Travel and Tourist Transactions

دکان میں

You already know one thing about how Urdu builds a sentence: the little words come after the noun, not before it. ہوٹل میں (hotel mein) is *hotel in*. This module gives you the rest of that idea, and the vocabulary to buy something with it. Every word is shown three ways: the Urdu script, a transliteration in brackets to help you say it, and the English.

Travel words in Urdu

Five words a traveller needs, plus two you can already read: ٹکٹ (ticket) and بازار (bazaar) mean exactly what they sound like, so they are worth knowing but not worth testing.

Match each word to its meaning

The word that comes last

ہے (hai) is the Urdu for "is", and it goes at the end of the sentence. English asks *Where is the key?* and puts its verb near the front. Urdu asks چابی کہاں ہے؟ (chaabi kahan hai?), which is, word for word, *key where is?* That is the same idea you already met with ہوٹل میں. The little words follow the noun, and ہے follows everything. Urdu ends where English begins.

What is being asked?

At the hotel desk you say: چابی کہاں ہے؟ (chaabi kahan hai?) What have you asked?

• Where is the key?
• This is the key
• I would like a key
• Whose key is this?

The rule

The Urdu word for "is" is _____, and it goes at the _____ of the sentence. So "Where is the key?" becomes _____, which word for word is _____. Little words like میں (mein) also come _____ the noun rather than in front of it.

The same sentence, back to front

Read each pair across. The Urdu is not a jumbled English sentence; it is a consistent order, and once you expect ہے at the end you can hear where a sentence stops.

Build the sentence

Put these four words into the order you would SAY them to mean "My room is free". Start with the first word you would say.

• میرا (mera) - my
• کمرہ (kamra) - room
• خالی (khaali) - empty, free
• ہے (hai) - is

Which are right?

Select the TWO that follow Urdu word order.

• کمرہ خالی ہے۔ for "The room is free."
• دکان میں for "in the shop"
• ہے کمرہ خالی۔ for "The room is free."
• میں دکان for "in the shop"

ہوٹل میں

You are at a hotel and then in a shop. Choose the right Urdu each time.

• You want to ask where the key is. What do you say?
• You want to say the room is free. Which is right?
• In the shop you want to know the price of a ticket. What do you ask?

Money and rooms in Urdu

Money is _____ and a shop is _____. A room that is not taken is _____. To ask where something is you use _____ and finish the sentence with ہے. The whole habit to build is that Urdu puts its "is" at the _____ of the sentence.

A room and a purchase, far from home

Write in English about a day when you had to find a room and buy something in an unfamiliar place. Say what you needed to ask, and explain how an Urdu sentence is ordered differently from an English one.

• Say where you were and what you needed to find or buy
• Give one question you would have asked in Urdu, and what it means word for word
• Explain where ہے goes in an Urdu sentence, and where English puts "is" instead
• Say what happens to little words like میں, and why the two facts are really one rule