Writing in Devanagari
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Normal Case
Every consonant has an inherent vowel so you can write a word by just combining a number of consonants. The inherent vowel is the 'a'. So the word home (ghar) can be writen as घर, that is a घ (gh) followed and an र (r). The inherent 'a' of the last letter of a word is not pronounced. So घर is not pronounced as ghara but as ghar.
To write a different vowel you add a matra to the consonant. They are basically little marks that indicate the inherent vowel is changed to another vowel. To write the word three (tin), you write t त followed by the i matra ी, followed by an n न. This combines to तीन. The word for key, caabi, is written as च + ा + ब + ी, this combines to चाबी. Here the vowel of the last letter is pronounced.
There are different symbols to write a single vowel. They are needed when a word starts with a vowel, or when a word contains two or more vowels in a row. For instance mango (aam) is written as आ (aa) followed by a म (m), आम. The word for the number one (ek) is written as ए (e) plus क (k), एक.
Half letters
Some words require two consonants in a row without the inherent vowel. You remove the inherent vowel by adding a halant to the letter, that is a ्. For instance ट + ् makes ट्. If we now add a क to this we get ट्क. This is pronounced as Tk and not as Tak. Combining स + ् makes स्, which makes a sa into s. To write the English word stop you write स + ् + त + ो + प.
Conjuncts
If you type स + ् + त + ो + प on most computers you will get स्तोप. Note that the halant is gone and that the स is missing the vertical bar. This is because if a half letter is followed by another consonant the two letters are usually combined into a new letter. These are called conjuncts. Since there are about 36 consonants there are 36*36=1296 possible conjuncts. However not every combination has conjunct, for instance ट + क. The wikipedia page on devanagari has the complete table.
For most of these it is still possible to recognize the two individual consonants because a lot of them are formed by removing the vertical bar and adding the next consonant to what remains.
Writing the र
The letter र is a particularly difficult case. If you combine a half र with another letter or a half letter with a र the र will seem to disappear. This can be very confusing when you start learning Devanagari. A half प combined with a र makes प्र. A half र combined with a प makes र्प.
An even more confusing case is a half र combined with a ड, this makes र्ड, which looks very similar to ई.
Hidden न or म
Sometimes the न or म are hard to find too. The word Hindi contains an न, but if you look at this word written in Devanagari, हिंदी, it does not seem to be there. It is indicated by the dot on top of the ह. (It can also be written as हिन्दी.)
The same applies to the म in mumbai, मुंबई, here it is indicated by the dot on top of the म.
