Select languages...
Urdu 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 Urdu
What's covered on this Urdu page?
Twenty-two functional categories with Urdu examples: tense and aspect (the imperfective in -تا, the perfective with auxiliary, the progressive in رہا), modality (سکنا for ability, چاہیے for need, پڑنا for compulsion), the ergative نے, postpositions (کو, سے, میں, پر, کا/کی/کے), questions (کون, کیا, کہاں, کب, کیوں), comparison with سے, izafat (زبانِ اردو), and 14 others. All glossed.
How is Urdu different from Hindi?
At the everyday spoken level, very little — Urdu and Hindi share grammar, core vocabulary, and the spoken Hindustani register that fills most films and conversations. The deepest divergence is the script (Nastaʿlīq for Urdu, Devanagari for Hindi) and the higher-register vocabulary (Persian-Arabic for Urdu, Sanskrit for Hindi). The structures on this page apply to both; the lexical choices and script make it Urdu-specific.
What is izafat and how does it work?
Izafat is a Persian-borrowed linking construction that joins two nouns or a noun and modifier with a small kasrah (zer) that's sometimes written: کتابِ زندگی 'book of life', شامِ غم 'evening of sorrow', زبانِ اردو 'the language of Urdu'. It's especially common in Urdu poetry and elevated prose. Phrases on this page that involve elegant or formal phrasing show izafat in context.
Why does the Urdu verb agree with the object after نے?
Because Urdu (like Hindi) splits its alignment by tense. In the imperfective and non-past, the verb agrees with the subject. In the perfective past of transitive verbs, the subject takes نے and the verb agrees with the object instead — the ergative split. لڑکے نے روٹی کھائی 'the boy ate the roti' has کھائی agreeing with feminine روٹی, not with لڑکے.
How does Urdu handle formal address?
Through three pronouns: تو (intimate or to inferiors), تم (familiar plural and singular), آپ (respectful and grammatical plural). Each takes its own verb forms — کرتا ہے becomes کرتے ہو with تم and کرتے ہیں with آپ. آپ uses plural agreement even when addressing one person; using تو to a stranger or elder reads as rude or affectionate-intimate depending on context.
Sources for Urdu
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.
- Schmidt, Ruth Laila (1999). Urdu: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge.
- Butt, Miriam (1995). The Structure of Complex Predicates in Urdu. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
- Koul, Omkar N. (2008). Modern Hindi Grammar. Hyattsville, MD: Dunwoody Press.
- Platts, John T. (1874). A Grammar of the Hindustani or Urdu Language. London: W.H. Allen.