Town, Region and Country

Most of these words are not Urdu

Urdu has spent centuries borrowing, mostly from Persian and Arabic, and the words for places are among the most borrowed of all. That is not a piece of history: it is a discount. If you ever study Persian, or already know some Arabic, a large part of this list is already yours. And it works in reverse: these words will turn up in other languages and you will recognise them.

Where you live

Six words for the places this topic is about:

Match each word to its meaning

The words Urdu shares

Four of the six words you have just learned came into Urdu from somewhere else. From Persian: شہر (shahr), city, and باغ (bagh), garden. A Persian learner meets exactly these words, spelled the same way. From Arabic: ملک (mulk), country, and علاقہ (ilaqa), area. And one is not borrowed at all: سڑک (sarak), road. It is South Asian in origin, and no amount of Persian or Arabic will hand it to you. That word is in this list on purpose. So the strategy is real but partial. When an Urdu word looks familiar from another language, that is usually not a coincidence and is worth acting on. When it does not, there is nothing to work out and you simply learn it.

Which one is not borrowed?

Four of these words came into Urdu from Persian or Arabic. Which one did not?

• سڑک (sarak), road
• شہر (shahr), city
• ملک (mulk), country
• باغ (bagh), garden

The pattern

Urdu has borrowed heavily from _____ and Arabic, and place words are among the most borrowed. شہر, city, is the same word in _____. ملک, country, came from _____. But _____, road, is South Asian and was not borrowed at all - which is the reminder that this is a useful strategy rather than a _____.

Find the one that is only Urdu

Here are three of the words from this module. Tap the one that was NOT borrowed from Persian or Arabic.

• شہر
• سڑک
• باغ

Order them by size

Put these four places in order, smallest first.

• سڑک (sarak) - road
• گاؤں (gaon) - village
• شہر (shahr) - city
• ملک (mulk) - country

Which are true?

Select the TWO correct statements about Urdu vocabulary.

• Many everyday Urdu words came from Persian and Arabic
• Recognising a borrowed word helps, but some Urdu words are not borrowed at all
• Every Urdu word comes from Persian or Arabic
• A borrowed word always means precisely the same thing in both languages

Use it

Three moments where knowing about the borrowing helps, and one where it does not.

• You are learning Persian as well and meet شہر there. What do you do?
• You meet سڑک and try to work it out from Persian or Arabic. What happens?
• You recognise a borrowed word but the sentence does not seem to make sense with the meaning you know.

Urdu puts the little words after the noun

The place words become sentences once you add the little words that follow them. Urdu puts them after the noun, and ends with ہے (hai - is): - باغ سڑک کے قریب ہے = "the park is near the road". کے قریب (ke qareeb - near) follows سڑک, never precedes it. Then ہے closes the sentence. - میں شہر میں رہتا ہوں = "I live in the city". Here میں appears twice and means two different things: the first is "I", the second follows شہر and means "in". A female speaker says رہتی ہوں.

Urdu puts "near" after the noun, not before it

Urdu puts "near" after the noun, not before it. Which of these says "the park is near the road"?

• باغ سڑک کے قریب ہے (bagh sarak ke qareeb hai)
• باغ کے قریب سڑک ہے (bagh ke qareeb sarak hai)
• باغ سڑک کے قریب (bagh sarak ke qareeb)
• میں شہر میں رہتا ہوں (main shahr mein rehta hoon)

Two kinds of word

Both are equally Urdu today. The difference is only in where they came from, and whether another language can help you with them.

City, village and area in Urdu

A city is _____ and a village is _____. A country is _____ and an area is _____. Many of these came into Urdu from Persian and Arabic, which is a real help if you study either - but _____ did not, and that is the reminder that the strategy has limits.

Where you live, and where Urdu words come from

Write in English about where you live, and then explain what you have learned about where Urdu vocabulary comes from.

• Say whether you live in a village, a town or a city, and give the Urdu word for it
• Name two words from this module that Urdu shares with another language, and say which
• Name the one that is not borrowed, and say what that means for how you learn it
• Explain why recognising a shared word is not quite the same as knowing it