TAY

ب پ ت ٹ ث

Urdu Letter	Letter Name	Sound	Hindi Equivalent	Teacher
	TAY	~ English “T”	त	Teacher Icon

Sounds

TAY is somewhat different from the English “t” sound. Pronounce “t” with the tongue forward, touching the back of the teeth. Look in the mirror when you pronounce TAY. You should be able to see your tongue. TAY is often called “dental t”. It is similar to the English sound “th” as in “then” or “the” but with more pressure of the tongue on the teeth. TAY should not be aspirated: if you put your palm in front of your mouth you should not feel any puff of air when pronouncing TAY. (But see “Aspiration” below).
There is another letter with the dental “t” sound in Urdu: TOE (ط). You must learn when to use TAY and when to use TOE. They are not interchangeable.

Connections

TAY can connect from both sides. Thus it has four forms: detached, initial, medial, and final.

	Final	Medial	Initial	Detached
Basic Forms	ت	تا	تی	ت
In-Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
Write-In Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in

TAY is a member of the “point system” family. The letters in this family consist of a point or cusp in their initial and medial forms. Dots or symbols above or below the cusp differentiate the members of this family.

Other	Three Dots	Two Dots	One Dot
Retroflex TAY	SAY	TAY	NOON
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	Above
	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	Below
	PAY	YAY (Dots only in initial & medial forms)	BAY

Variations

For aesthetic reasons, the initial form of these letters can assume one of three slightly different shapes depending on which letter follows. The use of these three different shapes will come naturally with experience. Here are 3 examples of the three initial shapes of TAY:

(If image is incorrect, replace with following code and fill-in urdu letters)

fill-in

TAY

In some cases the cusp for medial ت gets smoothed out.

(If image is incorrect, replace with following code and fill-in urdu letters)

fill-in

Example: example

Aspirations

TAY can be aspirated by the addition of the letter DO CHASHMI HAY (ھ).
In this combination, the “dental t” sound includes a distinct puff of air. Put your palm in front of your mouth when you pronounce Aspirated TAY: you should feel a puff of air:

Additional Examples of ت

Final	Medial	Initial	Detached
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in