زبان
“زبان” (zaban) — language in Urdu. Noun, level A0. Both the tongue of speech and the organ: the same word the Persians keep. Zabaan also means one’s word: zabaan dena — to give one’s word. In a live sentence: “زبان اردو آسان ہے” — The Urdu language is easy. Written with the characters ز, ب, ا, ن. A word from the everyday Urdu course, level A0.
In short
| Written in Urdu | زبان |
| Read in Latin letters | zaban |
| Translation | language |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Both the tongue of speech and the organ: the same word the Persians keep. Zabaan also means one’s word: zabaan dena — to give one’s word
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.
- زبان اردو آسان ہےzabane urdu asan haiThe Urdu language is easy
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 “language” in Urdu?
«زبان», read “zaban”. In a live sentence: “زبان اردو آسان ہے” — The Urdu language is easy. Noun, level A0; written with the characters ز, ب, ا, ن.
How is “زبان” written in Latin letters?
zaban. 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?
Both the tongue of speech and the organ: the same word the Persians keep. Zabaan also means one’s word: zabaan dena — to give one’s word. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.