One special request

IN THIS THREAD ONLY LINGUISTIC DISCUSSION MAY BE CARRIED OUT,NO POLITICAL OR ANY OTHER KIND OF DISCUSSION MAY BE ALLOWED PLEASE

Lesson no 1.




For the learning of any language including Pashto there are 3 main prerequisites

1. grammar.2 Vocabulary 3. Communication or Practice.

GRAMMAR ; Pronoun

I زه ZA.
WE مونږ/موږ MONG/J.
YOU.SINGULAR ته TA

YOU PLURAL تاسو TASO.
HE/SHE هغه HAGHA.
THEY هغوی HAGHOI

VOCABULARY.ZA HALAK/ZANKAY YAM....... I AM A BOY.

زه هلک یم

HALAK/ZANKAY..................BOY.(halak, zankey, urhkey etc are geosynonyms for boy in Pashto)

ZA JINAI YAM (Other geosynonyms for JINAI are jinkai, injlai etc)

زه جنئِي یم


YAM یم. AM

Communication.

How are you?.څرنګه /څنګه یی sanga ye? / saranga ye ?

I m fine زه ښه یم za kha/sha yam

GENERAL

There are two main dialects in Pashto language.

Hard dialect: spoken in areas like Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Malakand, Dir, Kohat, Paracinar, Jalalabad, Bajawar, Mohmand, Khyber,etc mainly in northern part of Pashto speaking areas. Here the pure Pashto words are pronounced as kh and g not sh and j if the

The word for fine is pronounced as kha not sha. The word for beard is pronounced as gira not jira.

Soft dialect: Spoken in Kandahar and ares like Banu, Karak, Waziristan, Baluchistan, Paktya etc. Here the above sounds are pronounced as sh and g . Fine is sha here and beard is jira here.

I will try for your orientation of both the dialects or accents.THERE IS NOTHING TO DO SPECIAL .Often the symbol/ in this course denotes the difference of dialects. However it is not necessary to learn both the dialects as both are easily mutually intelligible. Accents of Qandahar and Peshawar or Mardan are the standard accents through out the world.

Remember that both the dialects are written in the same script . Thats why you see special Pashto letters for khe and ghe.









Lesson no 2.

Objective Pronouns

my زما zama. our زمونږ zamong/j

your.sing ستا sta. your.plu ستاسو staso

his دهغه da hagha... her دهغی da haghay. their دهغوى da haghoi

vcocabulary

my house/home زما کور zama kor

your book ستا کتاب sta kitab

his cow د هغه غوا da hagha ghwa

her university دهغی پوهنتون da haghaay univesity/ pohantoon

communication

welcome پخیر راغلی / ستړی مشی pakhair raghlay/starhi mashay

thanks مننه / مهربانې merabani/manana

General

Pashto is the national language of Afghanistan and one of the two official languages(the other one is Dari). Thus we see particular words used there which has no so much currency in Pakistan as here Urdu or English words are dominant. As we saw above the actual pure word for university is pohantoon. Similarly for hospital the word is roghtoon but to many Pashtuns in Pakistan these words are not known because in Pakistan the official language is English or Urdu and the languages of sign boards , business, mass media and written communication.



Practice
I .......................زۀ
WE.....................مونږ
YOU.SINGULAR....تۀ
YOU PLURAL........تاسو
HE/SHE...............هغه
THEY..................هغوی

VOCABULARY
زۀ هلک يم....... I AM A BOY.
هلک..................BOY.
يم ............................. AM

communication.
how are you?............... څنګه يې/څنګه يۍ
I m fine .........................زۀ ښۀ يم





Lesson no 3.

Pronouns

For the English pronoun mine Pashto pronoun is the same zama, for them da haghoi , for him da hagha and so on

Vocabulary

It is for him ده دهغه د پاره دی da da hagha da para day/da

It ده da,him da دهغه hagha

For د پاره da para, is دی/ ده day(masc.)da(fem)


Communication

Imperatives

come راځه raza

go ځه za

General

In Pashto you will come across many synonyms and homonyms. Context make the meaning clear. As we saw two meanings of the word za one I, second go. There is a little difference of stress as the one for go is more stressed






Lesson no 4.


