urdu

Friends, In the saying "ser ko savaa ser" (which I believe it means that there is always someone smarter than you) What is the exact meaning / headword for "ser" ? (there are plenty!) Is it ser سیر सेर or sair سَیر सैर ?

What will be the English translation of this quote?

Friends, I am sorry to keep coming back to this subject. But, from previous threads Urdu, Hindi: ज़िला, ضلع declension Urdu: inflection of nouns ending in he or ain? I came to form two different ideas in my mind, which are mutually exclusive. Idea #1 is that words ending in -3 are inflected...

Friends, If I have a dog called Sultan, and I give chocolate to him, it is: 1. maiN_ne apne kutte sultaan ko chakleT diya or 2. maiN_ne apne kutte ko sultaaNn chakleT diya ? My feeling is that sultaan is some sort of apposition (equivalent to) apne kutte, therefore it should be inside...

Friends, I am a little confused about the mechanism used to form echo words with verbs. I understand that the "conjugation auxiliary" (i.e., honaa) is not echoed. For example: 1. are, kyaa tum kuchh khaate-vaate ho, yaa nahiiN? But what happens whith deominative verbs (i.e., nominal words...

Dear Foreros, Whilst doing a cursory search of the terms used for the branch of orthopaedics and its concomitant adjective in orthopaedic, it turns out that some Urdu lexicons have opted for a misnomer. This branch is associated with correcting bodily deformities and matters of a constitutional...

Dear Foreros, I was wondering in as few words as possible how can you state the following: A) "Go back to your tractors, farmer"- a condescending comment to make to someone on the rise and deemed to be an upstart. Also a quote from the Lamborghini drama documentary. My attempts, if any are...

Friends, I am reviewing the subject of verbs that can be interpreted both as transitive or intransitive. For example: badalnaa, bharnaa, bolnaa, laRnaa, samajhnaa, jhaaknaa and the "bodily function that involve some emission" ones, for which the transitive usage usually implies a more...

Hi all, How would you translate the following into Hindi/Urdu? (a) "I need a book that explains the subject well" (b) "I want a boyfriend who buys me lots of chocolates" (c) "There aren't any places in the town that serve alcohol" My attempts: (a) mujhe aisii kitaab ki zaroorat hai jo ye...

Friends, This subject has been touched upon in threads like this one, but I would like to approach it in a more analytical way. The 2 sentences below use the verb bolnaa, which is often used by grammars as an example of a verb that can be interpreted transitively or intransitively according to...

Frieds, I understand the general idea that referred speech in HU is normally introduced using ki(h), and then repeated verbatim, i.e., without the person, place and space adjustments that are typical for indirect speech in English (or Spanish). 1. mahilaa ne pulis ko qabuul kiyaa ki me_ne...

Friends, The following 2 sentences come from very different backgrounds. This first one comes from an Urdu religious song, Aaqaa: jahaaN bhii dekhuuN, teraa nishaan hai The second comes from some Hindi online magazine's advices about gardening: jyoN jyoN yah paudhaa baRhtaa jaae_gaa, logoN...

Hi all! I am trying to understand what रमी/रमा means here. I recognize the word from Gujarati to mean "to play," but hoping someone can make this usage clear for me. The larger context:

Hi all, Reading a short story from Susham Bedi (found here) and I noticed this usage of सीखना that I never saw before. 1. भैया भी तो लेट सीखा था 2. ममा तो आज तक नहीं सीखीं Is there an intransitive usage here that is common? I would've otherwise used a ने. Thanks! PG

In Muhammad Iqbal's Tulu e Islam, the 4th couplet in the 4th stanza reads as follows گمان آبادِ ہستی میں یقیں مردِ مسلماں کا بیاباں کی شبِ تاریک میں قندیلِ رہبانی For the first line in this couplet, I have found differing interpretations online: An English translation: "In the abode...

Friends, In the Hindi grammar book by Saphiro, the following sentence appears: 1.mujhe tiin kamroN_vaalaa pralauT (=lot?) chaahie [jis_meN saat log aaraam se rɛh sakeN] And then, in some sport news in Hindi, I see a similar usage, but with a preceding aise: 2.hockey Tiim ke kaptaan ne...

Friends, What is the difference between fiisdii and fiisad? Examples where I found fiisdii: Some article (in Hindi) about Canadian Punjabis: paakistaan meN panjaab bole_vaale log kul aabaadii kaa taqriiban 48 fiisdii haiN A Pakistani cricket player praising an opponent's skill: afriidii...

Friends, There is a big hole in my understanding of relative-correlative sentences that I need your help filling. My problem is that grammars focus exclusively on examples that have these 2 characteristics: - they use a relative word starting with /j/ and a correlative of the distant kind...

