Learn more about grammatical gender in Urdu
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Intro |
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| Antoni: Do adjectives have a gender in Urdu? |
| Shazia: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Antoni: At UrduPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha is talking to her friend, Zainab, about what she'd like to buy for the winter season. She says, |
| "I want a red hat." |
| Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| Zainab Pervaiz : اور مجھے ایک نیلا کوٹ چاہیے۔ (Aur mujhay aik neela coat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: "I want a red hat." |
| Zainab Pervaiz : اور مجھے ایک نیلا کوٹ چاہیے۔ (Aur mujhay aik neela coat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: "And I want a blue coat." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: Adjectives are words that describe nouns. In Urdu, nouns are either masculine or feminine. This factor determines the form of other words in a sentence, including the adjectives that modify them. In this lesson, you will learn how adjectives change according to the gender of the noun they modify. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "I want a red hat?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Shazia as Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: The noun in this sentence is |
| Shazia: ہیٹ (hat) |
| Antoni: meaning "hat," while the adjective is |
| Shazia: سُرخ (surkh) |
| Antoni: which means "red." As mentioned, nouns in Urdu can be masculine or feminine. In this case, the noun "hat" is masculine. We learned earlier that adjectives in Urdu should agree with the noun, which means the adjective "red" must be in its masculine form. Urdu adjectives are categorized into two types. The first type are those that end in a consonant or any vowel excluding "a." The second type are those whose singular form for the masculine ends in "a." Between the two types, only the second type changes in form according to the gender and number of the noun. The adjective "red," or |
| Shazia: سُرخ (surkh), |
| Antoni: is a type of adjective that does not change with respect to the gender and number of the noun it modifies, which is why there is no need to change its form. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Zainab Pervaiz says, "And I want a blue coat?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Shazia as Zainab Pervaiz: اور مجھے ایک نیلا کوٹ چاہیے۔ (Aur mujhay aik neela coat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: In this sentence, the noun is |
| Shazia: کوٹ (coat) |
| Antoni: which means "coat," while the adjective is |
| Shazia: نیلا (neela), |
| Antoni: which means "blue." Unlike the noun "red," "blue" is a type of adjective that changes with respect to the gender and number of the noun it modifies. The noun "coat" is masculine, so there is no need to change the form of the adjective. However, if the noun is feminine, the Urdu word for "blue" would change to |
| Shazia: نیلی (neeli). |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In summary, Urdu adjectives change their form with respect to the gender and number of the noun they modify. In addition, you learned that adjectives ending in a consonant or any vowel excluding "a" do not change their form according to the gender and number of the noun, while adjectives whose singular form for the masculine end in "a" do. |
| Review |
| Antoni: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "I want a red hat?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shazia as Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shazia as Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shazia as Sasha Lee: مجھے ایک سُرخ ہیٹ چاہیے۔ (Mujhay aik surkh hat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: And do you remember how to say "And I want a blue coat?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shazia as Zainab Pervaiz : اور مجھے ایک نیلا کوٹ چاہیے۔ (Aur mujhay aik neela coat chahiye.) |
| Antoni: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shazia as Zainab Pervaiz : اور مجھے ایک نیلا کوٹ چاہیے۔ (Aur mujhay aik neela coat chahiye.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shazia as Zainab Pervaiz : اور مجھے ایک نیلا کوٹ چاہیے۔ (Aur mujhay aik neela coat chahiye.) |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: Now, what if we’re talking about nouns in their plural form? For instance, we have the sentence, |
| Shazia: یہ لڑکا اچھا ہے۔ (Yeh larka acha hai.) |
| Antoni: "This boy is good." Here, we have the singular noun "boy" or |
| Shazia: لڑکا (larka) |
| Antoni: and the adjective "good," or |
| Shazia: اچھا (acha), |
| Antoni: which agrees with the noun. If we change the noun to its plural form, we say, |
| Shazia: یہ لڑکے اچھے ہیں۔ (Yeh larkay achay hain.) |
| Antoni: or "These boys are good." This time, the noun becomes |
| Shazia: لڑکے (larkay), |
| Antoni: which is the Urdu word for "boys." And, since the adjective has to agree with the noun, it changes its form to |
| Shazia: اچھے (achay), |
| Antoni: which is the plural for "good." The rule is to place an "ay" at the end of the adjective when it is modifying a plural noun. Keep in mind, though, that the rule of changing the form of the adjective to agree with the count of the noun is applicable only to masculine nouns. |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: There are instances when you want to emphasize your description of a noun. In that case, you can use the word, |
| Shazia: کافی (kaafi), |
| Antoni: which means "enough" or "really." For instance, you can say, |
| Shazia: کافی اچھی (kaafi achi), |
| Antoni: or "really good." Another word you can use is |
| Shazia: بہت (bohat), |
| Antoni: which means "very." So, if you want to say "very beautiful," you can say, |
| Shazia: بہت خوبصورت (bohat khoobsurat) |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Shazia: !الوداع (alwida!) |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Shazia Ashfaq (Urdu), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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