Urdu
Urdu — an Indo-European language sharing its everyday core with Hindi — in speech essentially one norm with two scripts and two literatures, about 70 million native speakers; counting second-language speakers the figure reaches roughly 230 million (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the Arabic script, 38 letters: short vowels are not written, the line runs right to left, and six letters are its own invention (ٹ ڈ ڑ ں ھ ے).
One phrase, two short checks
Demo language: Urdu
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صبح بخیر
sub bekhair
good morning
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صبح بخیر
sub bekhair
- hello
- goodbye
- good morning
- thank you
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صبح بخیر
good morning
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___! کیا حال ہے؟
Good morning! How are you?
- صبح بخیر · sub bekhair
- خدا · khuda
- مہربانی · meharbani
- سلام · salam
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صبح بخیر
good morning
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صبح بخیر
good morning
This is a choice based on text. Conversation and remembering over time still need practice and checking.
Answers stay on this page. Statistics include the demo stage, overall result, interface language and saved counter consent choice, without answer text or a profile.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge? Tell us and we will fix it.
- →Urdu alphabetAll letters and how they are read
- →Urdu wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- سلامsalamhellothe stress stays flat and the middle vowel short: sa-lam, not sa-laam
- صبح بخیرsub bekhairgood morningLiterally "morning [be] good". Wishes are built as time word + bakhair, and the answer is expected in the same shape: bakhair — "good"
- شکریہshukriyathank youLiterally "gratitude". The all-purpose polite form; turn it up a notch with bohat shukriya — thank you very much
- مہربانیmeharbanipleaseLiterally "through mercy" — from meharban, merciful. It closes a request, sitting at the end of the line exactly where please does
- خدا حافظkhuda hafizgoodbyeLiterally "God [be your] keeper": may God guard you. The friendlier phir milenge — see you — lives next door and is heard just as often
- کیا حال ہے؟kya hal hai?how are you?Literally "what [is your] state?". Haal — state — is the same word you met in subah bakhair. The verb is closes the line
- میں ٹھیک ہوںmain thik hunI am fineLiterally "I well-am": the little is glues onto the end of the line, where English keeps a separate word. The full answer: main theek hoon, shukriya
- پھر ملتے ہیںphir milte hainsee youLiterally "later we-meet": the verb stands at the very end of the line. The most common friendly parting between one’s own
About the language
| Native name | اردو · urdu |
| Official in | Pakistan and India (one of the official languages) |
| Also spoken in | the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the USA and Canada |
| How many speakers | about 70 million native speakers; counting second-language speakers the figure reaches roughly 230 million (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | an Indo-European language sharing its everyday core with Hindi — in speech essentially one norm with two scripts and two literatures |
| Script | the Arabic script, 38 letters: short vowels are not written, the line runs right to left, and six letters are its own invention (ٹ ڈ ڑ ں ھ ے) |
| Writing direction | right to left |
Hard: short vowels are not written — the same string of consonants reads several ways, and the first weeks live on the transcription.
Easy: no cases — a postposition after the word sets the role — and plenty of recognizable words: bazaar, chadar, rickshaw, kurta, chai.
What people most often take it up for: work and business with Pakistan, family and roots, Ghalib and Iqbal in the original, travel.
Curiosities in Urdu
Urdu and Hindi are, in speech, one language with two scripts: on the street a speaker from Delhi and a speaker from Lahore understand each other without a translator, but in writing they can hardly read each other at all.
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Urdu?
With the script: 38 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Urdu?
About 70 million native speakers; counting second-language speakers the figure reaches roughly 230 million — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Urdu hard?
Short vowels are not written — the same string of consonants reads several ways, and the first weeks live on the transcription. At the same time, no cases — a postposition after the word sets the role — and plenty of recognizable words: bazaar, chadar, rickshaw, kurta, chai.
Where is Urdu spoken?
An official language in: Pakistan and India (one of the official languages). Noticeable communities: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the USA and Canada.