Learn about grammatical gender in the Urdu language
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How can a word be masculine or feminine? |
| Shazia: And how do you determine a noun's gender in Urdu? |
| Antoni: At UrduPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen Lee is at a spice shop. She says to the clerk, |
| "I want coriander and ginger." |
| Karen Lee: مجھے دھنیا اور ادرک درکار ہیں۔ (Mujhay dhanya aur adrak derkaar hain.) |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: مجھے دھنیا اور ادرک درکار ہیں۔ (Mujhay dhanya aur adrak derkaar hain.) |
| Zahid Javaid: کیا صرف دھنیا اور ادرک؟ (Kia sirf dhanya aur adrak?) |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: مجھے دھنیا اور ادرک درکار ہیں۔ (Mujhay dhanya aur adrak derkaar hain.) |
| Antoni: "I want coriander and ginger." |
| Zahid Javaid: کیا صرف دھنیا اور ادرک؟ (Kia sirf dhanya aur adrak?) |
| Antoni: "Only coriander and ginger?" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: Everything in the Urdu language has a gender, which means all nouns are either masculine or feminine. It’s important to be familiar with the gender of a noun because other words in a sentence, such as adjectives, change depending on the noun’s gender. In our dialogue, the word |
| Shazia: دھنیا (dhanya), |
| Antoni: which means "coriander," is masculine, while |
| Shazia: ادرک (adrak), |
| Antoni: which means "ginger," is feminine. |
| Antoni: When constructing a sentence, you need to be sure that you conjugate the adjective based on the gender of the noun. In English, you can simply say "big car," or "big house," without having to change the form of the adjective. In Urdu, the spelling of the adjective changes depending on the gender of the noun it modifies. For instance, "big car" in Urdu is |
| Shazia: بڑی گاڑی (barri gaari). |
| Antoni: The word "big" in Urdu is |
| Shazia: بڑا (bara). |
| Antoni: Notice how the ending changes when it is used to modify the word "car," or |
| Shazia: گاڑی (gaari). |
| Antoni: That’s because the word "car" in Urdu is just one of the many Urdu nouns that carry the feminine gender. In Urdu, most feminine nouns end in |
| Shazia: ی (i), |
| Antoni: while most masculine nouns end in |
| Shazia: ا (a). |
| Antoni: One example of a masculine Urdu noun is the word "fan," or |
| Shazia: پنکھا (pankha), |
| Antoni: which ends in the "a" sound. If you want to say "big fan," you can say |
| Shazia: بڑا پنکھا (bara pankha). |
| Antoni: Here, you will notice the the adjective "big," or |
| Shazia: بڑا (bara), |
| Antoni: has retained its base form. So far, you’ve learned that one of the ways to tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine in Urdu is through its ending. If a noun ends in |
| Shazia: ی (i), |
| Antoni: it’s most likely a feminine noun, and if it ends in |
| Shazia: ا (a) |
| Antoni: Then, it’s a masculine noun. Also, all male human beings and male animals are considered masculine nouns. In the same manner, all female human beings and female animals are considered feminine nouns. Therefore, the words, |
| Shazia: ابّا (abba) |
| Antoni: meaning "father," and |
| Shazia: لڑکا (laṛka) |
| Antoni: meaning "boy," are considered masculine nouns. In the same token, the words, |
| Shazia: امّي (ammi) |
| Antoni: "mother," and, |
| Shazia: لڑکی (laṛki) |
| Antoni: meaning "girl," are considered feminine nouns. As you may have already guessed, there are exceptions to the rule. For instance, the word |
| Shazia: دعا (duaa), |
| Antoni: which means "prayer," is considered a feminine noun even though it ends in (a), while the word |
| Shazia: پانی (paani) |
| Antoni: or "water," is considered a masculine noun even though it ends in (i). Moreover, not all nouns in Urdu end in the vowel sounds "a" and "i." You have words, such as |
| Shazia: ادرک (adrak), |
| Antoni: which was in the main conversation, means "ginger," and is feminine, |
| Shazia: سر (sir) |
| Antoni: which means "head," and is masculine |
| Shazia: بازو (baazu), |
| Antoni: which means "arm," and is masculine. There are many similar words in Urdu, whose gender must be learned by heart. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Shazia: !الوداع (alwida!) |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Shazia Ashfaq (Urdu), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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