How do we say: - It's worth going to see the festival / going to the festival is worth it - Seeing the play was worth the wait. - I don't think it's worth your time. I know for value for money we can say paisa vasool. But outside of money, I wasn't sure how best to formulate the above...

Friends, Today I was taking to a friend of mine who is a functional Hindi speaker. I asked him the following three questions: Question #1. I am trying to say "I live with the man I love". Which one of these 2 sentences do you think says it more accurately? 1. maiN us aadmii ke saath...

Friends, I found this fragment in Rekhta. جُوں جُوں لیا تیرا ناوں وُوں وُوں مارا سارا گاوں What does it mean? Does naaoN stand for naam? It so, would it mean somehing like "As I took your name, I conquered the whole village"? Is it some sort of religious invocation (to God's name)? Or is...

Friends, In the following sentence, should laxt-jigar be translated as "pieces of (his) heart (liver)"? I would think so, because of the plural: جوں جوں اس کے ہاتھ تاروں پر پڑتے تھے توں توں اس کی پلکوں سے لخت جگر جھڑتے تھے and it should be translated word-by-word, not as an izafat...

Friends, When one uses uThnaa as an auxiliar verb, it indicates only suddenness, or there is also the suggestion of some ascending (standing) action? For example, in: jab bhii tiraNgaa dekhte hai, to man bol uThtaa hai «bharat maataa kii je» is it the heart or soul personified that...

Friends, In an interview (in Hindi) given by the actor Pankaj Tripathi, he says that he aspires to improve as a person, rather than as an actor. The way he expresses that idea is as follows: merii laRaaii achchhaa ekTar banne se zyaada(h) achchhaa insaan banne kii hai maiN jaisaa aadmii aaj...

Friends, Are commas also utilized in HU, as a way differentiate a clause that provides essential information versus another that provides only incidental information? For example, if I say 1. vo laRkaa jo vahaaN khaRaa hai meraa beTaa hai 2. vo laRkaa, jo vahaaN khaRaa hai, meraa beTaa hai...

Friends, Can proximal words like je, yahaaN, itnaa, idhaar, aisaa, ab, etc. be the correlatives in a relative-correlative construction? In other words, are phrases like: jo laRkii khaRii, ye laRkii lambii hai jitnii ho sake, itnii madad karnii chaahie jidhar tuu jaae, idhar maiN bhii...

Friends, ’اس کی ماں اسے روئے’ occurring at the end of the following sentence seems to be an idiomatic expression. If so, could you kindly tell me what it means? Thanks: سعدی کے قریب سے گزرنے لگی تو اس نے سر اٹھا کر دیکھا، زمر نے ملامتی، کاٹ دار نظر اس پہ ڈالی اور آگے چلتی چلی گئی یہاں تک کہ...

Friends, What does naak se makkhii uRaana mean, as occurring in the following text: “شائد وہ ٹھیک ہیں۔ میں اپنے غم، بیماری اور ٹراما میں خود غرض ہوگئی ہوں ۔ میں نے دوسری طرف کی کہانی سننا چھوڑ دی ہے۔ مجھےاس کی بات سننی چاہیے تھی۔ وہ قتل تھا یا نہیں، مجھے اس سے ملناچاہیے تھا۔” “ تمہاری جگہ...

Friends, In songs, I find often forms that seem to be subjunctive, both inside and outside a condition, as in: teraa jalva(h) jo paauN, maiN har Gam bhuul jaauuN = "if I attained your brilliance, I would forget every sorrow" tuu bhii dekhe agar, to kahe, hamanshin = "if you saw her, you...

Friends, I have noticed on both Pakistani and Indian channels presenters and others not declining yih to is and vuh to us. I have heard plenty of such cases on Pakistani TV channels but haven't written any examples down. Just now I heard one of the sports presenters on an Indian channel utter...

Friends, what is the pronunciation and meaning of نیہواڑنا (the sentence is سر نیہواڑے، وہ اکڑوں بیٹھا تھا). On the net too the combination سر نیہواڑے is frequently encountered. Thanks.

Friends, This sentence is from a Urdu novel, and I am unable to understand the meaning of the word نیک occurring there: (Curiously, there is no entry for نیک in Platts Dictionary) Thanks for help.

Friends, When using possessive pronouns like is_kii, un_kaa, etc., but in a context in which the possessor's distance in relation to the speaker is unimportant, is it my impression, or speakers overwhelmingly choose the distant forms, i.e., us_kaa, un_kii, etc. over the is_, in_ forms? Is it...

For example: "Is this action considered committing a crime?" کیا اس کارروائی کو جرم کا ارتکاب کرنا سمجھا جاتا ہے؟

Friends, When the word starts with alif (with zer) + 3ain, I notice that the set tends to be pronounced "e". For example: اِعْتِبار etibaar "trust" اِعْتِدال etidaal "moderation" اِعْدام edaam "annihilation" (Those words also happen to have a jazm over the 3ain) Can I safely...

