واپس دینا
“واپس دینا” (wapas dina) — to give back in Urdu. Verb, level A1, topic — shopping and money. Literally "back to give": returning a thing to the shop is "giving it back". Money, a book, change — everything is given wapas with one verb. In a live sentence: “دکان والے کو قمیض واپس دو” — Give the shirt back to the shopkeeper. Written with the characters و, ا, پ, س, د, ی, ن, ا.
In short
| Written in Urdu | واپس دینا |
| Read in Latin letters | wapas dina |
| Translation | to give back |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "back to give": returning a thing to the shop is "giving it back". Money, a book, change — everything is given wapas with one verb
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.
- دکان والے کو قمیض واپس دوdukan wale ko qamiz wapas doGive the shirt back to the shopkeeper
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- کتنےkitnehow many?Both "how many" and "which": kitne baje? — at what hour? The question about price lives on this word
- روپیہrupiyarupeePakistan counts its money in rupees and its small change in paise. Bazaar prices are called out loud: often there is no tag at all
- بازارbazarmarketThe very bazaar English has known for centuries: the covered rows of Lahore are a city within the city, with mosques, tea-houses and lanes of their own
- دکانdukanshopA stall, a kiosk, a workshop — any place of trade. One eats in a dukaan too: khaane ki dukaan — the eatery
- کتنے پیسے ہوئے؟kitne pise hue?how much is it?Literally "how much money has become?". This is how one asks a price at the bazaar; the seller answers with the bare number, no "rupees"
- کاؤنٹرkauntercounterAn international word written in the local script: the shop counter and the cashier’s window are one counter. There is no separate street stall — the trader sits behind his own
- 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
- ترازوtarazuscalesThe beam balance the grain trader still hangs over the counter. Singular here, unlike the English pair
- کلوگرامkilogramkilogramAt the bazaar it is said short — kilo: ek kilo seib. The half gets the word aadha
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to give back” in Urdu?
Literally "back to give": returning a thing to the shop is "giving it back". Money, a book, change — everything is given wapas with one verb
- How do you say “shopkeeper” in Urdu?
Literally "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
- How do you say “market” in Urdu?
The very bazaar English has known for centuries: the covered rows of Lahore are a city within the city, with mosques, tea-houses and lanes of their own
- How do you say “kilogram” in Urdu?
At the bazaar it is said short — kilo: ek kilo seib. The half gets the word aadha
- How do you say “counter” in Urdu?
An international word written in the local script: the shop counter and the cashier’s window are one counter. There is no separate street stall — the trader sits behind his own
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 “to give back” in Urdu?
«واپس دینا», read “wapas dina”. In a live sentence: “دکان والے کو قمیض واپس دو” — Give the shirt back to the shopkeeper. Verb, level A1, from the set “shopping and money”; written with the characters و, ا, پ, س, د, ی, ن, ا.
How is “واپس دینا” written in Latin letters?
wapas dina. 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 "back to give": returning a thing to the shop is "giving it back". Money, a book, change — everything is given wapas with one verb. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.