Script guide › Brahmic / Indic
How to recognize Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari)
Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari) is one of 14 languages in Grafle's Brahmic / Indic group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- A continuous horizontal bar runs along the top, connecting the letters into words.
What Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari) looks like
सभी मनुष्य जन्म से स्वतंत्र और समान हैं।
नमस्ते, आप कैसे हैं?
सत्यमेव जयते।
Brahmic / Indic scripts: The scripts of South and Southeast Asia — letters hang from top bars, curl into loops, or stack vowel marks above and below.
Where you'll see it on signs
- India
- Nepal
Easy to confuse with
- Bengali — Both hang from a top bar — Bengali's letters below it are angular, with little left-pointing triangles and hooks; Devanagari's are rounder and boxier.
- Gujarati — Gujarati is Devanagari without the top bar — same shapes, floating free.
- Punjabi (Gurmukhi) — Both have top bars — Gurmukhi's letters are simpler and more open below the bar, with fewer stacked marks.
- Dzongkha (Tibetan) — Tibetan-style letters hang from the top line with sharp descenders and dot separators (་); Devanagari's bar connects boxier letters with no dots.