Learn Urdu through English 1

ACADEMICS'S

Learn Urdu
Through English

ACADEMICS (INDIA) PUBLISHERS

NEW DELHI-110008 (INDIA)
2 Learn Urdu through English Learn Urdu through English 3

Published by
ACADEMICS (INDIA) PUBLISHERS
508, Rattan Jyoti Building About the Book
18-Rajendra Palace,
New Delhi-110008 (INDIA) This book in your hand is an easy way to learn Urdu
Tel. : 25742171, 25812181
Fax: 91-11-25722671 through English. A native speaker of English language is
E-mail: angelaip@del3.vsnl.net.in presumably aware of at least the basics of English
grammar like sentence structure, grammatical function of
OUR USA OFFICE English words, and very importantly the sound system. By
230 Fifth Avenue, Suite 615 and large, same ingredients or components of leaning a
New York, NY 10001 language like Urdu are required. Put very simply, a few
©PUBLISHERS techn ical things are distinctively remarkable to
differentiate a particular language like Urdu from other
languages of the world where English is not an exception.
Academic books are protected by international copyight laws
All rights are reserved. The copyright of all materials in this Primarily, language acquisition marks the following which
book except where otherwise stated, remains the property of are absolutely.unavoidable while learning or thinking of
the publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced any language of the world:
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means for whatever purpose, without the written 1. Script (Orthography)
permission of Academic (India) Publisners
2. Grammatical Function of Words (Syntax)
3. Vocabulary (Morpho-phonemic)
Second Edition 2015 4. Sound System (Phonology)
Price Rs. 60.00 5. Production of Sounds (Speech Mechanism/
Printed at: Star Offset Printers, New Delhi Phonetics or the Physical Nature of Sounds)
4 Learn Urdu through English Learn Urdu through English 5

Efforts have been made to incorporate these highly

technical issues very precisely while learning Urdu Contents
through English. Selection of Urdu vocabulary has been
About the Book 00
taken from daily affairs; phonetically transliterated Urdu
Sounds of English - Urdu Alphabets 00
words are very close to the English sounds and a Nouns, Singular and Plural, English - Urdu 00
comparative approach has been made to the under- Subject Pronouns : English - Urdu 00
standing of Urdu grammar through English grammar. Action Present Verbs : English - Urdu 00
Action Past Verbs : English - Urdu 00
Nevertheless, grammatical approach to the learning of a
Action Fture Verbs : English - Urdu 00
language througt another language remains the same. A Adverbs : English - Urdu 00
noun word of any language works as a noun in a Prepositions : English - Urdu 00
sentence. Be it any language of the world including Urdu. Gender : Nouns and Pronouns : English - Urdu 00
Most Common Vocabulary : English - Urdu 00
Having a short discussion on the learning of Urdu, I Sentences of Questions 00
am confident that readers will enjoy learning a language Key to Pronunciation
like Urdu through English. Any comments, suggestions or Grammatical Explanations
criticism from the readers will be of great help for the Numbers
Weights and Measures
improvement of the next edition of the book.
EVERYDAY LIFE
Dr. Madani Mohiuddin Ahmad Greetings
Introductions
Personal Particulars
Short Questions and Answers
Polite Phrases
Learning the Language
Orders
Public Notices
Time and Weather
Days of the Week
6 Learn Urdu through English 7

Months of the Year

SHOPPING
Seasons
At the Bookshop-Newsagent
In Town
At the Chemists's Shop
Public Buildings
At the Department Stores
TRAVELLING Clothes and Accessories
At a Travel Agency Materials
At the Customs Colours
By Plane Shoe shop
By Train Photographic Shop
By Car Optician's Shop
Renting a Car Florist's Shop
By Car (Services and Breakdowns) Tobacconist's Shop
By Ship Hairdresser's Shop
Means of Transport in Town
LEISURE
HOTEL Museums and other Places of Interest
The Arrival Entertainment
Your Stay Concerts
The Breakfast Theatre
Your Departure Cinema
Bars and Restaurant On the Beach/At the Swimming Pool
Restaurant Camping
The Table Sports
Cooking Terms
USEFUL SERVICES
Condiments
Bank
Eggs
Post Office
Meat
Telephone
Fish and Seafood
Health
Vegetables
Doctor's Clinic
Fruits and Desserts
Dentist's Clinic
Drinks
8 9

Phonentically Transleterated
Learn Urdu Through English Sounds of Urdu Alphabets

Easy way to Pronunciation Urdu English

Alphabet Sound
Very important to note that one can learn the  a (n) apple  
proper pronunciation of Urdu by imitating sounds
produced by a speaker of Urdu or by listening and  b (n) book 
repeating Urdu sounds from electronic sources. Careful
listening will help improve the understanding of
 p (adj/n) poor 

acoustic nature of different sounds of Urdu. Following is  t (n) tea 
a si m p l ifi ed w ay a n d g u i d e to p ro n ou n c e t he
transliterated Urdu phones:-  t train 
 th (v) think 
 j (n) jam 
 ch (n) Church 

 h (n) house  
 kh  
 d (n) deer  
10 11

 d (n) donkey   a  
 dh    k (n) kite  

 r (n) red 
  g (v) go 
 r    l (n) life 
 z (n) zink   m (n) man  
 zh    n (adj) nice 
 s (n) son   v, o or û (adj) voice 
 
   
 sh (n) sheep  
 h (n) hall 
 s (n) son   h (n) home 
 z (a) zebra   vowel 
 t    y, i (n) yalk  
 z    ai or e vowel 
 a  
 gh  
 f (n) fool 
12 13

Numbers / adaad /   Noun : Singular and Plural

English Noun Urdu Noun
1 one aik 
  Nouns ism 
2 two do  my car mery kaar   

3 three teen  green car sabz kaar  

4 four char  three cars teen kaar   

car garage kaar gueyraj    
5 five panch  
outside the car kaar ke bahar    

6 six cheh 
7 seven saat 
Urdu Plural
English Plural
8 eight aath 
Plural jama 
9 nine no  my book meri kitab   
10 ten das  my books meri kitabe'n  
my daughter meri beti 
our daughters hamari betiya'n 
  
14 15

I'm cold mujhe sardi lagi They    Plural, he and

  wey (jama)
hai she

hame'n sardi lagi   Me  Singular, man or

we're cold main/
hai women
mujhey
his chicken us ke murgh  
their chicken un ke murgh  Demonstrative Ishaarati 
   
This yeh 
English Urdu 
Pronoun Pronoun That keh

Subject Ism-e-  These ye 

Pronouns Zameer Those woh 
I main  singular
Object Pronoun
You tau, tum,  singular & plural Singular and
You tu, tum, aap 
both plural, male or
aap female
Singular, male
He wo (mard)    singular, man Him un ke 
Singular, female
singular, woman Her on ki 
She wo (aurat)    Plural, male and
Plural, for men &
Us hamara   female
We hum 
women
16 17

un ke plural, men or unkey plural female,

Them  women, names Theirs  male names
unki

Possessive Pronouns
My mayra  Singular, man or Active Present Verbs
woman
teyre, plural or singular Present Jaari Zamana   
Your   men or women,
tumhara, names Verbs     
aap ka
 
un ka Singular, male I speak. main bolta hoon  
His 
un ki Singular, female I write. main likhta hoon   
Her 
hamara Plural, male and I drive. main chalata hoon   
Our   female main mohabbad
plural male, I love.
karta hoon
  
Their un ke  female names or
persons I give. main daita hoon   
singular male
Mine meyra  I smile. main muskurata
  
singular or plural hoon
Yours teyre,   males or females
tumhara,
I take. main laita hoon    
 
aap ka He speaks. wo bolta hai   
un ka singular, female
His  He writes. wo likhta hai    
unki plural, males or
Hers  females He drives. wo chalata hai    
plural male, wo mohabbat
Ours hamarey  names He loves.
karta hai
   
