تم
“تم” (tum) — you (informal) in Urdu. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. Only for the close, the same age and the younger: thou and you are kept apart here more firmly than English ever kept them. To anyone older — straight to aap. In a live sentence: “تم کہاں ہو؟” — Where are you? Written with the characters ت, م. One of 26 words in the set “pronouns” in the Urdu course.
In short
| Written in Urdu | تم |
| Read in Latin letters | tum |
| Translation | you (informal) |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Only for the close, the same age and the younger: thou and you are kept apart here more firmly than English ever kept them. To anyone older — straight to aap
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.
- تم کہاں ہو؟tum kahan ho?Where are you?
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- میںmainIThe vowel at the end escapes through the nose — the nasal sign does it, the same one that ends "mother". Almost never dropped: the verb’s ending already says who speaks
- آپapyou (polite)The polite you — and to one person as well: the same solution as French vous. With aap the verb takes the they-form
- وہwoheOne word for he, she and it: the pronoun keeps no gender — the context tells you who it is
- ہمhumweOne we for every case: it never splits into we-and-you versus we-without-you. Opens with a light puff of breath
- آپ لوگap logyou (all)Aap plus log — people: a heavy "you all" aimed at a company, not the polite you to one person. The verb stays the aap one
- وہ لوگwo logtheyWoh plus log — those people: the way one speaks of a company. No gender here either: woh log covers men and women alike
- میراmeramyIt changes with the thing: about a book — meri, about expenses — mere. The familiar mera naam is literally "my name is"
- تمہاراtumharayour (informal)The home possessive, tied to tum. The polite aap answers with aap ka — your — and the difference is heard at once
- ہماراhamaraourFrom hum — we: hum, hamara, hamare. One root holds the whole family of words
- آپ کاap kayour (polite)The polite your: ka hooks onto aap. A woman’s thing — aap ki, many things — aap ke
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “you (informal)” in Urdu?
Only for the close, the same age and the younger: thou and you are kept apart here more firmly than English ever kept them. To anyone older — straight to aap
- How do you say “my” in Urdu?
It changes with the thing: about a book — meri, about expenses — mere. The familiar mera naam is literally "my name is"
- How do you say “he” in Urdu?
One word for he, she and it: the pronoun keeps no gender — the context tells you who it is
- How do you say “your (polite)” in Urdu?
The polite your: ka hooks onto aap. A woman’s thing — aap ki, many things — aap ke
- How do you say “they” in Urdu?
Woh plus log — those people: the way one speaks of a company. No gender here either: woh log covers men and women alike
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 “you (informal)” in Urdu?
«تم», read “tum”. In a live sentence: “تم کہاں ہو؟” — Where are you? Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters ت, م.
How is “تم” written in Latin letters?
tum. 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?
Only for the close, the same age and the younger: thou and you are kept apart here more firmly than English ever kept them. To anyone older — straight to aap. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.