ہ — he
«he» is a consonant of the Urdu script, read as “h (light)”. The lightest h — a plain breath of air, like the h of "hand". Fainter than خ, and made in the mouth, not the throat. Word-finally it is barely audible — کہانی reads kahaani. For example, in the word “کہانی” — story. The Urdu alphabet has 38 letters in total. One loop. Of the throaty letters ح is the breathy h and خ the rough kh — this is the quiet one. The copula ہے "is" is written with it. It appears, for example, in the word “شکریہ” — thank you.
In short
| Character | ہ |
| Name | he |
| Sound | h (light) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 40th of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, before it comes ن, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type ہ
- On a phone: add the Urdu keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+06C1 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 06C1.
- Unicode code point: U+06C1. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The lightest h — a plain breath of air, like the h of "hand". Fainter than خ, and made in the mouth, not the throat. Word-finally it is barely audible — کہانی reads kahaani
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| initial | ہـ | — |
| medial | ـہـ | — |
| final | ـہ | — |
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- کہانیkahanistory
The character in the “ف ک گ ل م ن ہ — the light consonants” group
Consonants with skeletons of their own that nothing can be confused with. ک and گ differ from ق in depth: ک is an ordinary k, and گ an ordinary g. The ق sounds from the bottom of the throat. And the lightest h of the script: ہ is a plain breath of air — the copula ہے "is" is written with it.
Words with this character
- شکریہshukriyathank you
- مہربانیmeharbaniplease
- جی ہاںdzhi hanyes
- جی نہیںdzhi nahinno
- کیا حال ہے؟kya hal hai?how are you?
- ٹھیک ہےthik haiokay
- بہترینbehtarinexcellent
- میں ٹھیک ہوںmain thik hunI am fine
- پھر ملتے ہیںphir milte hainsee you
- کوئی بات نہیںkoy bat nahinyou are welcome
- میرا نام … ہےmera nam … haimy name is
- آپ کا نام کیا ہے؟ap ka nam kya hai?what is your name?
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «he» it is “h (light)”, as in the word “کہانی”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 38 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Urdu character ہ read?
As “h (light)” — it is a consonant of the Urdu script. The lightest h — a plain breath of air, like the h of "hand". Fainter than خ, and made in the mouth, not the throat. Word-finally it is barely audible — کہانی reads kahaani. For example, in the word “کہانی” — story.
What is the letter ہ called?
He. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Urdu script: it is called “he” and reads as “h (light)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.