Learn how to use the versatile word والا "wala"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 23 - A Multipurpose Urdu Word. I’m John. |
| Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, I'm Afrah. In this lesson you'll learn how to use the versatile word والا in Urdu. |
| John: The conversation takes place on a street. |
| Afrah: The conversation is between Kamal and Sarah. |
| John: They are friends and so they’ll be speaking informally with each other. |
| Afrah: Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| کمال: کیا اس رکشے والے کے پاس جوتے نہیں ہیں؟ |
| سارہ: شاید نہیں. |
| کمال : اس کو ایک اچھے جوتے کے جوڑے کی ضرورت ہے. |
| سارہ: جی ,اسے لکھنؤ والے جوتے کی ضرورت ہے. |
| John: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| کمال: کیا اس رکشے والے کے پاس جوتے نہیں ہیں؟ |
| سارہ: شاید نہیں. |
| کمال : اس کو ایک اچھے جوتے کے جوڑے کی ضرورت ہے. |
| سارہ: جی ,اسے لکھنؤ والے جوتے کی ضرورت ہے. |
| John: Let's now listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Kamal: kia uss rikshay walay ky pas jotay nahin hain? |
| John: "Does that rickshaw driver not have shoes?" |
| Sarah: Shayad nahin. |
| John: "Maybe not." |
| Kamal : Uss ko ek achay walay jotay ky joray ki zarurat hai. |
| John: "He needs a nice pair of shoes." |
| Sarah: G, ussay lakhnow walay jotay ki zarurat hai. |
| John: "Yes, he needs shoes from Lakhnow." |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Let's talk about transportation in Pakistan. In this conversation, Kamal and Sarah were talking about the rickshaw driver. Have you ever ridden in one? |
| Afrah: Yes, in Pakistan they are usually auto “rickshaws.” |
| John: You mean the three-wheeled taxis? |
| Afrah: Yes. If you have a chance, you should definitely try to ride one. Did you also know that many parts of Pakistan, especially the villages, use bull carts for transportation? |
| John: Really? I want to try that too. I also heard that in villages in central Punjab, you can ride on horse-driven cars. |
| Afrah: Yes, those are called tanga in the local language. There are other interesting means of transport. For example, in the Thar Desert, you can travel on camels. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Afrah: رکشے والا [natural native speed] |
| John: rickshaw driver |
| Afrah: rikshay wala [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: rikshay wala [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: پاس [natural native speed] |
| John: to have [natural native speed] |
| Afrah: pas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: pas [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: جوتے [natural native speed] |
| John: shoes |
| Afrah: jotay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: jotay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: شاید [natural native speed] |
| John: maybe |
| Afrah: shayad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: shayad [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: اس کو [natural native speed] |
| John: to him, to her |
| Afrah: Uss ko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: uss ko [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: اسے [natural native speed] |
| John: to him, to her |
| Afrah: ussay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: ussay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: اچھے [natural native speed] |
| John: nice |
| Afrah: achay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: achay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: جوڑا [natural native speed] |
| John: pair |
| Afrah: jora [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: jora [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Afrah: ضرورت [natural native speed] |
| John: to need |
| Afrah: zarurat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: zarurat [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Afrah:ہے [natural native speed] |
| John: to have, to posses |
| Afrah: hai [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: hai [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| John: Now let's look at some of these words in more detail. |
| Afrah: We've mentioned that اسے and اس کو mean the same thing. "To him," in this context. |
| John: And actually we've already discussed this in the lesson about apologies, but let's review it. |
| Afrah: کو is a postposition that means "to." اس means "him," "her," "it," or "that." اسے is actually the oblique case for the pronoun اس. |
| John: The oblique case is simply the form that pronouns change into when they’re used with postpositions. |
| Afrah: اسے is always about someone or something that is a bit further away, as denoted by the term "that." And so اسے means "to him," "to her," "to it," or "to that." |
| John: For things that are a bit closer, you use…. |
| Afrah: اس کو which is an oblique case for the pronoun اس |
| John: which also means "he," "she," "it," or "this." The word is the same for things that are far, but the pronunciation is different. |
| Afrah: For things that are closer, the word is Iss ko while for the things that are far, it is Uss ko. |
| John: Let's move onto our next word. |
| Afrah: دلی والا. It can mean a lot of things. |
| John: The meaning always depends on the context. It could mean people from Delhi or things and goods that are from Delhi. |
| Afrah: Similarly, there’s another word with walay. It was used in the conversation as اچھے والے جوتے |
| John: It means "nice shoes." |
| Afrah: اچھے on its own also means "nice.” |
| John: Okay, now on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Afrah: In this lesson, you will learn how to use والا (wala). والا actually does not have a proper translation in Urdu. |
| John: It’s always used with something else and that determines its meaning. |
| Afrah: When والا (wala) is used with a commodity, it means the seller of that commodity. For example, دودھ is "milk" in Urdu and دودوالا is "milkman." |
| John: What would you call a "vegetable seller?" |
| Afrah: سبزی is "vegetable" and سبزی والا is a "vegetable seller." |
| John: What about "fruit seller?" |
| Afrah: It would be پھل والا. |
| John: What if this word is used with a place? |
| Afrah: When والا is used with a place, it means a person or a thing that is from that place. |
| John: So a person or a thing from Delhi would be… |
| Afrah: دلی والا . In the same way, you can say لاہور والا, جاپان والا, and so on. |
| John: What does it mean when it’s used with vehicles? |
| Afrah: And when والا is used with vehicles, it mostly means a person who drives that thing. |
| John: For example, a "rickshaw driver" is… |
| Afrah:رکشے والا |
| John: A "taxi driver" is… |
| Afrah: ٹیکسی والا. But you know all these examples are very basic examples and general interpretations of the والا words. Their meanings always change with context. |
| John: Can you elaborate this point? |
| Afrah: So even though we said that ٹیکسی والا (taiksee wala) means "taxi driver," it could also mean other things like the "owner of the taxi," “the person standing next to the taxi," “the person sitting inside the taxi," and so on. |
| John: Alright! What else are the uses for this word? |
| Afrah: والا is also used not only with nouns but also with action words, with verbs. |
| John: In such a case, it describes someone who’s performing the action. Let's listen to some examples. |
| Afrah: Sure. پڑهنا means "to study" and if you add والا to it, it becomes پڑهنے والا, which means, "the one who is studying." |
| John: "The one who is singing" would be… |
| Afrah: گانے والا |
| John: And for our last example, "the one who is dancing" would be… |
| Afrah: ناچنے والا |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Afrah: Shukriya aur phir milenge! |
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