Prepositions and Postpositions: In, On, and From

In English, words such as "in", "on", and "from" are called prepositions because they come before the word they modify. In Urdu, they're actually postpositions -- that is, they come after the word they modify. Below are the Urdu translations for the aforementioned prepositions:

• men = in
• par = on
• se = from

Note that the "n" in "men" is a soft "n". Occasionally, you'll run into some unintuitive uses of these words:

• ghar par = at home
• kaam par = at work

But in most cases, the translation is straightforward -- see below.

Examples:

• Ham Pakistan men hain = We're in Pakistan
• Iskool men, ham basketball khele = In school, we played basketball
• Khaana mez par hai = Food is on the table
• Mera daftar Bay Street par hai = My office is on Bay Street
• Main Toronto se hoon = I'm from Toronto
• Baink yahan se duur hai = The bank is far from here