18 19

He gives. wo daita hai      I drove. main ne chalaya   

main ne
He smiles. wo muskurata hai     I loved.
mohabbat ki
 
He takes. wo laita hai     I gave. main ne diya    
We speak. hum boltey hain     I smiled. main muskuraya   
We write. hum likhtey hain    I took. main ne liya 
We drive. hum chalate hain    He spoke. woh bola  
hum muhabbat
We love.
karte hain
   He wrote. us ne likha  
We give. hum daite hain     He drove. us ne chalaya   
hum muskurate
We smile.
hain
   He loved. us ne mohabbat ki  
We take. hum laite hain  
  He gave. us ne diya    
He smiled. wo muskuraya   
Action past Verbs
He took. us ne liya 
English Verbs Urdu Verbs
We spoke. hum boley   
Verbs fa'eel 
We wrote. hum ne likha  
Past maazi 
We drove. hum ne chalaya   
I spoke. main boola   hum ne
We loved.
mohabbat ki
 
I wrote. main ne likha  
20 21

We gave. hum ne diya     He will give. woh de ga    

We smiled. hum muskuraye    He will smile. woh muskurayega   
We took. hum ne liya  He will take. woh ley ga   
Action Future Verbs
We will speak. hum bolengey  
We will write. hum likhengey   
Future Verbs Faail Mustaqbil 
We will drive. hum chaleyenge 
I will speak. main boolunga  
hum mohabbat
We will love.   
I will write. main likhunga    karengey

I will drive. main chalaunga    We will give. hum dengey    

main mohabbat hum
I will love.    We will smile.
muskurayengey
  
karoonga

I will give. main doonga    We will take. hum lengey  
main
I will smile.
muskuraounga
   English Urdu Adverbs
I will take. main loonga    Adverbs muta'alliq afaal 
He will speak. woh bolega   I read a book sometimes
main kabhi kabhar aik kitaab padhta hoon
He will write. woh likhega   
  
   
He will drive. woh chalayega  
woh mohabbat
I will never smoke
He will love.
karega
    main kabhi bhi cigrette nahi piyoonga
22 23

 
 
English Prepositions
Are you alone?
kya tum akeley ho? About se mutallalliq 
   Above balaai 
Across ke paar   
English Prepositions
After ke baad 
Prepositions Huroof-e-Jaar  
Inside the Against bar-aks  
makaan ke ander  

house Among main se 
Outside the   

makaan ke bahar Around ke ird gird 
   
care
joonhi, taake,
With me merey saath  As
jaisa ke,
   
main, per, se, ke
Without me un ke baghair  At
taraf
 
Under the mez ke neechey 
table Before ke saamney, pahle  
After kal ke baad  Behind aqbi, peechey 
tomorrow
Before Below ke neechey 
sunset
ghuroob aaftaab se  
pahley Beneath ke neechey 
lekin main masroof
But I'm busy
hoon
 Beside ke alawa 
Between ke darmiyaan 
24 25

Beyond doosri taraf, us paar    Opposite ulat 

But magarl lekin  Out bahar  

By paas, qareeb, zariye       Outside bairooni hissey   
se, baqadar
 Over khatam 
Despite ke bawajood   Per fee 
Down neechey  Plus masaawi 
During ke dooraan  Round gool 
Except ke alawa  Since jab se  
For babat, baraye 
 
  Than ba-muqabla 
From sey  Through mein se 
In main  Till ab tak, tab tak   
   
Inside ander 
 To ko 
Into ke ander  
 Toward ki jaanib  

Near ke qareeb  
  Under ke neechey 
Next aglaa  Unlike ke bar-aks  
Of ke or kaa    Until jab tak  
 
On ulat 
  Up ke ooper  
26 27

Via ke zariye   Prepositional Phrase

With ke saath  of Three Worlds
Within ke ander, dakhil   As far as jahan tak 
Without ke baghair  As well as jaisa ke 
Two words do alfaaz   In addition to ke alawa 
According to ke mutabiq  In front of ke samney  
Because of ki wajah se  In spite of ke bawajood  
Close to ke qareeb  
  On behalf of ke badley  
Due to ki wajah se  On top of ke ooper  
Except for ke alawa, ko chhod   Gender : (Male/Female)
kar
Urdu grammatical gender of nouns is one
Far from se door  of two: a noun may be masculine or it may be
feminine, and there is no neutral option.
Inside of ke ander, daakhli 
  Moreover, masculine is the defautl gramma-
Near to ke bajaye  
  tical gender and a word does not have to have
anything special in order to reflect this.
Next to ke baad  Femininity, on the other hand, is not default
Outside of ke bahar   
 and a noun would have to have something
special to reflect this gender.
Prior to se pahle 
28 29

