قوم
“قوم” (qaum) — people (nation) in Urdu. Noun, level B1. The first sound is the deep g: gha-um, throat-deep from the start. In a live sentence: “ہر قوم کی اپنی زبان ہوتی ہے” — Every people has its own language. Written with the characters ق, و, م. A word from the everyday Urdu course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Urdu | قوم |
| Read in Latin letters | qaum |
| Translation | people (nation) |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
How to pronounce it
the first sound is the deep g: gha-um, throat-deep from the start
Why it looks that way
The nation: every people with its own tongue
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.
- ہر قوم کی اپنی زبان ہوتی ہےhar qaum ki apni zaban hoti haiEvery people has its own language
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 “people (nation)” in Urdu?
«قوم», read “qaum”. The first sound is the deep g: gha-um, throat-deep from the start. In a live sentence: “ہر قوم کی اپنی زبان ہوتی ہے” — Every people has its own language. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ق, و, م.
How is “قوم” written in Latin letters?
qaum. 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?
The nation: every people with its own tongue. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.