ک — kaf
«kaf» is a consonant of the Urdu script, read as “k”. An ordinary k as in "cat" — unlike the deep ق. For example, in the word “کمرہ” — room. The Urdu alphabet has 38 letters in total. Resembles ل and ج at once: tell them apart by the stroke inside and by the dots. کتب reads kitab, "book" — the first-week word. It appears, for example, in the word “شکریہ” — thank you.
In short
| Character | ک |
| Name | kaf |
| Sound | k |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 35th of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ف and گ, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type ک
- 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+06A9 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 06A9.
- Unicode code point: U+06A9. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
An ordinary k as in "cat" — unlike the deep ق
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 | کـ | — |
| medial | ـکـ | — |
| final | ـک | — |
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.
- کمرہkamraroom
The character in the “ف ک گ ل م ن ہ — the light consonants” group
Consonants with skeletons of their own that nothing can be confused with. ک and گ differ from ق in depth: ک is an ordinary k, and گ an ordinary g. The ق sounds from the bottom of the throat. And the lightest h of the script: ہ is a plain breath of air — the copula ہے "is" is written with it.
Words with this character
- شکریہshukriyathank you
- کیا حال ہے؟kya hal hai?how are you?
- ٹھیک ہےthik haiokay
- میں ٹھیک ہوںmain thik hunI am fine
- کوئی بات نہیںkoy bat nahinyou are welcome
- آپ کا نام کیا ہے؟ap ka nam kya hai?what is your name?
- آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟ap kahan se hain?where are you from?
- پاکستانPakistanPakistan
- معاف کیجیےmaaf kidzhiyeexcuse me
- نمکnamaksalt
- کھاناkhanafood
- ایکekone
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 «kaf» it is “k”, as in the word “کمرہ”), 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 ک read?
As “k” — it is a consonant of the Urdu script. An ordinary k as in "cat" — unlike the deep ق. For example, in the word “کمرہ” — room.
What is the letter ک called?
Kaf. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Urdu script: it is called “kaf” and reads as “k”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ک be confused with?
Resembles ل and ج at once: tell them apart by the stroke inside and by the dots. کتب reads kitab, "book" — the first-week word. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.