Urdu Greetings

Hi all! After a temporary hiatus, we're back with more Urdu lessons. We'll get back into things with some very straightforward material, something that I probably should have already covered: greetings.

There is no direct translation into Urdu for the English word "hello". Instead, Urdu speakers use the standard greet and response used by all Muslims:

• assalaamu alaikum = peace be upon you
• wa alaikum assalaam = peace be upon you too

Similarly, there is no direct translation for the English word "goodbye" in Urdu. Instead, the following phrases can be used:

• Khuda haafiz = God (be your) Protector
• Allah haafiz = God (be your) Protector
• pir milinge = until next time

The phrases "Khuda haafiz" and "Allah haafiz" are equivalent, but one uses the Persian word for "God" ("Khuda") and the other uses the Arabic word for "God" ("Allah").

Some ways of saying "how are you?" include:

• aap kaise/kaisi hain? = how are you? (formal)
• tum kaisa/kaisi hai? = how are you? (informal)
• kya haal hai? = what is (your) condition?
• kaise mizaaj hain? = how are (your) dispositions?

Though the phrase "kya haal hai?" may sound awkward in English, it is as common as "aap kaise/kaisi hain?". In my (limited) personal experience, I have not heard the phrase "kaise mizaaj hain?" very often. Below are some common responses:

• main teek hoon = I'm fine
• sab teek hai = everything's fine
• alhamdulillah = all praise is due to Allah
• aap ki duaa hai = it is your prayer (which makes me well)

All of these are common, but the last one is more formal.

Tutorials resume later this week

Hi all! I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I've been working on finishing up school, and have also been travelling between Montreal and Toronto a bit more often than is practical. But the good news is that I'll return to making frequent updates by the end of this week. Till then, enjoy the summer sun!

Conjunctions: And + Or

Today we have a quick and easy lesson in which we'll cover the Urdu words for "and" and "or":

• aur = and
• yah = or

Here are a few examples:

• Mansoor aur Sanya kaam kar rahe hain = Mansoor and Sanya are doing work
• Ham kaayinge aur pir ham jaayinge = We'll eat and then we'll go
• Aap chaaval yah naan chaiye? = Do you want rice or naan?
• Saheeh yah galat? = True or false?

When using the word "or" in the context of approximating numbers (e.g. "two or three minutes"), the word "yah" is left out completely and the numbers are just said one after the other:

• doh teen minat = two or three minutes
• saath sattar kitaben = sixty or seventy books

The Oblique Form for Nouns

Today we'll cover oblique form for nouns. If you missed the last few lessons, I recommend covering them first since the material is somewhat incremental. Just to summarize, the oblique form of a pronoun, noun, adjective, or verb is the special form that it takes on when followed by a postposition (such as "men", "se", and "par").

Recall that many masculine nouns end in "a" and many feminine nouns end in "i". Let's first talk about masculine singular nouns that end in "a". When followed by a postposition, such nouns replace the "a" suffix with an "e".

• larka = the boy
• larke se = from the boy

Masculine singular nouns that end in some other letter remain unchanged when followed by a postposition:

• ghar = the house
• ghar se = from the house

For feminine singular nouns that end in "i", the oblique form of the noun is the same as its direct form:

• larki = the girl
• larki se = from the girl

Feminine singular nouns that don't end in "i" also remain unchanged when followed by a postposition:

• sarak = the street
• sarak se = from the street

That covers all of the singular cases. Now let's look at the plural cases. Masculine plural nouns that end in "e" replace their "e" suffix with "on" for the oblique form; note that the "n" has a soft, nasal pronunciation.

• larke = the boys
• larkon se = from the boys

Masculine plural nouns that end in any other letter simply add the suffix "on" for the oblique form:

• ghar = the houses
• gharon se = from the houses

Recall that some feminine plural nouns have the suffix "ian". For the oblique form of these nouns, the suffix is replaced with "ion"; the "n" here is also pronounced softly.

• larkian = the girls
• larkion se = from the girls

And lastly, feminine plural nouns that end in "en" have their suffixes replaced with "on" for the oblique form:

• saraken = the streets
• sarakon se = from the streets

Fortunately, the endings are similar enough as not to make you incomprehensible in case you accidentally use the wrong ending, so don't stress about it too much in conversation.

Due to the technical, grammar-heavy nature of this lesson and the last, we'll go back to covering simpler phrases for the next few lessons before diving into oblique adjectives and verbs ... so you can breathe a sigh of relief. Till then, below are a few examples of what we learned.

Examples:

• Main ghar se aa raha hoon = I am coming from the house
• Voh un ke gharon men hain = They are in their houses
• Yeh larkion ko deiye = Give this to the girls
• Jumme ko chutti hai = There is a holiday on Friday

The Oblique Form for Pronouns: Me, You, Him, Her, It, Us, Them

These next few lessons will be focused on the oblique forms of pronouns, nouns, and adjectives; today we'll focus just on oblique pronouns. We'll get to what the term "oblique" means exactly, but I thought I'd just warn you in advance that the next few lessons may get a bit technical.

In English, when we use a preposition with a pronoun, we use the oblique form of the pronoun. For example, instead of saying, "I gave it to he", we would say, "I gave it to him" -- the oblique pronoun "him" is used instead of the pronoun "he". In Urdu, we do the same thing, except that we use oblique pronouns with postpositions instead of prepositions. Let's take a look at an example. As we've already learned, the Urdu word for "I" is "main". It doesn't make sense to say "from I" though; instead we say "from me":

• mujh se = from me

In the example above, "mujh" is an oblique pronoun. All pronouns have an oblique form, some of which are the same as their direct form (such as "aap" and "tum"). Here's a list of oblique pronouns in Urdu:

• mujh = me
• aap = you (formal)
• tum = you (informal)
• tujh = you (very informal)
• is = him/her/it (near)
• us = him/her/it (far)
• in = them (near)
• un = them (far)

Remember, you should only use the forms above when they're followed by a postposition! Otherwise, use the direct form of the pronoun instead.

So far, we only know of three postpositions in Urdu: "men", "par", and "se". The examples below also use "ko", meaning "to", which we'll cover in more detail in a later lesson.

Examples:

• aap ko = to you (formal)
• tum ko = to you (informal)
• tujh ko = to you (very informal)

• is se = from him/her/it (near)
• us se = from him/her/it (far)

• mujh par = on me
• in par = on them (near)
• un par = on them (far)

Vocabulary: Days of the Week

Today I'll tell you how to say the different days of the week in Urdu. Note that in Urdu, all days are considered to be masculine, except for Thursday.

• peer (m) = Monday
• mangal (m) = Tuesday
• budh (m) = Wednesday
• jumiraat (f) = Thursday
• jumma (m) = Friday
• hafta (m) = Saturday
• itvaar (m) = Sunday

To say "on ", we don't use the postposition "par", even though it generally translates to "on". Instead, we use a different postposition "ko":

• peer ko = on Monday
• jumme ko = on Friday
• hafte ko = on Saturday

...and so on. You may notice that in the examples above, the words "jumme" and "hafte" end in an "e" instead of "a" as they do in their direct translations. In Urdu, pronouns, nouns, and adjectives sometimes change their form when followed by a postposition; this is known as the oblique form. We'll cover obliques in our coming lessons.

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