Hindi Matra and Barakhadi Worksheets
Hindi matra and barakhadi worksheets: the matra chart, one matra a sheet with syllables and words, the barakhadi grid and joining practice. Free PDF.
- Pages
- 20
- Ages
- 5-8
- Paper size
- A4 and US Letter
- Black ink only
Same worksheets, two paper sizes. Free to print at home, at school, and in a classroom of thirty.
18 sheets: matra chart, one matra a sheet with syllables and words, barakhadi grid, join the matra, answers
These Hindi matra and barakhadi worksheets give the i matra its own sheet early, because it is the one that confuses every beginner. The chhoti i ki matra is written before the letter it belongs to and pronounced after it. A child reading left to right sees the sign first and says it first, and gets the syllable backwards every time until someone explains why.
What is in the 20 pages
- Sheet 1: the matra chart, every vowel, its sign, and ka written with it.
- Sheets 2-12: one matra a sheet, aa, i, ee, u, oo, e, ai, o, au, anusvar and visarg, each with syllables and words.
- Sheets 13-14: fill in the barakhadi, each letter with all twelve signs.
- Sheets 15-16: join the letter and the matra.
- Sheets 17-18: read and copy.
- Last page: answers.
Where each sign sits
The matras do not all behave the same way and the sheets are ordered so the easy ones come first. The aa matra stands after the letter. The u and oo matras hang below it. The e, ai, o and au signs sit above or wrap around. The i matra is the exception that goes in front. Teaching them as one undifferentiated list is why children who can name every matra still cannot write a word with one.
The barakhadi grid
Sheets 13 and 14 take a consonant and run it through all twelve vowel signs, ka kaa ki kee ku koo and the rest. Filling that grid is what turns the matras from twelve separate things to memorize into one pattern that works on every letter in the varnamala. A child who has completed it for four or five consonants can usually do the rest unaided.
Syllables before words
Each matra sheet gives syllables first and only then words. A word asks the child to handle several matras at once while also reading for meaning. A syllable asks for one thing. The order is the same reason the English side of this site teaches sounds before sentences.
After the varnamala
This book assumes the letters themselves are known. If they are not, Hindi varnamala tracing comes first and teaches the swar and vyanjan with nothing attached to them. Matras are the step between knowing the alphabet and reading a word, and they are usually met in class 1 and consolidated in class 2.
Printing this one correctly
In your printer dialog set Scale to 100% or Actual size, not Fit to page. Fit to page shrinks the tracing letters and they stop matching the size a child's hand is learning.
Plain paper is fine for crayons and pencils. If your child uses felt pens, 100 gsm paper stops the ink bleeding to the next sheet.
