سلام
“سلام” (salam) — hello in Urdu. Interjection, level A0, topic — greetings and goodbyes. The stress stays flat and the middle vowel short: sa-lam, not sa-laam. In a live sentence: “سلام، دوست!” — Hello, friend! Written with the characters س, ل, ا, م. One of 9 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” in the Urdu course.
In short
| Written in Urdu | سلام |
| Read in Latin letters | salam |
| Translation | hello |
| Part of speech | interjection |
| Level | A0 |
How to pronounce it
the stress stays flat and the middle vowel short: sa-lam, not sa-laam
Why it looks that way
The one hello for every occasion — the very word that greets you across the whole region. Fits any time of day, to friends and strangers alike
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.
- سلام، دوست!salam, dost!Hello, friend!
Nearby words: greetings and goodbyes
Every conversation starts here, and so does every first impression: say hello in the local language and you stop being a stranger in about a second.
- صبح بخیرsub bekhairgood morningLiterally "morning [be] good". Wishes are built as time word + bakhair, and the answer is expected in the same shape: bakhair — "good"
- خدا حافظkhuda hafizgoodbyeLiterally "God [be your] keeper": may God guard you. The friendlier phir milenge — see you — lives next door and is heard just as often
- کیا حال ہے؟kya hal hai?how are you?Literally "what [is your] state?". Haal — state — is the same word you met in subah bakhair. The verb is closes the line
- میں ٹھیک ہوںmain thik hunI am fineLiterally "I well-am": the little is glues onto the end of the line, where English keeps a separate word. The full answer: main theek hoon, shukriya
- پھر ملتے ہیںphir milte hainsee youLiterally "later we-meet": the verb stands at the very end of the line. The most common friendly parting between one’s own
- شام بخیرsham bekhairgood eveningLiterally "evening [be] good" — the same shape as subah bakhair. Shaam is the evening, and evening here starts at noon
- شب بخیرshab bekhairgood nightLiterally "night [be] good" — the third wish of the family. Said at bedtime and when parting late in the evening
- آدابadaba polite greetingThe bookish good day with no religious tint — how one greets elders and city strangers. The answer is the same aadab back
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “greetings and goodbyes”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “hello” in Urdu?
The one hello for every occasion — the very word that greets you across the whole region. Fits any time of day, to friends and strangers alike
- How do you say “good night” in Urdu?
Literally "night [be] good" — the third wish of the family. Said at bedtime and when parting late in the evening
- How do you say “see you” in Urdu?
Literally "later we-meet": the verb stands at the very end of the line. The most common friendly parting between one’s own
- How do you say “how are you?” in Urdu?
Literally "what [is your] state?". Haal — state — is the same word you met in subah bakhair. The verb is closes the line
- How do you say “good morning” in Urdu?
Literally "morning [be] good". Wishes are built as time word + bakhair, and the answer is expected in the same shape: bakhair — "good"
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 “hello” in Urdu?
«سلام», read “salam”. The stress stays flat and the middle vowel short: sa-lam, not sa-laam. In a live sentence: “سلام، دوست!” — Hello, friend! Interjection, level A0, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”; written with the characters س, ل, ا, م.
How is “سلام” written in Latin letters?
salam. 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 one hello for every occasion — the very word that greets you across the whole region. Fits any time of day, to friends and strangers alike. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.