The structure of perceptual confusions among 10 Hindi vowels /i, I, e, ɛ, a, ʌ, ɔ, o, U, u/ was studied in clipped speech. Front vowels were recognized better than back vowels. It has been found in most of the cases that the first and the second probable incorrect vowels have either openness of the vocal tract or place of articulation in common with the corresponding correct vowel. This finding supports the view that vowels can be perceived by these two distinctive features only. The same two distinctive features (dimensions) have been used by Wickelgren [J. Acoust. Soc. Amer.38, 583–588 (1965)] to explain the coding of vowels in short‐term memory.