Learn about asking simple questions and how to interpret "the nod"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 16 - Changing Urdu Statements into Questions. I’m John. |
| Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, I'm Afrah. |
| John: In this lesson you'll learn how ask simple questions in Urdu. |
| Afrah: The conversation takes place in a hotel. |
| John: This conversation is between Jane, the hotel guest, and Ali, the hotel receptionist. |
| Afrah: Since they don’t know each other and are in a formal setting, they’ll be using formal Urdu. |
| John: Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| علی: ہیلو، محترمہ جین. کیا آپ ٹھیک ہیں؟ |
| جین: میں ٹھیک ہوں، شکریہ. آج بہت گرمی ہے! |
| علی: جی ہاں بہت گرمی ہے. کیا میں آپ کی مد د کر سکتا ہوں؟ |
| جین: شکریہ! آپ کے پاس پینے کے لئے کچھ ٹھنڈا پانی ہے؟ |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| علی: ہیلو، محترمہ جین. کیا آپ ٹھیک ہیں؟ |
| جین: میں ٹھیک ہوں، شکریہ. آج بہت گرمی ہے! |
| علی: جی ہاں بہت گرمی ہے. کیا میں آپ کی مد د کر سکتا ہوں؟ |
| جین: شکریہ! آپ کے پاس پینے کے لئے کچھ ٹھنڈا پانی ہے؟ |
| John: Listen to the conversation with an English translation. |
| Ali: Hello mohtarma Jane. Kia aap theek hain? |
| John: Hello, Ms Jane. Are you alright? |
| Jane: main theek hun, shukirya.. aaj bahaT garmi hai! |
| John: I’m alright, thank you. Today is very hot! |
| Ali: Ji bahaT garmi hai. kia main aap ki maDaD kar sakTi hun? |
| John:Yes it's very hot. Can I help you with anything? |
| Jane : Shukriya! Aap ky pas peenay ky liye kuch thanda pani hai? |
| John:Thank you! Do you have some cold water to drink? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: A lot of the Urdu language is in the tone. Most statements in Urdu can be turned into questions without changing anything but the intonation. |
| Afrah: Yes, and Pakistani people use a lot of head gestures while speaking. |
| John: Some tourists will need to get used to what a "yes" nod is, what a "no" shake is, and what a "maybe" wriggle is. |
| Afrah: Actually, the"yes" might not be the typical nod from top to bottom that most people are used to. It can be a swing of the head from side to side. |
| John: In fact, you can't rely on gestures alone. You also need to infer the meaning from other things like expressions and body stance. |
| Afrah: Subtle changes in the angle and degree of the head movement can imply totally opposite things. So, you need to be careful when making assumptions. |
| John: Good advice. |
| Afrah: Anyway, it’s always useful to verbally ask what the other person means. |
| John: Okay, let's move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Afrah: آپ [natural native speed] |
| John: you(formal) |
| Afrah: aap [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: aap [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: ٹھیک [natural native speed] |
| John: alright, well |
| Afrah: theek [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: theek [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: آج [natural native speed] |
| John: today |
| Afrah: aaj [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: aaj [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: بہت [natural native speed] |
| John: very, a lot |
| Afrah: bohat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: bohat [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: گرمی [natural native speed] |
| John: hot (for weather) |
| Afrah: garmi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: garmi [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: مدد [natural native speed] |
| John: help |
| Afrah: madad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: madad [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: ٹھنڈا پانی [natural native speed] |
| John: cold water |
| Afrah: thanda pani [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: thanda pani [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Afrah: کیا [natural native speed] |
| John: can |
| Afrah: kia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: kia [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Afrah: A very useful word to know in Urdu is the adverb بہت,. This means "very" or "a lot." |
| John: It's also easy to use because, unlike some adverbs, it doesn't inflect according to the gender or the number of the subject. |
