خبردار
“خبردار” (khabardar) — careful! in Urdu. Interjection, level A1, topic — phrases that save you. Literally "know the news!": the street cry of warning. Children hear it more than anyone — at the sign and at the road. In a live sentence: “خبردار! گلی تنگ ہے” — Careful! The alley is narrow. Written with the characters خ, ب, ر, د, ا, ر. One of 18 words in the set “phrases that save you” in the Urdu course.
In short
| Written in Urdu | خبردار |
| Read in Latin letters | khabardar |
| Translation | careful! |
| Part of speech | interjection |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "know the news!": the street cry of warning. Children hear it more than anyone — at the sign and at the road
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.
- خبردار! گلی تنگ ہےkhabardar! gali ting haiCareful! The alley is narrow
Nearby words: phrases that save you
“I don't understand”, “say that again”, “slower, please”, “help”. They are learned first for a reason: they bring back a conversation that has already gone wrong.
- مجھے سمجھ نہیں آئیmujhe samajh nahin aiI don’t understandLiterally "to me understanding did not come": even "I didn’t get it" is said through "me". Samajh ends with a breath — samajh, not samaj
- دوبارہdobaraagainLiterally "doubled" — from do, two. On its own it is "once more"; the request rides on a gesture and the word together: dobara, meharbani
- آہستہahistaslowerAahista — quietly, slowly, gently. The most useful word of the first week, right after "I don’t understand"
- آپ انگریزی بولتے ہیں؟ap angrezi bolte hain?do you speak English?Literally "you English speak-is?": the verb closes the line again. Languages take no preposition: main Urdu bolta hoon — I speak Urdu
- مددmadadhelp!Literally "help!". Madad is both the noun and the cry: meri madad kijiye — help me
- میں راستہ بھول گیاmain rasta bhul gayaI am lostLiterally "I forgotten went": two verbs in a row, both at the end. A woman says bhool gayi — the same sense, the other gender
- چھتریchhatriumbrellaThe umbrella works against the sun here too: the heat outranks the rain. The rickshaw and the tea-house keep a spare — a guest must not get wet
- کام نہیں کرتاkam nahin kertadoes not workLiterally "does no work": the lift, the fridge and a person all "do not do" — the context splits them. The negation nahin stands before the verb
- ذرا انتظار کیجیےzara intizar kidzhiyewait a momentLiterally "a little waiting do": zara — just a bit — and intezar — the waiting. The polite kijiye you know from maaf kijiye
- میں نہیں کھول سکتاmain nahin khol saktaI cannot open itThis language puts "can" after the verb: khol sakta — "to-open able". A woman says khol sakti — the gender again in the ending
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “phrases that save you”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “careful!” in Urdu?
Literally "know the news!": the street cry of warning. Children hear it more than anyone — at the sign and at the road
- How do you say “umbrella” in Urdu?
The umbrella works against the sun here too: the heat outranks the rain. The rickshaw and the tea-house keep a spare — a guest must not get wet
- How do you say “slower” in Urdu?
Aahista — quietly, slowly, gently. The most useful word of the first week, right after "I don’t understand"
- How do you say “I cannot open it” in Urdu?
This language puts "can" after the verb: khol sakta — "to-open able". A woman says khol sakti — the gender again in the ending
- How do you say “I am lost” in Urdu?
Literally "I forgotten went": two verbs in a row, both at the end. A woman says bhool gayi — the same sense, the other gender
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 “careful!” in Urdu?
«خبردار», read “khabardar”. In a live sentence: “خبردار! گلی تنگ ہے” — Careful! The alley is narrow. Interjection, level A1, from the set “phrases that save you”; written with the characters خ, ب, ر, د, ا, ر.
How is “خبردار” written in Latin letters?
khabardar. 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?
Literally "know the news!": the street cry of warning. Children hear it more than anyone — at the sign and at the road. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.