غ — ghayn
«ghayn» is a consonant of the Urdu script, read as “gh (deep)”. A deep gargled g, made with the back of the tongue — close to the French r of "Paris". The mute throat letter found its voice here. For example, in the word “غزل” — gazelle. The Urdu alphabet has 38 letters in total. ع with a dot on top. غزل "ghazal" — English took the name of the poem form straight from this letter. It appears, for example, in the word “غسل خانہ” — bathroom.
In short
| Character | غ |
| Name | ghayn |
| Sound | gh (deep) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 32nd of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ع and ق, appears in 56 words of this site.
How to type غ
- On a phone: add the Urdu keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+063A and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 063A.
- Unicode code point: U+063A. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
A deep gargled g, made with the back of the tongue — close to the French r of "Paris". The mute throat letter found its voice here
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| initial | غـ | — |
| medial | ـغـ | — |
| final | ـغ | — |
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- غزلghazalgazelle
The character in the “ع غ ق — the throat and the depth” group
Ayn here has almost gone mute: it reads as a broken-off vowel or not at all. Ghayn went the other way and found a voice — a deep gargled g. And ق is a sound made down in the throat, between "k" and "g". The transcription writes it as "g", like the ghayn. Depth is what you hear: کمر "waist" and قمر "moon" differ only in it.
Words with this character
- غسل خانہghusal khanabathroom
- بغیر نسخہbeghair nuskhawithout prescription
- فارغfarighfree
- غیر ملکیghair mulkiforeigner
- باغbaghgarden
- غروبِ آفتابghurube aftabsunset
- غارgharcave
- غصہghussaanger
- یہ میری غلطی ہےye meri ghalti haimy fault
- گوشت کے بغیرgosht ke baghairwithout meat
- سوغاتsaughatsouvenir
- جغرافیہdzhugrafiyageography
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «ghayn» it is “gh (deep)”, as in the word “غزل”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 38 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Urdu character غ read?
As “gh (deep)” — it is a consonant of the Urdu script. A deep gargled g, made with the back of the tongue — close to the French r of "Paris". The mute throat letter found its voice here. For example, in the word “غزل” — gazelle.
What is the letter غ called?
Ghayn. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Urdu script: it is called “ghayn” and reads as “gh (deep)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.