English speakers stretch and squash vowels freely, and the meaning survives. In Hindi, vowel length is part of the word itself. Say a vowel too short and "work" becomes "less"; say it too long and "day" turns into a different word. In this episode: • Short a and long aa • Short i and long ee • Short u and long oo • E, ai, o and au • Matras: how vowels sit on letters • A scene at home • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key Hindi from this episode: कम (kam) = less, little. काम (kaam) = work. चल (chal) = come on, let's go. चाल (chaal) = a move, a way of walking. मिल (mil) = meet. मील (meel) = a mile. धुल (dhul) = get washed. धूल (dhool) = dust. कपड़े धुल गए (kapde dhul gaye) = the clothes got washed. यहाँ बहुत धूल है (yahaan bahut dhool hai) = there's a lot of dust here. का (kaa) = the sound kaa, with a standing line. कि (ki) = the sound ki, the hook in front. की (kee) = the sound kee, the hook behind. कु (ku) = the sound ku, a loop below. कू (koo) = the sound koo, a different loop below. के (ke) = the sound ke, one flag on top. कै (kai) = the sound kai, two flags. को (ko) = the sound ko. कौ (kau) = the sound kau. Season 3 · Spoken Hindi at Home: the complete self-study course for English speakers. Every Hindi item is given in Devanagari, Hinglish and English. Take the 52-question quiz after listening. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair.