Learn how to read time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 11 - How to Read Time in Urdu. I’m John. |
| Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, I'm Afrah. In this lesson you'll learn how to read time in Urdu. |
| John: The conversation takes place at Rita's house. |
| Afrah: This conversation is between Rita and Ali. |
| John: They are friends and so they will be using informal Urdu. Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| ریٹا: کتنے بجے ہیں؟ |
| علی: ایک بجہ ہے. |
| ریٹا: ہمارا ٹی وی پروگرام کتنے بجے شروع ہوتا ہے؟ |
| علی: ساڑھے تین بجے. |
| John: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| Rita: kitnay bajay hain? |
| Ali: Aik baja hai |
| Rita: Hamara tv program kitnay bajay shru hota hai? |
| Ali: sarhay Teen bajay |
| John: Let's now listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| ریٹا: کتنے بجے ہیں؟ |
| John: What time is it? |
| علی: ایک بجہ ہے. |
| John: It's one o'clock. |
| ریٹا: ہمارا ٹی وی پروگرام کتنے بجے شروع ہوتا ہے؟ |
| John: What time does our TV program start? |
| علی: ساڑھے تین بجے. |
| John: Half past three. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Afrah: In this conversation, Rita is eagerly waiting for a TV program. |
| John: Yeah, what is she waiting for? |
| Afrah: Well, Pakistani movies and TV programs are very popular. |
| John: I know and it probably wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they are part of Pakistani culture. |
| Afrah: I agree. Anyway, there are these TV series on family dramas that are a big hit among Pakistani house wives. |
| John: Really? |
| Afrah: Yes, they are aired in the afternoons so that the house wives can enjoy the many different programs for a couple of hours every day. |
| John: Sounds like they may be the Pakistani versions of British and American soap operas. |
| Afrah: You're exactly right! |
| John: And what are they usually about? |
| Afrah: Well, they're mostly centered around the drama of joint families, the relationship between the newly-wed wife and her in-laws, you know, things like that. |
| John: Okay, 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: 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: baj-ay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: bajay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: بجا [natural native speed] |
| John: time, o'clock |
| Afrah: ba-ja [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: baja [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: ہمارا[natural native speed] |
| John: our |
| Afrah: ham-ara [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: hamara [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: ٹی وی پروگرام [natural native speed] |
| John: TV program |
| Afrah: T-V pro-gram[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: TV program [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: شروع [natural native speed] |
| John: start |
| Afrah: shu-ru [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: shuru [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: ساڑھے [natural native speed] |
| John: half |
| Afrah: sar-hay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: sarhay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: تین [natural native speed] |
| John: three |
| Afrah: te-en [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: teen [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Afrah: Now, let's look at at some of these words in detail. |
| John: The word for "how many" or "how much" in Urdu is… |
| Afrah: کتنا, کتنے, or کتنی. |
| John: They all mean the same thing but are used differently for different genders and for different numbers. |
| Afrah: So کتنا is used for asking the number of a singular masculine subject, . کتنے is used for asking the number of plural masculine subjects, and finally, کتنی "(kitni") is used for asking the number of both singular and plural feminine subjects. |
| John: Since all Urdu nouns have genders, whether they are objects or people, you need to be aware of them if you want to speak correctly. Don't worry, though. There are ways to recognize which words are masculine and which are feminine. |
| Afrah: Yes. So for the most part, words that end with ا (a) are usually masculine and words that end with ی ("i") are usually feminine. |
| John: But this is not always the case, right? |
| Afrah: Yes because Urdu nouns do not always end in either ا (a) or ی ("i") and even if they do, they might not fit the rule. So the best thing is to learn as you go. |
| John: Anyway, the next word we'll look at is… |
| Afrah: بجا, which means "time" or "o'clock." |
| John: Can you tell what the gender is? |
| Afrah: Well, since بجا ends with an ا , it is masculine. |
| John: Is it used with singular or plural? |
| Afrah: بجا is used only with a singular noun, or to be more specific, only with one o'clock. The plural form of بجا is بجے and is used with plural nouns, or to be more specific, for all other times except for one o'clock. |
| John: Actually, there is a formula to change singular masculine nouns into plural. |
| Afrah: Yes. So, if the word ends with ا (a) then change it to ے , ay, like we did, بجا to بجے. |
| John: And for any other masculine words that don't end with an aa, their plural forms remain the same. No change! Now let’s move on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to read time in Urdu. But before we get into that, let's learn how to ask for the time. So in Urdu, the question "What time is it?" is… |
| Afrah: کتنے بجے ہیں؟. Here کتنے means "how much" or "how many,", ہیں means "are," and بجے means "time." ? In fact, بجے comes from the verb بجنا, which means "to ring." So literally, کتنے بجے ہیں؟ means "How many rings are." |
| John: Unlike in English where we use the singular form "is" when asking the question "What time is it?", in Urdu we use the plural "are..." |
| Afrah: which is ہیں, but it still means the same thing. |
| John: Let's practice this. First Afrah will say it at natural speed and then slowly. |
| Afrah: کتنے بجے ہیں؟, "kitne baje hain," "kit-nay ba-jay ha-in," "kitnay bajay hain?" |
| John: Great! So now let’s focus on reading time in Urdu. For this, you'll of course need to know numbers from 1 to 12. So, let's recap those numbers. |
| Afrah: (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12) ایک دو تین چار پانچ چھ سات آٹھ نو دس گیارہ بارہ |
| John: Telling time in Urdu is pretty straightforward and therefore easy! There is a formula you can use which works for all except one o'clock. |
| Afrah: Let's start with the exception. |
| John: Okay. So "It is 1 o'clock" in Urdu is… |
| Afrah: ایک بجا ہے Where ایک is "one,", بجا is "o'clock," and ہے is "is.". |
| John: Right. What about the other numbers? |
| Afrah: For the rest, the verb turns into plural. So instead of ہے, which is the singular "is," we need to use ہیں, which is the plural "are." In addition, بجا turns into its plural form بجے. |
| John: Right. So, let's hear it. "It is three o'clock" in Urdu is… |
| Afrah: تین بجے ہیں. |
| John: Great! And for the rest, you just substitute three with other numbers. |
| Afrah: Like چار بجے ہیں. for "It is four o'clock," or سات بجے ہیں. for "It is seven o'clock." |
| John: Okay, now let's learn how to say "It is half past.[number]..." So how do you say "It is half past three" in Urdu? |
| Afrah: ساڑھے تین بجے ہیں. |
| John: Basically everything is the same as before with some slight additions. |
| Afrah: That’s right. You just add ساڑھے in front of the time. The catch, though, is that this works for all except half past one and half past two. |
| John: “Half past one” in Urdu is… |
| Afrah:ڈیڑھ بجا ہے "(Derh baja hai.") |
| John: And “half past two” is… |
| Afrah:ڈھائی بجے ہیں "(Dhai bajay hain.") |
| John: And one more before we finish this lesson. |
| Afrah: Okay, so ..."It is half past five" in Urdu is ... ساڑھے پانچ بجے ہیں |
Outro |
| John: Excellent. 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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