How To Speak and Understand Urdu

Language How To Articles

Step 1

Understand the structures for all of Urdu’s sentences: SUBJECT, OBJECT, VERB (in English we use SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT). Thus while in English you say "Jones [subject] sees [verb] Thomas [object]", the order of things in an Urdu sentence is "Jones [subject] Thomas [Object] sees [verb]."

Step 2

Know the main singular pronouns in Urdu.

Me/I: Mein
You: Tum
He/She/It/That: Vo

Step 3

Know the main plural pronouns in Urdu. Each of these pronouns below has a plural equivalent, which is used when there are more than one of the things referred to by the pronouns, or also when the pronoun refers to someone you respect or who is of higher stature, or just to be polite or formal:

We: Hum
You (as in "you lot" - plural): Aap
Them/Those: Vo

Step 4

Learn how to say the verb "To Be" in Urdu. "To Be" has the following conjugations:

To Be: Hona (infinitive)
I am: Mein hoon
You are: Tum ho
S/he/it/that is: Vo hai
Just to recap, "Mein hoon" means "I am" because "mein" means "I" and is the subject, "hoon" means "am" and is the verb, and the Urdu sentence order is Subject, Object (none in this case), Verb.
We are: Hum hain
You (pl) are: Aap hain
They/those are: Vo hain
Like English, the plurals all take the same conjugation.

Step 5

Understand that all infinitives end with "na" - e.g. "Hona" - "To Be" - and "Dekhna" - "To See". Of the verbs that are regular, such as Dekhna (but not Hona), there is a simple rule for conjugating them in the present tense. This is to remove the "na" and add on the following instead. Note that in the first three cases, the underlined syllables are used only if the subject of the sentence is masculine (e.g. "John"). If the subject is feminine (e.g. "Jane") then those syllables are replaced by "i".

I (Mein): ta
You (Tum): te
S/he/it (Vo): ta
We (Hum): tain
You (pl) (Aap): tain
Them (Vo): tain
Thus, as an example, the verb Dekhna (to see) would conjugate for me (I'm male) as "Dekhta" or for you (if you're female) as "Dekhti".

Step 6

Understand that The verb "To Be" ("Hona") is the most important because it is used to create the present tense. Thus whereas in English we say "I see", in Urdu the transliterated equivalent would be "I am see" - or with the correct order, "I see am". Thus in Urdu, saying "I see" is like saying "I am, and see." Without the qualification that you are while you see, the verb of seeing would not be in the present tense. Thus:

"I [female] see": "Mein dekhti hoon"
"It sees": "Vo dekhta hai"
You will recall that "mein" is "I", "hoon" is "am" (conjugated for "I") and "dekhti" is the verb "To See" ("Dekhna") when conjugated for a female "I".

Step 7

Understand when pronouns are used as objects, they are changed slightly to denote that something is being done to them rather than by them. When nouns are used as objects, they are appended by "ko" to show this change. e.g. "John" is fine as a subject, but "John ko" is the object.

I (Mein): Mujhe
You (Tum): Tumhe
S/he (Vo): Usse
We (Hum): Humhe
You (pl) (Aap): Aapko
Them (Vo): Unhe

Step 8

Know how to Construct a sentence with an object. To say "I see John" in Urdu, we say something like "I John see am" - "I am, [present tense] and see John".

"I see John": Mein John ko dekhta hoon
"Jane sees John": Jane John ko dekhti hai
To deconstruct: "Jane [subject] John ko [object] dekhti [sees, feminine] hai [present tense "is"]"
"I see you": Mein tumhe dekhta hoon
"You [feminine] see us": Tum humhe dekhti ho
"They see Jane": Vo Jane ko dekhtain hain

Tips

Find new vocabulary, and new regular verbs to which you can apply the same rules as above.

Warnings

Urdu has no official way of being written in English characters, so all of the words above are spelled roughly at best. Spellings will differ.
Pronunciation of Urdu can be tricky. The "n" at the end of a word is usually nasalized, that is, you just say the rest of the word as it would sound if there were an "n" there (without saying the "n" itself). This is similar to how some French words don't pronounce the final letters, but nevertheless have their pronunciation altered because of them.