Grammar

Nouns

Noun is a name . In Pashto for name the words num/nama are used.Number of the noun is either plural or singular. For making plural the suffixes AN ,ONA/una ,EE/i, are most frequently used

Vocabulary

person......کس/تن....... kas/tan, persons.... کسان/تنه ..... kasan/tanan


table.......میز ..........mez, tables......میزونه.........mezona


man.......سړی ...........sarhay men........سړي........sarhi


woman ...ښځه....khaza-shaza ښځي women khazey-shazey



boy .....هالک .......halak boys ..هالکان...halakan



girl.......جنئِي .......jinai girls ..جنکئِي...kinakai



Communication

Meet these men.............. de sarho sara milaw sha/uwina/ogora(milaw sha is an urdu influence on Pashto specially in Pakistan which may be avoided to use)

ده سړو سره ــــــ

General

In the above sentence we see the plural sarho not sarhi. Yes usually in a sentence and in objective case this plural is used. but

These are men

da sarhi di.

ده سړي دي




Lesson no 5.

Grammar

Nouns -gender

masculine نر nar, feminine ښځه khaza/shaza

In Pashto often the feminine ends with the suffix a or ai or ee-i

There are also totally separate words for feminine and masculine

There are masculine/ feminine difference in human beings, animals and things.

There is also neuter(no feminine/masculine) and common (both masculine/feminine)gender which is mostly found in words taken from other languages

Different auxiliary verbs are used for masculine and feminine. Remember that in grammar (language rules) there are always exceptions. I write mostly generalizations. If u come across some anomalies or exceptional cases please discuss it here.

Vocabulary

This is a man.......................da sarhay day,This is a woman... da khaza/shaza da

ده سړی دی / ده ښځه ده

This is a girl........................ da jinai da , This is a boy......... da halak day

ده هالک دی / ده جنئِي ده

meal/bread............ dodai/marhai/tikalay

ډوډى/ مړى/مړئِي /ټکالی

meal is good...................dodai kha /sha da

ډودی ښه ده

dog سپی spay, bitch سپۍ spai

سپی / سپۍ

Communication

eat/take meal.................. dodai ukhra/wakhla

ډودی اخره / واخلا

bring one chair for me..............mala yawa kursai/chawkai rawrha

مالا یو کرسۍ / چوکۍ راوړه

General

we see in the above examples that feminine words end with a, ai ,ee-I. For feminine is da for masculine day . One chair is yawa kursai but one book is yaw kitab because kursai is feminine and kitab is masculine.

Mother > Mor

مور

Father > plaar

پلار

Brother > Ror-Wror

ورور

Sister > Khor

خور

Son > Zwey

زوي

Daughter > Loor

لور

Uncle > tra/kaka/mama

تره / کاکا /ماما

Auntie > tror chachi/maasi(urdu influence)

ترور / چاچې /ماسې

Grandfather > Neeka

نیکه

Grandmother > Nyaa

نیا

Grandson > nwase/masse

نوسی / نمسی

Grandaughter > Nwasai/Masai


نوسي / نمسي



Lesson no 7.(Re-cap)
Just a few things you should know by now,

how are you ----------- sanga ye

I want to learn Pashto------- za Pashto zda kawal ghwarham

Will you give me time for some practice... ta ba mala da mashq da para sa wakht rakey?

why not .......... waley na




Lesson no 6.

Nouns gender

Grammar.

In Pashto the common gender is also some times modified as doctor<doctora, teacher <teachara.

All the inanimate things are either feminine or masculine . Other parts of the speech/sentence especially helping verbs often agree with gender as

sarhay day, but khaza /shaza da .

maz day but kursai da ,
kitab day but kapee<notebook< da.
khaza raghla<came< but sarhay raghay.
chowkai/ kursai kha/sha da <chair is good< but mez kha day.

Vocabulary.

Numbers<hindsay<Shmira

1 > yaw يو

2 > dwa دوه

3 > drey درې

4 > tsalor څلور

5 > pinza پنځه

6 > shpag/j شپږ

7 > owa اووه

8 > ata اته

9 > naha/ana نه

10 > las لس

Communication

These are two men<da dwa sarhi di
These are three women<da dray khazay/shazey di

General

We see above that for sarhi we use di<plural..are
for is we have da and day

Please also note that most of the Pashtuns unfortunately use Urdu numbers in Pakistan but not in Afghanistan. This trend must be discouraged and stopped as we have our own numbers why should we use numbers of other languages.


Lesson no 8.



Adjectives

Like all other languages Pashto also has a vast reservoir of adjectives. Vocabulary of adjectives will help you a lot in descriptions and fluency of your language

Some English Adjectives are high, beautiful, short, huge, strong, sleepy, painful, old, noisy, hungry,one, three etc

While describing nouns or pronouns and say any thing about them you need adjective.
Definition of adjective Adjective is a word which adds some thing to the meaning of a noun or pronoun or modifies a noun or pronoun.

