swar)
| Devanagari | Sound | As in the English word |
|---|---|---|
| अ | a | Cup |
| आ | aa | Father |
| इ | i | Fit |
| ई | ee | Feet |
| उ | u | Pull |
| ऊ | oo | Pool |
| ए | e | Gate |
| ऐ | ai (a-i) | Eye |
| ओ | o | Pole |
| औ | au (a-u) | Now |
| अं | am / an | Sum / Sun |
| अः | aha | Aha! |
| ऋ | ru | Rhythm |
| ॲ | a (short) | Bat |
| ऑ | o (short) | Doctor |
These are the full, standalone vowel letters, used only when a vowel starts a word, as in आई (aai) and इथे (ithe). ऋ (ru) turns up mainly in words borrowed from Sanskrit, and ॲ and ऑ are used to write English words like बॅग (bag) and ऑफिस (office).
Consonants (vyanjan)
Consonants are grouped into rows that follow the same pattern, which makes them much easier to learn in sets than as 36 random shapes. Each row is made at a different place in the mouth, starting at the back of the mouth and moving forward, row by row, until you reach the lips.
| Row | Devanagari | Sounds like | Where it's made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ka letters | क ख ग घ ङ | ka, kha, ga, gha, nga | Back of the mouth |
| Cha letters | च छ ज झ ञ | cha, chha, ja, jha, nya | Roof of the mouth (in many words, च, ज and झ are said "ts", "dz" and "z", with the tongue just behind the teeth) |
| Ṭa letters (retroflex) | ट ठ ड ढ ण | ṭa, ṭha, ḍa, ḍha, ṇa | Tongue curled back to touch the roof of the mouth |
| Ta letters (dental) | त थ द ध न | ta, tha, da, dha, na | Tongue touching the back of the top front teeth |
| Pa letters | प फ ब भ म | pa, pha, ba, bha, ma | Lips |
| Others | य र ल व श ष स ह ळ क्ष ज्ञ | ya, ra, la, va, sha, sha, sa, ha, ḷa, ksha, dnya | Semi-vowels and other sounds |
In everyday Marathi, श (sha) and ष (sha) sound the same, so don't worry about telling them apart when you speak.
Within every row, the order is very systematic too:
- 1st letter of every row is Unvoiced: ka, cha, ṭa, ta, pa
- 2nd letter of every row is Unvoiced & Aspirated (with a puff of air): kha, chha, ṭha, tha, pha
- 3rd letter of every row is Voiced: ga, ja, ḍa, da, ba
- 4th letter of every row is Voiced & Aspirated: gha, jha, ḍha, dha, bha
- 5th letter of every row is Nasal: nga, nya, ṇa, na, ma
Marathi sounds in Devanagari that are different to Hindi:
- च (cha): Said "cha" in some words, like चिमणी (chimni - sparrow), and "tsa" in others, like चार (tsaar - four) and चहा (tsaha - tea)
- ज (ja): Said "ja" in some words, like जीव (jeev - life), and "za" in others, like जा (zaa - go)
- झ (jha): Said "jha" in some words, and "zha" in others, like झालं (zhaala - happened)
- ळ (la): A retroflex "l", made with the tongue curled back, that Hindi doesn't use, as in शाळा (shaala - school) and वेळ (vel - time)
- ज्ञ (dnya): Hindi says "gya", but Marathi says "dnya", so ज्ञान (knowledge) is "gyaan" in Hindi and "dnyaan" in Marathi
How to practice reading Marathi: a step-by-step progression
This is where many traditional teaching methods go wrong. A learner is handed a giant chart and told to memorize every vowel, consonant, matra and conjunct before they start reading.
We recommend almost the opposite: start reading almost immediately, as soon as you know your first few letters. Nobody memorizes the whole chart perfectly before they start, so practice with whatever you know and add to it as you go.
Follow this progression to build your reading speed naturally.
Step 1: Single syllables
- जा (zaa - go)
- ये (ye - come)
- हो (ho - yes)
- दे (de - give)
- घे (ghe - take)
- मी (mee - I)
- तू (too - you)
- तो (to - he)
Step 2: Two-syllable words (no conjuncts)
- आई (aa-i - mother)
- बाबा (baa-baa - father)
- पाणी (paa-ṇi - water)
- घर (gha-r - house)
- नाव (naa-v - name)
- चहा (cha-haa - tea)
- काम (kaa-m - work)
Step 3: Two-syllable words (with conjuncts)
- मित्र (mi-tra - friend)
- मस्त (ma-sta - great)
- पुस्तक (pus-tak - book)
- गोष्ट (go-shṭa - story)
- नक्की (na-kki - for sure)
Step 4: Longer words
- मराठी (ma-raa-ṭhi - Marathi)
- भाकरी (bhaa-ka-ri - millet flatbread)
- नमस्कार (na-mas-kaar - hello)
- धन्यवाद (dhan-ya-vaad - thank you)
- कोथिंबीर (ko-thim-beer - coriander)
Step 5: Real signs in Mumbai and Pune
Maharashtra is one giant Marathi reading exercise! Shop names are written in Marathi, and you'll see Devanagari on station boards, bus boards and the backs of trucks. Make a game of it on your commute.
- मुंबई (Mumbai) and पुणे (Pune) on bus and train boards
- स्थानक (sthaanak - station) on railway signs
- दादर (Daadar) and other station names on the local train boards
- आईचा आशीर्वाद (Aaicha aashirwaad - mother's blessings), painted on the back of countless trucks and tempos
- वडापाव (vadaapaav) on stalls outside almost every station
What if I don't live in Maharashtra?
Don't worry, there's plenty of Marathi online to practice reading. Try the Marathi Wikipedia, or the online editions of Marathi newspapers and magazines. At first, focus on letters and short words rather than full sentences, and work up to longer words and then full sentences. Google's Read Along app, designed to help kids learn to read aloud, is another fun option.
Remember, you can start practicing even if you've only learned a handful of letters.
Reading vs writing: practice them separately
Reading and handwriting are two separate skills, and they serve different purposes for a beginner. Don't let the slower task of learning to write hold back your reading.
- Reading pays off quickly: It lets you read road signs, bus boards, restaurant menus and Marathi Wikipedia.
- Handwriting takes time: Getting the shapes right, including the line across the top of each word, takes a lot of fine-motor practice.
We suggest leaning more on reading practice than writing practice at first, but make the choice based on your own goals. Your writing will usually progress more slowly than your reading, so keep up the pace by reading letters and words like little puzzles, and practice writing on the side if you want to write Marathi by hand.
Is there a course to make progress fast in Marathi?
Bhashafy's Complete Marathi Course for Beginners follows exactly this spoken-first path that we recommend in this article. You start speaking from day one, and the Devanagari script is taught in the final section, from basic letters to full sentences, so you already know what you're reading.
Bhashafy has over 20,000 satisfied learners across 100+ countries and millions of minutes of lessons taught. Bhashafy's courses are some of the most widely used, highly rated and bestselling courses for Indian languages across the world.
Thank you, or as we say in Marathi - Dhanyavaad!
