Cultural Life
Explore Urdu words for festivals, family, music and food. Every word comes with its script, a transliteration to help you say it, and the English meaning.
Practise it before the paper, not after
Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
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Cultural Life
Cultural life is about festivals, family, food, music and traditions. In this module you will learn the key Urdu words for them. Urdu is written right to left in a flowing script. Every word below is shown with its script, a transliteration in brackets to help you say it, and the English meaning.
Key words (1)
Learn these four cultural words:
Match each word to its meaning
- تہوار (tehvar)
- خاندان (khandan)
- موسیقی (musiqi)
- کھانا (khana)
- festival
- family
- music
- food
What musiqi means in Urdu
What does the Urdu word موسیقی (musiqi) mean?
- music
- food
- family
- festival
Key words (2)
Now four more words about celebrations:
Match each word to its meaning
- رقص (raqs)
- روایت (riwayat)
- گانا (gana)
- جشن (jashn)
- dance
- tradition
- song
- celebration
Cultural life
Select the TWO things that are part of cultural life.
- Celebrating festivals with family
- Enjoying music and dance
- Ignoring all traditions
- Never celebrating anything
Choose the Urdu word
In Urdu, the word for 'family' is _____, and the word for 'music' is _____.
A flowing script
Urdu is written right to left in a flowing script derived from Arabic. Urdu shares words with Persian, Arabic and Hindi, but it is its own language. The transliteration in brackets is a pronunciation guide. Festivals such as عید (Eid) bring families together with food, music and celebration.
A special day
What does the Urdu word تہوار (tehvar) mean?
- festival
- homework
- school
- the weather
Urdu puts is at the end
The festival words become sentences once you add ہے (hai - is) at the end, where English would not put it: - تہوار خاندان کے ساتھ ہے = "the festival is with the family". کے ساتھ (ke saath - with) comes after خاندان, not before it. Urdu puts these little words behind the noun, which is the opposite of English. - مجھے موسیقی پسند ہے = "I like music". Literally "to me music is pleasing". مجھے (mujhe) is "to me", and ہے closes the sentence as always.
Urdu puts "with" after the noun, not before it
Urdu puts "with" after the noun, not before it. Which of these says "the festival is with the family"?
- تہوار خاندان کے ساتھ ہے (tehvar khandan ke saath hai)
- تہوار کے ساتھ خاندان ہے (tehvar ke saath khandan hai)
- تہوار خاندان کے ساتھ (tehvar khandan ke saath)
- مجھے موسیقی پسند ہے (mujhe musiqi pasand hai)
Cultural life in action
Think about how cultural life works, using the words you have learned.
- During a festival, families gather to share...
- The Urdu word موسیقی (musiqi) refers to...
- Traditions, روایات (riwayat), are...
One more
The Urdu word for 'food' is _____, and the word for 'festival' is _____.
Your turn: write in Urdu
Write two or three sentences IN URDU about a festival and what is enjoyed at it. Write in Urdu script - the transliteration in brackets is a reading aid only.
- Name it: تہوار (tehvar - a festival) or جشن (jashn - a celebration)
- Name two cultural things: کھانا (khana - food), موسیقی (musiqi - music), رقص (raqs - dance) or گانا (gana - a song)
- Join them with اور (aur - and): کھانا اور موسیقی (khana aur musiqi)
- Mention روایت (riwayat - tradition) or خاندان (khandan - family)