Learn how to pronounce different letters
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, I am Eric and welcome to Urdupod101.com. This is the Urdu Pronunciation series, lesson 1 - The Pronunciation of Urdu Consonants, Part 1 |
| Afrah:[ السلام علیکم. میرا نام افراح ہے] Hi, Afrah here. |
| Eric: In this lesson, we are going to start with the basics and slowly work our way up. |
| Afrah: That’s right. First we’ll talk about what Urdu sounds are made of. |
| Eric: Before we begin, we recommend that you read the lesson notes as you listen, so you can follow along as we talk about the sounds. So, Urdu has a wide variety of sounds compared with other languages. |
| Afrah:That’s right – there are 38 consonants in Urdu. |
| Eric: And there are about 10 vowels. In Urdu, there are no words like the English word “strength” which have clusters of 3 or more consonants. An Urdu syllable is made up of a consonant and a vowel. Afrah, can we hear some examples of what typical Urdu words sound like? |
| Afrah: Sure. For example, “Daal Chawal" which means curry rice. |
| Eric: Each one of these words is made up of simple consonants and vowels. Can we have another example? |
| Afrah: Sure. Another would be “moseeki”. It means “music”. |
| Eric: So again, this one is made from simple consonants and vowels. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Afrah: Okay, let’s get back to the consonants. There are many consonants with the same English pronunciation, but many differences also exist. |
| Eric: As we mentioned before, Urdu has 38 consonants. |
| Afrah: Some of these consonants come from older languages like Sanskrit. |
| Eric: I think 38 consonants is a lot. So why don’t we do half and half. Let’s start with the first 18 consonants in this lesson, and we’ll do the rest in the next lesson. |
| Afrah:Sure. That sounds like a great idea! |
| Eric: Let’s start with the first consonant, which is... |
| Afrah:[ ا ] as in aik which means “one.” (ایک) |
| Eric: So this is the sound [a]? |
| Afrah: That’s correct, Eric. The next one is [ب] as in [bahar] which means “Spring” [بہار] |
| Eric: Next is |
| Afrah: [پ] as in [Pahar] which means a mountain. [پہاڑ] |
| Eric: And next we have |
| Afrah: [ت] as in [Talwar] which means a sword[تلوار] |
| Eric: This is the sound of “t”. |
| Afrah: Right, and the next one is [ٹ] as in [Tamatar] which means “tomatoes” (ٹماڑر). |
| Eric: Next is |
| Afrah:[ث] as in [samar] which means “fruit” [ثمر] |
| Eric: Next is |
| Afrah:[ج] as in [Jahaz] which means “airplane” [جہاز]. |
| Eric: And next we have, |
| Afrah:[چ] as in [Chaiy] [چائے] |
| Eric: Which means “tea”. Now, the next one is |
| Afrah:[ح] as in [Hooz][حوظ] |
| Eric: It means “pond.” The next, |
| Afrah: The next one is [خ] as in [khargosh] [خرگوش] which means “rabbit” |
| Eric: Next is |
| Afrah:[د] as in [Diwaar] [ دیوار] |
| Eric: which means “wall”. And next? |
| Afrah: We have [ڈ] as in [Dor] [ڈور] |
| Eric:And it means “thread” |
| Afrah: We are halfway through this lesson, listeners! |
| Eric: You’re doing a great job! Let’s move on. |
| Afrah:The next one is [ذ] as in [Zakhira][ذخیره] |
| Eric:Which means “storage.” And next is |
| Afrah:[ر] as in [Rastah][راستہ]. |
| Eric:And this means a “way” . |
| Afrah:That’s correct, and next is [ڑ] as in [Thora] [تهوڑا] meaning “less” |
| Eric:Okay. Next we have... |
| Afrah:[ز] as in [Zor][زور] |
| Eric: Which means “strength”. And next we have |
| Afrah:[ژ] as in [Zalabari] [ژالہ باری] |
| Eric: Which means “hail storm” |
| Afrah:Next is [س] as in [Saib][سیب] |
| Eric:This means “apple”, and finally, the last one for today is |
| Afrah: [ش] as in [Sheesha] [شیشا] |
| Eric: Which means “mirror” . |
| Eric: All right. So now we’ve covered the first 18 Urdu consonants. |
Outro |
| Eric: Let’s leave it there for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Afrah: Goodbye [Phr Milenge] |
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