Chapter 16

These are the four forms of each letter

Note that the medial form of a has a closed loop on top.Note L initial or medial can be confused with alif and the L final with the undotted N. If we look at the letters above we can form some new words with these and the previous letters. Try and read the words below . Each line is a mxture of English and urdu words. The answers come afterwards. There are examples of the inital , medial and final forms of each letter as far as possible.

Lets make some words using the above . Have a go at reading them.

Here are the answers.

Chapter 15

points to note are that the intial B or P has a short vertical rather than horizontal line when it has a vowel with it as in the word NO above and that the letter S often has an elongated shape as in the word Pakistan . Note also that the mark over the t in potato converts it into a hard T as in Turkey.
It seems that the first soldiers who got to the subcontinent did not speak the Queen's English . So that the word CALL ( to call ) somebody is ususally written and pronounced as CAAL rather than CAUL by Urdu speakers. Also there is a tendency to add an I at the beginning whenever an English word is written with Urdu script , so the word SPIRIT for eg. is written and pronounced as ISPIRIT , school is written as ischool etc. Here however we will try and stick close to the English pronounciation.

Lets look at another three vowels in the figure below from R to L which complete the vowels used in Urdu They are another form of A which we shall from now mark as little a to distinguish from Aliph.Long EE also used as Y as we shall see.Long Ae Then is the letter H and finally L.

a is pronounce as AEN ( as in mAn) . The next is the letter Y . Because it has two dots at the bottom it can easily be confused with the vowel mark ae .Third is the long Ae . Next on the left are the two useful consonants H and L

Chapter 14

Can you by looking at the figure above identify the following words in the next figure ? They consist of Urdu words in the first line and English in the next one.

The answers are Pakistan ( this is a different form of S - a new letter will be introduced in the figures sometimes before without prewarning and you have to make a best guess what it might sound like - its a good practice to get into as often some of vowel marks are not written and one has to occasionally guess in reading normal Urdu ) . The words are Mama and Neem on the first line. The second line has mint , no , potato and the final line has name and then mine. Note the hamza - a little one put over a vowel when one vowel follows another as here in the word MINE the vowel AA is followed by EE.

Chapter 13

Lets look at the vowels and the words learnt so far and introduce a new letter M

Chapter 12

Vowel at the beginning of a sentence .
If a word begins with a vowel eg arm , apple , easter etc. an aliph sign is always put before the vowel mark.
Examples below. Note that the first word is a or ugh as in 'U'nder.
Note there are two ae letters. The bottom is used when ae is on its eg Ae cat sat while the one above it is used when AE joins the next letter eg in AEK (one). If the vowel is not at the start of a word we dont use the vertical aliph and just use the vowel marks as below

Make sure you can tell the difference between ae and big eee ( there is an extra zer at the bottom for eee). Between u and big ooo and between ooo and au ( au has a zabar on top ). It is important to get up and cram these vowel marks as they make the language very easy to read once you have done that.
*As in Hindi the nasal n as in the word song is marked with a dot over the letter.*

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After Aliph the next letters in the alphabet are B , P , Te (soft as in tota-parrot) , T , and S.-written from your R to Left. These letters are pronounced as Be (bay) , Pe , Te , Te and Se.
The S above can be confused with SH which we will see later , so look at it closely.
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guess the four forms of each letter depending on whether it is detached ( to your right ) . comes at the beginning ( second right on your screen) , middle - 3rd from the Right or final (leftmost )

Looking at the above figure and keeping the sign of the aa vowel ( just a vertical line ) , and keeping in mind where the letter comes in the word ,can you read your first sentence in Urdu ? It has a final form of the i which you have not met before ( in the word KI below). Also note the little omega sign -called TASHDID-at the top of B in ABBA. It is a doubler ie it means you have to say B twice , the first B is half pronounced . Read R to L.
Do you know what the above - Aap ke Abba ki Kitab - means ? It says this book belongs to your father . Abba is urdu for father . Aap means you and kitab is book. Note also that the two dots for the soft te in Kitab are placed well above the line.
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The next figure below has three urdu words and one English word. Can you read them ? Answers are in the next figure after the one below

The answers are

The unlabelled figure is of course the English word TENT