Vowel marks

Vowels that follow consonants are written as small “marks” around the consonant they follow:

• क + आ → का
  ka + ā → kā
  

• क + उ → कू
  ka + u → kū
  

Here are the marks that we use when writing Sanskrit:

• क
  ka
• का
  kā
• कि
  ki
• की
  kī
• कु
  ku
• कू
  kū

• कृ
  kṛ
• कॄ
  kṝ
• कॢ
  kḷ
• कॣ
  kḹ

• के
  ke
• कै
  kai
• को
  ko
• कौ
  kau

Again, we include the long vowel कॣ (kḹ) for the sake of being complete, but it is never used in real Sanskrit.

The important point to remember here is that the vowel a has no special mark. a is present by default. If needed, we can block that default a sound with a mark called the virāma, which we discuss further below.

Most consonants use these marks in a regular way. But perhaps the combinations below will be surprising:

• रु
  ru
• रू
  rū
• रृ
  rṛ

• हृ
  hṛ
• हॄ
  hṝ

anusvāra, visarga, candrabindu, and virāma

The anusvāra and visarga are written as follows:

• कं
  kaṃ
• कः
  kaḥ

The candrabindu (“moon dot”) shows that a sound is pronounced nasally. It is usually used for nasal vowels:

• कँ
  ka̐

Finally, the virāma (“cessation”) blocks the default a sound that a consonant has otherwise:

• क्
  k