Select languages...
Punjabi phrases, by meaning
No overview data available for your selected languages yet
Currently available: Egyptian Arabic, Bengali, Mandarin Chinese, German, English, French, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Punjabi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Sindhi, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Wu Chinese, Yucatec Maya, Cantonese
Common questions about Punjabi
What's covered on this Punjabi page?
Twenty-two functional categories of meaning, with Punjabi examples in each: tense and aspect (the imperfective in -ਦਾ/-ਦੀ/-ਦੇ, the perfective with auxiliary, the progressive in ਰਿਹਾ), modality (ਸਕਣਾ for ability, ਚਾਹੀਦਾ for need), negation (ਨਹੀਂ, ਨਾ, ਮਤ), the ergative ਨੇ in transitive past, questions (ਕੌਣ, ਕੀ, ਕਿੱਥੇ, ਕਦੋਂ), comparison with ਨਾਲੋਂ, and 16 others. Every example is in Gurmukhi with romanization.
How do tones work in Punjabi?
Three contrastive tones — high, low, and level — distinguish words that share the same consonants and vowels. ਘੋੜਾ ghoṛā 'horse' carries low tone; ਘੜਾ ghaṛā 'pot' carries level tone. Tone arose historically from voiced aspirated consonants that lost their voicing but bequeathed pitch contour. Romanization on the page marks tone explicitly so learners build the habit of hearing it.
Why does the Punjabi verb agree with the object after ਨੇ?
Because Punjabi splits its alignment by tense, like Hindi and other Indo-Aryan languages. In the imperfective and non-past, the verb agrees with the subject. In the perfective past of transitive verbs, the subject takes ਨੇ and the verb agrees with the object instead — the ergative split. ਮੁੰਡੇ ਨੇ ਰੋਟੀ ਖਾਧੀ 'the boy ate (F.SG) the roti', with ਖਾਧੀ agreeing with feminine ਰੋਟੀ.
Is this Punjabi written in Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi?
Gurmukhi (the script of Indian Punjab and the Sikh tradition). Pakistani Punjabi is more commonly written in Shahmukhi, a Perso-Arabic script. Spoken Punjabi is one language across both sides — the same words, the same tones, the same grammar — but the writing systems diverge. Phrases here are in Gurmukhi with romanization that works for either tradition.
How does Punjabi handle formal versus informal address?
Through the three pronouns ਤੂੰ (intimate or to inferiors), ਤੁਸੀਂ (default polite, also plural), and the third-person plural used as honorific. Verb endings agree accordingly. ਤੁਸੀਂ takes plural agreement even when addressing one person. Phrases under Politeness and Social Deixis show the contrast.
Sources for Punjabi
The grammatical descriptions on this page are informed by the following published reference and descriptive grammars. Grammatical facts themselves are not subject to copyright; the scholars who documented them deserve attribution.
- Bhatia, Tej K. (1993). Punjabi: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar. London: Routledge.
- Gill, Harjeet Singh & Gleason, Henry A. Jr. (1969). A Reference Grammar of Punjabi. Patiala: Panjab University.
- Shackle, Christopher (2003). "Panjabi." In G. Cardona & D. Jain (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, pp. 581–621. London: Routledge.
- Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press.