ক ও খ

• Try to read the word King.
• Let’s replace the K with ক কING.

Can you read it? It would be pronounced King exactly. Basically there is no difference in their pronunciation. ক is pronounced exactly like K. I mean, ক is the Bengali form of K or in other words K is the English form of ক. The difference is that ক has an inherent /ɔ/ associated with it by default which K does not.

Let’s look at some more examples.

• KELVIN > কELVIN
• KITE > কITE
• KASHMIR > কASHMIR

N.B. A consonant in Bengali gives only one sound, i.e. there can be more than one pronunciation of C in English, which is not the case in Bengali. In English words like Cat, Queen, Queue, Capseller, etc., C or Q will be considered as ক in Bengali because they actually sound K.