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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
John: Hi everyone, and welcome to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 12 - Telling the Time in Urdu. I’m John.
Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, I'm Afrah. This lesson is a continuation of our previous lesson. You'll learn how to read more time in Urdu.
John: The conversation takes place at a bus station.
Afrah: It’s between Rita and Kamal.
John: They don't know each other, so they’ll be using formal Urdu.
Afrah: Let's listen to their conversation.

Lesson conversation

کمال: بس کتنے بجے آتی ہے؟
ریٹا: سوا دو بجے.
کمال: ابھی کتنے بجےہیں؟
ریٹا: دو بج کر بیس منٹ.
کمال: تهوڑی سی دیر ہو گئی ہے.
John: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed.
کمال: بس کتنے بجے آتی ہے؟
ریٹا: سوا دو بجے.
کمال: ابھی کتنے بجےہیں؟
ریٹا: دو بج کر بیس منٹ.
کمال: تهوڑی سی دیر ہو گئی ہے.
John: Now let’s listen to the conversation with the English translation.
کمال: بس کتنے بجے آتی ہے؟
John: "What time does the bus come?"
ریٹا: سوا دو بجے.
John: "Two fifteen."
کمال: ابھی کتنے بجےہیں؟
John: "What time is it right now?"
ریٹا: دو بج کر بیس منٹ.
John: "It’s two twenty."
کمال: تهوڑی سی دیر ہو گئی ہے.
John: "It's a little late."
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
John: The above conversation is such a stereotype.
Afrah: What do you mean?
John: Well, I think it plays into the stereotype that South Asian people are more flexible with time.
Afrah: Well, of course you can’t generalize the entire population, but there are reasons why certain things become stereotypes, you know?
John: I guess, in general, Pakistani people are usually more laid-back about time.
Afrah: Yes, buses don’t always come or leave as scheduled. And, official functions might not start on time if the guest of honor arrives late. Even friends and acquaintances might make you wait for a long time.
John: With the exception of formal business situations, there is a laid-back atmosphere about adhering to time, which is definitely frustrating at times.
Afrah: But at the same time, it can also be refreshing to follow a natural rather than a mechanical rhythm of life.
John: That's true.
VOCAB LIST
John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is...
Afrah: کتنے [natural native speed]
John: how much, how many
Afrah: Kit-nay[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: kitnay [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: بجے [natural native speed]
John: time, o'clock
Afrah: ba-jay[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: bajay [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: بس[natural native speed]
John: bus
Afrah: bus [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: bus [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: آنا[natural native speed]
John: to come
Afrah: ana [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: ana [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: سوا دو[natural native speed]
John: quarter past two
Afrah: Sa-wa dou[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: Sawa dou [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: ابھی [natural native speed]
John: now
Afrah: abhi[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: abhi [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: دو بج کر بیس منٹ[natural native speed]
John: two twenty
Afrah: Dou Baj kar be-es mi-nat [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: Dou baj kar bees minat [natural native speed]
John: Next we have...
Afrah: تھوڑی سی [natural native speed]
John: little
Afrah: tho-ri si[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: thori si [natural native speed]
John: And last...
Afrah: دیر [natural native speed]
John: late
Afrah: dair[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Afrah: dair [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
John: Let's go over some of the words that were used in the conversation. The first word is…
Afrah: بجے
John: ...which means "time," "o'clock."
Afrah: It’s used for plural nouns, or to be more specific, for all other times except for one o'clock. For example, پانچ بجے (panch bajay).
John: which means "five o'clock." What about the singular version?
Afrah: That’s بجا.
John: This one’s used for singular nouns, or to be more specific, only one o’clock.
Afrah: For example ایک بجا ہے
John: Which means “It is one o’clock.” Ok, what’s the next word?
Afrah: We heard the word آنا in the phrase اس کا آنا مشکل ہے .Well, آنا is a word with many meanings. Here, it means " to come." The phrase اس کا آنا مشکل ہے means "It’s difficult that he will come."
John: Is this word used in both masculine and feminine speech?
Afrah: Yes. This word can be used in both but just in آنا “to come” form.
John. Alright. So it means there are other forms of the word as well?
Afrah: Yes. For example, if you say “A girl came,” it would be ایک لڑکی آئی. Here آئی indicates that the subject is feminine. If it’s آیا, it means the subject is male.
John: I see. Are there plural forms of the verbs you just told us about?
Afrah: Yes. for plural masculine, you say آئے . For plural feminine you say آئیں
John: Moving on, the next word that came up was…
Afrah: تهوڑی سی .
John: ...which means "little." It's a very useful adverb to know.
Afrah: The tricky thing about this is that it has to agree with the gender of the adjective or the noun.
John: The masculine case is…
Afrah: تهوڑا سا
John: And its feminine case is…
Afrah: تهوڑی سی.
John: So to say "a little far," you say…
Afrah: تهوڑی دور.
John: And to say "a little hot," you say…
Afrah: تهوڑا گرم.
John: I guess you need to learn the genders as you go.
Afrah: Right.
John: Another useful but much easier adverb is its opposite which is "a lot" or "very."
Afrah: In Urdu it’s ذیاده.
John: So, "very hot" is…
Afrah: ذیاده گرم
John: And "very far" is…
Afrah: ذیاده دور

Lesson focus

John: Let's learn how to tell time in Urdu.
Afrah: For your benefit, we'll recap what we already learned in the previous lesson.
John: So, the numbers from 1 to 12 in Urdu are…
Afrah: ایک دو تین چار پانچ چھ سات آٹھ نو دس گیارہ بارہ
John: "What time is it?" in Urdu is…
Afrah: کتنے بجےہیں؟
John: We also learned how to tell time to the hour. The only exception is between one o'clock.
Afrah: So, as we already said, "It’s one o'clock" in Urdu is ایک بجا ہے and “It’s two o'clock” is دو بجےہیں
John: And we also learned how to tell time to the half hour, where the only exceptions are half past one and half past two.
Afrah: So "It’s half past one" in Urdu is ڈیڑھ بجا ہے, and "It’s half past two" in Urdu is اڑھائی بجے ہیں. For any other times, you use the word ساڑھے. For example, "It’s half past four" in Urdu is ساڑھے چار بجے ہیں.
John: That was quite a lot. And now we have more! So let's learn how to say the time to the quarter of an hour.
Afrah: "Quarter past" in Urdu is سوا and "quarter to" is پونے. Let's listen to some examples.
John: "It’s a quarter past ten" in Urdu is…
Afrah: سوا دس بجے ہیں
John: "It’s a quarter to eleven" in Urdu is…
Afrah: پونے گیاره بجے ہیں
John: The only exception to the rule is when telling time is related to one o’clock. "It’s a quarter past one" in Urdu is…
Afrah: سوا ایک بجا ہے
John: And "It’s a quarter to one" in Urdu is…
Afrah: پونے ایک بجا ہے.
John: Did you all spot the difference?
Afrah: Well, the difference is the use of بجا ہے for times related to one o’clock and the use ofبجے ہیں for the rest.
John: Before we end this lesson, we'll leave you with one more example. How would you say "It’s a quarter past ten?"
Afrah: سوا دس بجے ہیں

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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