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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 10 - Asking for Directions in Urdu. I’m John.
Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, I'm Afrah
John: In this lesson you'll learn how to ask for directions and where things are. The conversation takes place on a street.
Afrah: This conversation is between Ali and Dipti.
John: Ali is lost and asks Dipti for some help. Since they are strangers they will be using formal Urdu. Let's listen to their conversation.

Lesson conversation

علی: انارکلی کہاں ہے؟
دیپتی: اس طرف ...
علی: شکریہ! اور ٹیکسی سٹینڈ کہاں ہے؟
دیپتی: سیدها آگے.
علی: شکریہ.
John: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed.
علی: انارکلی کہاں ہے؟
دیپتی: اس طرف ...
علی: شکریہ! اور ٹیکسی سٹینڈ کہاں ہے؟
دیپتی: سیدها آگے.
علی: شکریہ.
John: Let's now listen to the conversation with the English translation.
علی: انارکلی کہاں ہے؟
John: Where is the Anar kali?
دیپتی: اس طرف ...
John: This way.....
علی: شکریہ! اور ٹیکسی سٹینڈ کہاں ہے؟
John: Thank you! And where is the taxi stand?
دیپتی: سیدها آگے.
John: Straight ahead.
علی: شکریہ.
John: Thank you.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
John: Afrah, have you been to the Anar Kali shopping street?
Afrah: Yes. It is one of the oldest markets in Asia and gets its name from the mausoleum located near it.
John: It's amazing that Pakistan is filled with so many marvelous architectural attractions!
Afrah: I would tell anybody who is interested in Pakistan to visit any of these sites because they will get a glimpse of Pakistan's distant past and the many different ideals, values, and accomplishments that will help them understand modern-day Pakistan.
John: Is there any place you would recommend in particular?
Afrah: Well, I don't know how to narrow it down! There are so many like Shahi Qila, Anar Kali, Rohtas fort, the Salt mines in kheora, and Faisal Mosque in the capital city Islamabad.
John: I especially like the sound of the Rohtas fort.
Afrah: Sounds pretty fantastic, doesn't it?
John: Absolutely! Check those places out if you go to Pakistan, listeners! For now, let’s move on to the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Afrah: آگے [natural native speed]
John: ahead, in front
Afrah: a-gay [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: agay [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Afrah: طرف [natural native speed]
John: way, direction
Afrah: ta-raf [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: taraf [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Afrah: کہاں [natural native speed]
John: where
Afrah: ka-han [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: kahan [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Afrah: اس [natural native speed]
John: this
Afrah: iss [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: iss [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Afrah: انارکلی[natural native speed]
John: Anar kali
Afrah: An-ar ka-li [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: Anar kali [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Afrah: شکریہ [natural native speed]
John: thank you
Afrah: shukriya [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: shukriya [natural native speed]
John: Next we have..
Afrah: سیدها [natural native speed]
John: straight
Afrah: seedha [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: seedha [natural native speed]
John: And last..
Afrah: ہے [natural native speed]
John: is
Afrah: hai [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: hai [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
John: Now, let's look at at some of the words that came up in the conversation. In Urdu, the word for the preposition “from” is…
Afrah: سے, but in Urdu, it is called a postposition.
John: Basically it means the same thing. - Postpositions are prepositions like from, to, on, in, until, at, with, under, and so on.
Afrah: They are called this because in Urdu, unlike in English, they come after the noun. So in Urdu, گھر سے…
John: Means “from home.”
Afrah: Which literally is “house from.”
John: Another example would be “from under”, which in Urdu is…
Afrah: نیچے سے, which literally is, “under from.”
John: In this conversation, it was used as…
Afrah: اس طرف.
Afrah: اس means “this,” طرف means “way”.
Afrah: Which literally is, “this way.”
John: If you've been paying attention, then you might be wondering why we use اس and not the standard pronoun for the word “this” which is…
Afrah: یہ.
John: Well, that's because in Urdu, pronouns change their forms. To be more specific, they change into their oblique cases when they are used with postpositions.
Afrah: یہ (yeh,) which means “this”, turns into اس while وه (woh,) which means “that”, turns into اس.
John: So, because of the postposition “from” in the phrase “from this way,” we need to use اس instead of یہ and it becomes…
Afrah: ِآس طرف.
John: How do you say “from that way” in Urdu?
Afrah: Well, because of the postposition “from”, the pronoun “that,” or وہ, will change into its oblique case which is اس, and so the sentence will be -ُاس طرف سے.
John: Okay, let’s move on to the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for where things are, that is, be able to ask the question “Where is [something]...?” So, to ask where the Anar kali is, you say…,
Afrah: انارکلی کہاں ہے؟ Where کہاں means “where,” and ہے means “is”.
John: Literally you're saying, “Anar kali where is?”
Afrah: As you know, Urdu follows the subject object verb order which means that the verb always comes at the end.
John: So, to ask where anything is, just follow the format…
Afrah: subject plus کہاں ہے Where subject is the person, place, or the thing you are looking for.
John: This is easy and pretty straightforward and is also an important survival phrase. You will definitely need it at some point.
Afrah: One thing to point out is that, the verb in the question changes slightly, like in English.,..
John: Yes, so you can either ask “where are.[something]..” questions or “where is .[something]..” questions.
Afrah: If it is a singular subject, you use ہے and if it is a plural subject, you use the nasalized ہیں (hain.)
John: Why don't we look at some examples?
Afrah: Sure thing!
John: So how would you say “Where are those people?” in Urdu?
Afrah: Well, we know that we use the format subject plus+ کہاں ہیں (hain.)
John: Right.
Afrah: Where the nasalized ہیں is the to-be verb “are”, and the subject is…
John: It's “those people”, which in Urdu is…
Afrah: وه لوگ
John: So, “Where are those people?” in Urdu is…
Afrah: وه لوگ کہاں ہیں؟
John: Okay. Another example. How would you say “Where is your house?” in Urdu?
Afrah: Well, the subject here is “your house,” which is گھر and it is singular, so the verb is ہے. And so the sentence is آپ کا گھر کہاں ہے؟

Outro

John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Afrah: Shukriya aur phir milenge!

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