A man acquitted of a murder charge foisted on him is saying this: “جن نظروں سے میرے رشتے دار مجھے دیکھتے ہیں، میرے قریب آنےپہ میرے بارے میں سرگوشیاں کرتے ہیں، ان پہ خون جلانے کے لئےمیرے پاس نہ وقت ہے نہ انائی۔” What exactly does انائی mean here? Thanks for help.

Friends, I began the following thread in the past Urdu: maiN shahr nahiiN jaane kaa/mujhe shahr nahiiN jaanaa hai marrish SaaHib in one of the posts (#21) stated the following. "QP SaaHib, I meant to say that example a) maiN shahr nahiiN jaane kaa, is a negative statement and doesn't have...

Dear Foreros, In a police interrogation where an accomplice is put through the ringer a question that is often yelled to him/her is give me the names of the kingpins involved. How would one express that very sentiment in Urdu/Hindi? Would "mujhe/hameN naam do un ke/us kaa" suffice or is naam...

Friends, In some texts (not many), I see the tashdiid over the chhoTii ye used to differentiate kiya (past of karnaa) from kya (what), like this: کیا کیّا Is that a valid usage of the tashdiid, or both words should be spelled the same? Thanks in advance

Friends, In final form, is the hamzaa typically used over the chhoTii ye directly, or it is more typical to have it "on its own seat", preceding the chhoTii ye? In other words, to say "she came" can I write آئ , or it has to be آئی ? Are both forms completely equivalent, or there is any...

Friends, I would like to know what is in the mind of profficient Urdu writers when they occasionally put a hamzaa over the vaao in words like ہؤا (past participle of honaa). What are they trying to say? That they disagree with the interpretation that would otherwise be forced by the...

Friends, Here is something quite perplexing: what does آغوش ہوس واکی تھی mean in the text below: لیکن وہی وزیر جو دریاگنج کی حویلی کے مہمان خانے میں دھیرےدھیرے کھلی تھی ، اور پھر اس نے اس طرح آغوش ہوس واکی تھی کہ شمس الدین احمد کو اس کا بحر حسن سراسر اوج و موج وتلاطم لگتا تھا اور اس کا شوق...

How is ہونہہ pronounced? What does it mean? “مومنہ! تم اتنی اداس کیوں ہو؟” علی نے اسے بغور دیکھتے ہوئے کہا۔ “کیا تم نہیں جانتے؟” مومنہ کا لحجہ شکوہ کناں تھا۔ “شائد۔” اس نے نفی میں سر ہلا دیا۔ “ہونہہ، مجھے پتا ہے علی تم شائد نہیں یقیناً جانتے ہو۔” مومنہ کے انداز میں بھرپور یقین تھا، علی اس کے...

Friends, what does the word جم mean in the following text: بیٹا! جب تمہیں اعتراض نہیں ہے تو میں تمہاری ماں ہوں، مجھے کیا اعتراض ہو سکتا ہے۔” “تھینک یو مما جان۔” “کون لڑکی ہو سکتی ہے، یہاں آفس، گھر یا جم اس کا حلقہ احباب اتنا وسیع نہیں ہے، ۔۔۔” Thanks.

Friends, Do the digraphs forming the aspirated consonants for example as ڑھ , دھ have proper names such as "ڑھے"، "دھے" or they should only be properly referred to as "the aspirated/haayya(h) form of the consonant x"?

Friends, When one speaks of a word metalinguistically (i.e. the word sound or spelling per se, not the meaning it represents), that word is feminine (because it is a baat) or it is a generic masculine? For example, if I wanted to say: Neha said a "hey!". That "hey" is masculine or feminine...

Hello all. Nendra نیندرا is money that is given by wedding guests to the family of the newly wedded couple to cover the expenses. I was wondering if anyone had any idea where this word comes from. It doesn't sound like a loan word. Thanks in advance

Friends, When words have this sign ــیـ , without a zer, and denoting the sound /e:/ like in پیچ = "screw, complication" That sign is "the middle form of the baRii ye" or "the middle form of the chhoTii ye"? For me, it was always the latter, as I always thought the baRii ye doesn't really...

Friends, What is soouuN in the following context? نعمان شوق - غزل کھیل ہی کھیل میں چھو لوں میں کنارا اپنا ایسے سوؤں کہ جگانا مجھے مشکل ہو جائے The Rekhta dictionary gives "sleep" as a definition, but what would be the headword? (BTW, I am just assuming it is soouuN, with 2 long vowels...

I’ve heard the expression “chalaakomaasii”, often used for young kids who act clever or naughty in an endearing way. I’m curious about the formation of this term. It may be of Punjabi origin but I have heard it used by non-Punjabis as well. How would you analyze the term “chalaakomaasii”? Does...