Devanagari is a syllabary language

Each vowel has two forms 

• independent: when it comes at beginning of word or after another vowel
• dependent: when it comes right after  a consonant and modifies it

Letters that have been joined together - which means there is no inherent -a- sound between the two letters. ex:

  - kya

• The inherent -a- sound is the only sound that is ever unprounounced.
• This happens when the word ends in a vowel and there are three or more syllables in the word.
• If so, you may need to ignore the inherent -a- located in the middle of the word
• EX. Devanagari (prounounced "nagri", not "nagari")