چالاک
“چالاک” (chalak) — cunning in Urdu. Adjective, level B1, topic — people and family. Kin of the word for gait: the cunning walks sideways. In a live sentence: “لومڑی بہت چالاک ہوتی ہے” — The fox is very cunning. Written with the characters چ, ا, ل, ا, ک. One of 197 words in the set “people and family” in the Urdu course.
In short
| Written in Urdu | چالاک |
| Read in Latin letters | chalak |
| Translation | cunning |
| Part of speech | adjective |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Kin of the word for gait: the cunning walks sideways
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- لومڑی بہت چالاک ہوتی ہےlumri behot chalak hoti haiThe fox is very cunning
Nearby words: people and family
Mum, friend, child, neighbour. The first thing people ask you about, and the first thing you tell about yourself.
- خاندانkhandanfamilyLiterally "the holders of the house": the family in the wide sense, with grandparents and cousins. Friday is its day: the meal at the elders’
- ماںmanmotherThe nasal sign at the end: maa slips up into the nose. The shortest and the weightiest word of the course; one speaks of the mother as of an elder
- باپbapfatherOne syllable with a long aa. The partner of maa: together they are walidain, the parents. One speaks of them only with respect
- داداdadagrandfatherThe grandfather on the father’s side. The respect mark ji is added to family elders: Dada ji — a name they are called by even without one
- دادیdadigrandmotherThe grandmother on the father’s side, often the head of the family kitchen. Respectfully — Dadi ji; her stories are asked for, not offered
- بچہbachachildMasculine; the plural is bachche. Bachche are both children and chicks
- دوستdostfriendThe same dost the Persians keep: friendship of one root. A dost here is a friend and a tea companion alike — the rank is flexible
- دکاندارdukandarshopkeeperLiterally "holder of the shop": the familiar dukaan plus -dar, the one at the work. A bazaar trader is always dukandar, even if he trades from a crate
- خریدارkharidarbuyerFrom khareeda — bought: the buyer is the one who has bought or means to. It follows dukandar in the same family of trade words
- انسانinsanhumanThe human as a living, thinking being: the same root as "humane". The plural is insaan — the count does not bend it
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “people and family”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “cunning” in Urdu?
Kin of the word for gait: the cunning walks sideways
- How do you say “friend” in Urdu?
The same dost the Persians keep: friendship of one root. A dost here is a friend and a tea companion alike — the rank is flexible
- How do you say “father” in Urdu?
One syllable with a long aa. The partner of maa: together they are walidain, the parents. One speaks of them only with respect
- How do you say “human” in Urdu?
The human as a living, thinking being: the same root as "humane". The plural is insaan — the count does not bend it
- How do you say “child” in Urdu?
Masculine; the plural is bachche. Bachche are both children and chicks
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “cunning” in Urdu?
«چالاک», read “chalak”. In a live sentence: “لومڑی بہت چالاک ہوتی ہے” — The fox is very cunning. Adjective, level B1, from the set “people and family”; written with the characters چ, ا, ل, ا, ک.
How is “چالاک” written in Latin letters?
chalak. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Kin of the word for gait: the cunning walks sideways. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.