Learn the basic facts concerning grammatical cases in Urdu
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How many grammatical cases are there in Urdu? |
| Shazia: And how do they work? |
| Antoni: At UrduPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee is taking an Urdu lesson with his teacher and asks, |
| "What case is this?" |
| Ben Lee: یہ کون سی حالت ہے؟ (Yeh kaun si haalat hai?) |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: یہ کون سی حالت ہے؟ (Yeh kaun si haalat hai?) |
| Aamina Ilyas : ندائیہ حالت۔ (Nidaaeah haalat.) |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: یہ کون سی حالت ہے؟ (Yeh kaun si haalat hai?) |
| Antoni: "What case is this?" |
| Aamina Ilyas : ندائیہ حالت۔ (Nidaaeah haalat.) |
| Antoni: "Vocative." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: The Urdu language is a weakly inflected language; however, we can still find three grammatical cases for nouns. A grammatical case is a way to inflect a noun based on the role that it plays in the sentence. The three Urdu grammatical cases are the "direct case," or |
| Shazia: فاعلی حالت (faaeli haalat) |
| Antoni: the "oblique case," or |
| Shazia: غیر فاعلی حالت (gher faaeli haalat) |
| Antoni: and the "vocative case," or |
| Shazia: ندائیہ حالت (nidaaeah haalat). |
| Antoni: Let's see how each of this works with an example. First is the direct case, which usually indicates the subject. Here is an example sentence: |
| Shazia: لڑکے ہونہار ہیں۔ (Larkay honhaar hain.) |
| Antoni: "The boys are clever." Here, the word "boys," or |
| Shazia: لڑکے (larkay), |
| Antoni: is used in the direct case as it serves to be the subject in the sentence. |
| Next up is the oblique case, usually used when the noun is followed by a postposition. Here is an example sentence: |
| Shazia: یہ لڑکوں کا کمرہ ہے۔ (Yeh larkon ka kamrah hai.) |
| Antoni: "This is a room of boys." In this sentence, the noun "boys," or |
| Shazia: لڑکوں (larkon), |
| Antoni: is followed by the Urdu postposition |
| Shazia: کا (ka) |
| Antoni: which means "of." |
| Shazia: وں (on) |
| Antoni: is the plural oblique ending. All types of plural nouns will take this ending in the oblique case. |
| Finally, we have the vocative case that is used when addressing someone directly. Here is an example sentence: |
| Shazia: لڑکو، ٹھیک ہے؟ (Larko, theek hai?) |
| Antoni: which means "Boys, alright?" Here, the word |
| Shazia: لڑکو (Larko) |
| Antoni: is a noun and is addressed directly making this phrase a vocative case. Note, however, that many nouns will retain the same form even when the case is different—as you could see in the example, |
| Shazia: لڑکا (Larka), |
| Antoni: which is a marked masculine singular noun, does change its form to |
| Shazia: لڑکوں (larkon) |
| Antoni: when in an oblique case, but unmarked masculine nouns, as well as feminine nouns, both marked and unmarked, have the same form in both the nominative and the oblique case. |
| For example, the marked feminine singular noun |
| Shazia: لڑکی (larki) |
| Antoni: meaning "girl" sounds the same in both nominative and oblique cases. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you have learned that Urdu has three grammatical cases: the direct case, the oblique case, and the vocative case. |
| Let's review the sentences we heard. First, do you remember how to say "the boys are clever?" |
| (4 second-pause) |
| Shazia: لڑکے ہونہار ہیں۔ (Larkay honhaar hain.) |
| Antoni: here the word "boys" or |
| Shazia: لڑکے (larkay) |
| Antoni:is in the direct case and followed by the adjective |
| Shazia: ہونہار (honhaar) |
| Antoni: meaning "clever". This pattern can be used to formulate similar sentences using the direct case. Here is the same sentence in the singular: |
| Shazia: لڑکا ہونہار ہے۔ (Larka honhaar hai.) |
| Antoni: This means "The boy is clever." Now do you remember how to say "this is a room of boys?" |
| (4 second-pause) |
| Shazia: یہ لڑکوں کا کمرہ ہے۔ (Yeh larkon ka kamrah.) |
| Antoni: here the word "boys" is followed by the Urdu postposition |
| Shazia: کا (ka) |
| Antoni: which means "of" and at the end of the sentence comes the Urdu verb |
| Shazia: ہے (hai). |
| Antoni: This sentence exemplifies how to use the oblique case. Here is the same sentence in the singular: |
| Shazia: یہ لڑکے کا کمرہ ہے۔ (Yeh Larkay ka kamrah hai.) |
| Antoni: which means "this is the room of the boy." Finally, do you remember how to say, "Boys, alright?" |
| (4 second-pause) |
| Shazia: لڑکو، ٹھیک ہے؟ (Larko, theek hai?) |
| Antoni: This sentence exemplifies how to use the vocative case. Here is the same sentence in the singular: |
| Shazia: لڑکے، ٹھیک ہے؟ (Larkay, theek hai?) |
| Antoni: which means "Boy, alright?" |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Although it is an uphill task to master the noun cases, you should give it your all to learn the use of nouns under various situations to achieve and exhibit your command over the Urdu language. |
| The cases are also applicable to the Urdu pronouns. Urdu pronouns can be fairly classified into direct and oblique cases depending on their specific usage in the sentences. |
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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