Learn how to ask "Do you speak English?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In this lesson, you'll learn another extremely important phrase, "Do you speak English?" Using this phrase, as opposed to just speaking English to someone, is important for many reasons. For one, if the person you're speaking to doesn't understand English, they'll at least be able to understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect on your part that you've made an effort to learn a bit of the local language. For these reasons and many more, we're going to cover this important phrase. |
| BODY |
| In Urdu "Do you speak English?" is Kia ap angrezi boltay hain? Let's break it down by syllable. |
| (slow) Kia ap angrezi boltay hain? |
| Kia ap angrezi boltay hain? |
| First we have kia, which means, "Can" |
| (slow) kia |
| kia |
| Next we have ap meaning “you” |
| (slow) ap |
| ap |
| Angrezi means "English." |
| (slow)Angrezi |
| Angrezi |
| Next, we have the word for “Speak” In Urdu, it’s Boltay hain. |
| (slow) Boltay hain |
| Boltay hain |
| To recap, the whole phrase for "Do you speak English?" is Kia ap angrezi boltay hain? |
| This is the way you would address a man in Urdu. If you want to ask the same question to a woman, you would have to say: Kia ap angrezi bolti hain? |
| The only difference is the word bolti, which is feminine, instead of boltay, which is masculine. Let's break it down by syllable: |
| (slow) bolti hain. |
| Let's hear it once again: Kia ap angrezi bolti hain? |
| To make your request more polite, you can add “sir” or “ma’am” in Urdu. |
| “Sir” in Urdu is Sahib, and “ma’am” is Madam. With these you can say.. Kia ap angrezi boltay hain sahib? “Do you speak English, sir?” or Kia ap angrezi bolti hain madaam? “Do you speak English, ma’am?” |
| You should always use this phrase with people you don't know or elders. |
| When speaking to someone you know or people around your own age, we can use a less formal expression to ask “Do you speak English?” It’s Kia tum angrezi Boltay ho? Now we'll break this down by syllable. |
| (slow) Kia tum angrezi Boltay ho? |
| Kia tum angrezi Boltay ho? |
| In this less formal phrase, we used the informal second person pronoun tum and the informal verb boltay ho. Here’s the entire phrase once again. |
| (slow) Kia tum angrezi boltay ho? |
| Kia tum angrezi boltay ho? |
| This was the informal masculine form; let's see the feminine. Again, the difference lies in using bolti, instead of boltay: |
| Kia tum angrezi bolti ho? |
| (slow)Kia tum angrezi bolti ho? |
| Kia tum angrezi bolti ho? |
| Now, for a change, let's try with a different language in place of English. Let's try Spanish. In Urdu, Hispanvi is the word for “Spanish.” |
| (slow) Hispanvi |
| Hispanvi |
| With this word you can say “Do you speak Spanish?” in Urdu. Formally, it’s kia ap Hispanvi boltay hain? |
| (slow) kia ap Hispanvi boltay hain? |
| kia ap Hispanvi boltay hain? |
| Or, informally, you can say kia tum Hispanvi boltay ho? |
| (slow) kia tum Hispanvi boltay ho? |
| kia tum Hispanvi boltay ho? |
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