Learn how to ask and answer the question "How old are you?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 7 - Talking About Your Age in Urdu. I’m John. |
| Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, |
| John: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question "How old are you?" in Urdu. The conversation takes place in a classroom. |
| Afrah: This conversation is between Kawita, who is a teacher, and Ali, who is a student. |
| John: Since the speakers have a student-teacher relationship, they will be using formal Urdu. |
| Afrah: Let's listen to their conversation. |
| LESSON DIALOGUE |
| کاویتا: آپ کی عمر کیا ہے؟ |
| علی: میں تیس سال کا ہوں. |
| کاویتا:آپ کے کتنے بچے ہیں؟ |
| علی: میرے کوئی بچے نہیں ہیں. |
| John: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| KAWITA: Aap ki umar kia hai? |
| ALI: Main tees saal ka hun. |
| KAWITA: Aap ky kitnay bachay hain? |
| ALI: Meray koi bachay nahin hain. |
| John: Let's now listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| کاویتا: آپ کی عمر کیا ہے؟ |
| John: How old are you? |
| علی: میں تیس سال کا ہوں. |
| John: I am thirty years old. |
| کاویتا:آپ کے کتنے بچے ہیں؟ |
| John: How many kids do you have? |
| علی: میرے کوئی بچے نہیں ہیں. |
| John: I don't have any kids. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: It is natural for men and women in Pakistan to be married and have kids by that age. |
| Afrah: I guess, in a way, these social expectations for men and women are similar in many countries. |
| John: Yes, but in cities, more and more women are becoming educated, holding jobs, becoming independent, and getting married much later. |
| Afrah: Pakistanis usually have arranged marriages with others of their own caste. |
| John: This is actually seen even among many Pakistani families who live abroad. |
| Afrah: In fact, parents still choose for their sons and daughters a partner of the same caste and similar social standing. |
| John: But I think it's important to point out that arranged marriages aren't necessarily forced marriages. Men and women do have a say, in most cases. |
| Afrah: After all, it is their life partner they are talking about. |
| John: Okay, let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: The first word is.. |
| Afrah: بچے [natural native speed] |
| John: children |
| Afrah: ba-chay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: bachay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: نہیں [natural native speed] |
| John: no |
| Afrah: na-hin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: nahin [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: آپ کی [natural native speed] |
| John: your |
| Afrah: aa-p ki [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: aap ki [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: تیس [natural native speed] |
| John: thirty |
| Afrah: te-es [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: tees [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: عمر [natural native speed] |
| John: age |
| Afrah: um-aR [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: umaR [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: سال [natural native speed] |
| John: years |
| Afrah: sa-al [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: saal [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: کتنے [natural native speed] |
| John: how many |
| Afrah: kiT-nay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: kiTnay [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: ہوں [natural native speed] |
| John: am |
| Afrah: hu-n [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: hun [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: کیا [natural native speed] |
| John: what |
| Afrah: ki-a [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: kia [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Afrah: Okay, let's talk about some of these words in detail. First is آپ کی |
| John: Which means "your…" |
| Afrah: This is a possessive pronoun. It is used formally when showing respect to the other person. |
| John: We're going to remind you again that all Urdu nouns have a gender – either masculine or feminine. |
| Afrah: And possessive pronouns change according to the gender and the number of the nouns that are being possessed. |
| John: And not the subject that is doing the possessing. |
| Afrah: So, we use آپ کی when the thing being possessed is feminine. |
| John: And what if the thing being possessed is masculine? |
| Afrah: Then we use آپ کے. |
| John: Can you give an example? |
| Afrah: Sure. Let’s take the phrase آپ کی عمر, which means… |
| John: "Your age." |
| Afrah: Can you tell what gender the word "age", or عمر, is? |
| John: Well, it's feminine. |
| Afrah: That's right! |
| John: The easiest way to make this clear is to compare it with a familiar sentence. Well, at least we hope that you are familiar with this sentence by now. Listeners, do you remember how to say "What is your name?" in Urdu? We studied it in the very first lesson. |
| Afrah: آپ کا نام کیا ہے؟ |
| John: If you notice, "your" in this sentence takes the masculine form. |
| Afrah: That's because نام, which is "name," is a masculine noun. |
| John: Now let’s move on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask the question "How old are you?" in Urdu. |
| Afrah: Which is آپ کی عمر کیا ہے؟ Here, آپ کی means "your." , |
| John: I see. |
| Afrah: عمر means "age.", |
| John: And the next word is |
| Afrah: کیا which means "what," |
| John: And the last word…. |
| Afrah: ہے means "is.". |
| John: So you're literally asking "your age what is?" which translates to, "What is your age?" or rather, "How old are you?" |
| Afrah: Here, عمر, or "age," is a feminine noun. |
| John: Listeners, we mentioned this just before. |
| Afrah: And the possessive pronoun "your," or آپ کی in Urdu, is in its feminine form because age or عمر, is feminine. |
| John: Okay, now that we understand the question structure and why things are the way they are, let's listen to it one more time. We'll also say it slowly so that you can hear it clearly. |
| Afrah: آپ کی عمر کیا ہے؟ Aa-p ki um-ar ki-a hai? Aap ki umar kia hai? |
| John: Okay, now we need to be able to answer this question. |
| Afrah: The tricky thing about the answer is that you would say it a bit differently depending on whether you're a male or a female. |
| John: So if you are a female, you'd say… |
| Afrah: میں تیس سال کی ہوں |
| John: "I am thirty years old." |
| Afrah: Right. where میں is "I", تیس is "thirty,", سال کی is "of age," and ہوں is "am." |
| John: So literally you're saying, "I thirty of age am" which translates to, "I am thirty years old." |
| Afrah: That’s right. |
| John: And if you're a male, you'd say… |
| Afrah: میں تیس سال کا ہوں. |
| John: "I am thirty years old," |
| Afrah: Yes. where میں is "I", تیس is "thirty,", سال کا is "of age," and, ہوں is "am." |
| John: Did you spot the difference between the female response and the male response? Let's hear them right after each other. |
| Afrah: میں تیس سال کی ہوں میں تیس سال کا ہوں. The difference is in کی ہوں and کا ہوں. |
| John: Can you explain which one is for which? |
| Afrah: کی ہوں for a female and کا ہوں for a male. |
| John: Imagine that you are a twenty year-old boy. How would you say "I am twenty years old" in Urdu? |
| Afrah: You'd say میں بیس سال کا ہوں |
| John: Now imagine that you are a twenty year-old girl. |
| Afrah: Then you'd say, میں بیس سال کی ہوں. |
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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