Learn how to ask and answer the question "Where are you from?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to UrduPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 8 - Asking “Where Are You From?” in Urdu. I’m John. |
| Afrah: Assalam u alaikum, I'm Afrah. |
| John: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question "Where are you from?" in Urdu. The conversation takes place in a bar. |
| Afrah: It’s between Nilam and Ali who have just met. |
| John: Since they are strangers and do not know each other, they will be using formal Urdu. |
| Afrah: Let's listen to their conversation. |
| LESSON DIALOGUE |
| نیلم: آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟ |
| علی : میں امریکہ سے ہوں. |
| نیلم:تو آپ کیا امریکی ہیں؟ |
| علی: جی ہاں |
| John: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| Nilam : Aap kahan say hain? |
| Ali: Main amerika say hun. |
| Nilam : To aap ameriki hain? |
| Ali: Ji han. |
| John: Let's now listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| نیلم: آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟ |
| John: Where are you from? |
| علی : میں امریکہ سے ہوں. |
| John: I am from America. |
| نیلم:تو آپ کیا امریکی ہیں؟ |
| John: So you're an American? |
| علی: جی ہاں |
| John: Yes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Afrah: You know, anywhere you go in the world, one of the first few things that people want to know is where you're from. |
| John: That's so true. I guess it makes sense because nationality is a big part of your identity, just like your name, age, or gender. |
| Afrah: And learning about your own country's name and how it got there is always a fascinating story. |
| John: Yes, did you all know that the full name of Pakistan is actually the Islamic Republic of Pakistan? |
| Afrah: Pakistan was created in the name of Islam. |
| John: What does the flag of Pakistan represent? |
| Afrah: The flag of the country has two colors; green and white. Green takes up a large portion of the flag and is a symbol for Muslims. The small white portion of the flag represents minorities. |
| John: What does Pakistan mean? |
| Afrah: Pakistan literally means “land of clean people”. |
| John: That’s an interesting name! Now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: The first word is.. |
| Afrah: میں [natural native speed] |
| John: I |
| Afrah: ma-in [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: main [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: امریکہ [natural native speed] |
| John: America |
| Afrah: am-eri-ka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: amerika [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: جی ہاں [natural native speed] |
| John: yes (formal) |
| Afrah: ji han [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: ji han [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: تو [natural native speed] |
| John: so |
| Afrah: tou [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: tou [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: امریکی [natural native speed] |
| John: American |
| Afrah: ame-ri-ki [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: ameriki [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: ہیں [natural native speed] |
| John: are |
| Afrah: ha-in [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: hain [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Afrah: آپ [natural native speed] |
| John: you (formal) |
| Afrah: aa-p [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: aap [natural native speed] |
| John: And last.. |
| Afrah: سے [natural native speed] |
| John: from |
| Afrah: say [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Afrah: say [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's discuss a couple of these words in detail. |
| Afrah: The word سے came up twice in the conversation. |
| John: That’s right, and it means "from" and is a postposition. Postpositions are like prepositions in English, such as from, to, toward, on, in, under, and so on, and they are called so because in Urdu, unlike in English, they come after the noun. |
| Afrah: Instead of saying "from Pakistan,", the Urdu equivalent would be "Pakistan from." |
| John: This might sound confusing, so let's use the sentence "from Pakistan" as an example. |
| Afrah: In Urdu it would be پاکستان سے . Here, پاکستان is Pakistan and سے is "from." |
| John: So literally it is, "Pakistan from," but translates as "from Pakistan." Similarly, let's take another postposition, "till." |
| Afrah: which is تک in Urdu. |
| John: How would you say "till here”? |
| Afrah: یہاں تک. |
| John: Great. Now let's look at another word. |
| Afrah: جی ہاں |
| John: This is a very useful phrase to know, so we're repeating it again even though we talked about it in Lesson 4. |
| Afrah: You say جی ہاں to say "yes," that is, to agree with someone in a respectful way. |
| John: Is this the polite form? |
| Afrah: Yes. ہاں can be used alone to mean the same respectful yes, while جی on its own only means "yes.". |
| John: And to say "no," you say… |
| Afrah: نہیں. But to make it more formal and respectful, you say جی نہیں |
| John: Great, now let’s move on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question "Where are you from?" in Urdu. This is easy because you don't have to modify the question based on genders. |
| Afrah: That’s right. The question is آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟ . Here, آپ is a formal "you,", کہاں means "where," سے means "from," and ہیں means "are." Therefore, آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟ literally is, |
| John: "You where from are?" Which translates as, "Where are you from?" |
| Afrah: Remember that Urdu is a verb final language so the to-be verb "are" that is ہیں comes at the end of the sentence. |
| John: And like we just said a couple of minutes ago, the postposition "from" comes after the noun. |
| Afrah: So, کہاں سے"(kahan say") is literally, "where from," but means "from where.". |
| John: Let's practice this question. We'll first read it at natural speed and then slowly. |
| Afrah: Listen and repeat. آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟" aap kahan say hain," "aa-p ka-han say ha-in," "aap kahan say hain." |
| John. Perfect. Now let's learn how to answer this question. This is also relatively easy because the sentence structure stays the same whether you're a male or a female. |
| Afrah: Which means that unlike in some other sentences, you don't have to worry about adjusting your verbs and possessive pronouns according to different genders! |
| John: So, "I am from America" in Urdu is… |
| Afrah: میں امریکہ سے ہوں. Here میں is "I,", امریکہ is "America,", سے is "from," and ہوں is "am."' |
| John: So, literally it means, "I America from am." |
| Afrah: That's because Urdu is a verb final language, so ہوں, or "am," goes to the end, and the postposition سے, or "from," goes after the noun. |
| John: Let's try some more sentences. How would you say, "I am from Pakistan?” |
| Afrah: میں پاکستان سے ہوں |
| John: "I am from Japan." |
| Afrah: میں جاپان سے ہوں |
| John: It's all very easy! |
| Afrah: Except for a few countries that have their own Urdu names. Like "Russia" in Urdu is روس and "China" is چین. |
| John: But you don't have to worry about these names too much. |
| Afrah: The standard international names will be more than enough. |
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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