| Afrah: Yes. The general rule is that adverbs ending with a ا are inflected, while the rest aren't. Since بہت doesn't end with a ا, it stays the same. |
| John: Let's listen to some examples. "Very hot" in Urdu is… |
| Afrah:بہت گرم |
| John: But “very hot” in terms of weather is.... |
| Afrah:گرمی |
| John: "Very cold" is… |
| Afrah:بہت ٹهنڈا |
| John: But “very cold” in terms of weather is.... |
| Afrah:بہت سردی ( bohat sardi ) |
| John: "Very tall" in the case of male subjects is… |
| Afrah:بہت لمبا |
| John: And "very tall" in the case of female subjects is… |
| Afrah:بہت لمبی |
| John: Now let's look at another word. |
| Afrah:مدد is a noun that means "help." |
| John: All Urdu nouns have gender. They’re either masculine or feminine. |
| Afrah: مدد is a feminine noun. |
| John: Alright! So, all the pronouns and adjectives associated with the noun for “help” will take their feminine forms. |
| Afrah: This means that whether you're a man or a woman, you'll always say میری مدد, which means "my help." |
| John: "Your help" would be… |
| Afrah: آپ کی مدد if you're speaking formally and تمہاری مدد if you are speaking informally. |
| John: The last word we'll look at is the verb "can," which is… |
| Afrah:کیا |
| John: Can you give an example using this word? |
| Afrah: کیا میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتا ہوں؟ which means “Can I help you?” for a male speaker. |
| John: If you’re a female and you want to say “can I help you,” you’ll say... |
| Afrah: کیا میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتی ہوں؟. |
Lesson focus |
| John: Let's move on to the main focus of this lesson. In this lesson you’re going to learn how to ask simple questions in Urdu. |
| Afrah: Okay. So, in English if you were to change simple statements into questions, you'd have to change the verb order. |
| John: For example, if you want to turn the statement, "This is your house" into a question, you'd arrange it such that the verb comes at the beginning and it becomes "Is this your house?" |
| Afrah: Well, in Urdu, none of this is necessary! In Urdu sentences verbs always come last. In an interrogative sentence they stay the same. |
| John: The question is indicated by the tone of the speech, you know, the questioning tone? |
| Afrah: Why don't we look at some examples? |
| John: Yes, let's take the sentence "I can help you." |
| Afrah: Now if you’re a female speaker, you'd say, میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتی ہوں. |
| John: And its question form "Can I help you?" would be… |
| Afrah: میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتی ہوں؟ |
| John: Did you notice that nothing changed except for the tone? |
| Afrah: Okay, another example, this time for a male speaker. You just need to change the words for "I can" from سکتی to سکتا |
| John: So if you’re a male speaker and wanted to state "I can help you," you'd say… |
| Afrah:میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتا ہوں |
| John: And to change that into the question "Can I help you?" you'd say… |
| Afrah: میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتا ہوں؟ |
| John: Instead of turning statements into questions with the change of tone, you can also add the word... |
| Afrah:کیا. It always goes at the beginning of the question. It loses its usual meaning which is "what." |
| John: So, if you’re a female and wanted to ask "Can I help you?" you'd say… |
| Afrah:کیا میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتی ہوں؟ |
| John: And if you’re a male, you'd say… |
| Afrah:کیا میں آپ کی مدد کر سکتا ہوں؟ |
| John: Okay, now one final example before we end this lesson. So, how do you say "This is your house" in Urdu? |
| Afrah: Well, "this" is یہ,. "your" is آپ کا, and "house" is گھر. So it would be یہ آپ کا گھر ہے |
| John: Now what would be its question form: "Is this your house?" |
| Afrah: “ یہ آپ کا گھر ہے؟” |
| John: Okay, let's practice the intonation. Listeners, please say "this is your house." |
| Afrah: یہ آپ کا گھر ہے [pause] |
| John: Okay, now make it a question and ask, “Is this your house?” |
| Afrah:یہ آپ کا گھر ہے؟ [pause] |
| John: That was easy. |
| Afrah: Just remember to change the tone or simply add کیا in front, and you're good to go. |
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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