Example: Brother (m) bhai 

Ahmad (male) writes (male)   Sister (f) behan 
ahmad likhta hai
Uncle (m) chacha 
Lubna (female) writes (female)   khala,
Aunt (f)  
lubna likhti hai phoophi,
chachi
Gender : Male (m) and Female (f) Bull (m) bail 
English Urdu
Cow (f) gaye 
Feminine moan-nas  
Bow (m) ladka 
He is happy (m) wo khush hai  
Girl (f) ladki 
She is happy (f) wo khush hai  
He is American wo americki    Most Common Vocabulary
(m) hai English Urdu
She is American wo americki    Vocabulary Vocabulary
(f) hai
Objects ashyaa  
Bathroom ghusal khana  
Man (m) aadmi  
Woman (m) aurat  Bed bistar 
Father (f) walid  Bedroom khawaabgaah   
Mother (f) maa / walidah  Ceiling androoni chhat  
30 31

Chair kursi  Letter khat, murasla 

Clothes libaas  Map naqsha 
Coat kot  Newspaper akhbaar 
Cup kap 
 Notebook notebook 
 
Desk maiz  Pants patloone'n 
Dress libaas  Paper kaghaz 
Floor farash 
 Pen qalam 
kaanta, (khane ke
Fork (for eating)     Pencil pencil 
lye)

Furniture farniture   Pharmacy dawakhana  

Glass sheesha  Picture tasweer  

 Plate tashtari 
Hat chhajje daar toopi    
House makaan  Refrigerator refrigerator 
Ink siyaahi  Restaurant ta'aamgaah   
Jacket jaiket  Roof chhat 
Kitchen bawarchi khaana    Room kamrah 
Rug moose, rui ka  
Knife chhuri  ghaleecha
Lamp laltain 
32 33

Scissors qainchi  Telephone telephone 

Shampoo shampoo  Urdu adjectives like English modifier the
  quality of nouns or pronouns. In case of Urdu,
Shirt qameez  the sound pattern of adjectives usually changes
Shoes jootey  while English doesn't.

Soap saabun  Example:

Socks juraabe'n 
 That girl is beautiful   
Spoon chamcha  wo ladki khoobsurat hai

Table meyz  The boy is good   

letreen, baitul wo ladka achha hai
Toilet
khala
 

Toothbrush tooth brush 
  In case of female noun 'girl'
 adjective
Toothpaste tooth paste  'good' (in urdu is pronounced as 'achhi'   
English Urdu
Towel tooliya 
Adjectives Adjectives
Umbrella chhatri 
Underwear zair jaama   Adjectives ism-e-sifat 
Wall deewaar    A green tree aik hara darakht   
  
Wallet batwa  A tall building aik oonchi imarat   
 
Window khirki 
34 35

A very old man aik umar raseeda

 
  Sentences of Questions
aadmi
The old red English Urdu
puraana lal ghar   Questions Questions
house
A very nice aik ziyada    
   Where is he? woh kahan hai?  
friend pasandeeda dost
What is this?  
 
 yeh kya hai?
Why are you aap kyon udaas  
English Urdu sad? hain?

Questions Questions How do you aap adayegi kaisey   
want to pay? karna chahte hain?
Questions sawalaat   
Can I come? kya main aa sakta  
How? kaisa?  hoon?

Is he sleeping? kya woh so raha  

What? kya? 
hai?
Who? koon?  Do you know kya aap mujhe     
me? jantey hain?
Why? kyoon?  
Where? kub? 
 Do you have kya aapke paas   
my book? meri kitaab hai?    
How big is it? ye kitna bada hai?    
36

Can I help kya main aapki   

you? madad kar sakta
hoon?

Can you help kya aap meri  
me? madad kar saktey
hain?

Do you speak aap angrezi boltey    
English? hain?

How far is ye kitna door hai?  
this?
What time is kya waqt huwa  
 
it? hai?
How much is ye kitna hota hai?   
this?
What is your aap ka naam kya    
name? hai?
Where do you aap kahan rehtey 
live? hain?