For example sarhay is noun but

yaw sarhay ... one man

kha/sha sarhay .... good man

bad sarhay .... bad man

zorh sarhay..... old man

awal/wrhambay/lumrhay sarhay...... first man

here yaw, kha, bad, zorh, awal are Pashto adjectives

Translation of the above given english Adjectives


high,<uchat/jag/lwarh,
beautiful<khkwalay/khaysta,/shkwaley/shayasta
short<larnd,

huge<ghat, strong<mazboot/klak, sleepy<ooda, painful<darnnak, old<zorh/buda, noisy<shorwala/zwag kawoonkay,

hungry< wagay,one..yaw. three...drey

Here are a few more adjectives
scary, heavy, handsome, sick, famous, difficult, dangerous, cold, busy, angry

scary, Yareedunkeh, heavy, Droon, handsome, Khesta/khkuley, sick, Najorra, famous, Mash-hoor/ Namawar, difficult,Graan dangerous,Khatarnaak cold,yakh/sorh busy,Masroofa, angry, Ghussa
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Lesson 1

For the learning of any language including Pashto there are 3 main prerequisites

1. grammar.2 Vocabulary 3. Communication or Practice.

GRAMMAR ; Pronoun

I زه ZA.
WE مونږ/موږ MONG/J.
YOU.SINGULAR ته TA

YOU PLURAL تاسو TASO.
HE/SHE هغه HAGHA.
THEY هغوی HAGHOI

VOCABULARY.ZA HALAK/ZANKAY YAM....... I AM A BOY.

زه هلک یم

HALAK/ZANKAY..................BOY.(halak, zankey, urhkey etc are geosynonyms for boy in Pashto)

ZA JINAI YAM (Other geosynonyms for JINAI are jinkai, injlai etc)

زه جنئِي یم


YAM یم. AM

Communication.

How are you?.څرنګه /څنګه یی sanga ye? / saranga ye ?

I m fine زه ښه یم za kha/sha yam

GENERAL

There are two main dialects in Pashto language.

Hard dialect: spoken in areas like Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Malakand, Dir, Kohat, Paracinar, Jalalabad, Bajawar, Mohmand, Khyber,etc mainly in northern part of Pashto speaking areas. Here the pure Pashto words are pronounced as kh and g not sh and j if the

The word for fine is pronounced as kha not sha. The word for beard is pronounced as gira not jira.

Soft dialect: Spoken in Kandahar and ares like Banu, Karak, Waziristan, Baluchistan, Paktya etc. Here the above sounds are pronounced as sh and g . Fine is sha here and beard is jira here.

I will try for your orientation of both the dialects or accents.THERE IS NOTHING TO DO SPECIAL .Often the symbol/ in this course denotes the difference of dialects. However it is not necessary to learn both the dialects as both are easily mutually intelligible. Accents of Qandahar and Peshawar or Mardan are the standard accents through out the world.

Remember that both the dialects are written in the same script . Thats why you see special Pashto letters for khe and ge

Lesson no 2.

Objective Pronouns

my زما zama. our زمونږ zamong/j

your.sing ستا sta. your.plu ستاسو staso

his دهغه da hagha... her دهغی da haghay. their دهغوى da haghoi

vcocabulary

my house/home زما کور zama kor

your book ستا کتاب sta kitab

his cow د هغه غوا da hagha ghwa

her university دهغی پوهنتون da haghaay univesity/ pohantoon

communication

welcome پخیر راغلی / ستړی مشی pakhair raghlay/starhi mashay

thanks مننه / مهربانې merabani/manana

General

Pashto is the national language of Afghanistan and one of the two official languages(the other one is Dari). Thus we see particular words used there which has no so much currency in Pakistan as here Urdu or English words are dominant. As we saw above the actual pure word for university is pohantoon. Similarly for hospital the word is roghtoon but to many Pashtuns in Pakistan these words are not known because in Pakistan the official language is English or Urdu and the languages of sign boards , business, mass media and written communication.

salamuna. za zayee da Iran yam. ZA DA PF da ghwandey gharhi yam. sta tsah num dey aw pakhair raghley

Yes if you learn the dialect of Qandahar or Peshawar , you can understand all. I have explained above the main differences between the hard and soft dialects.

Practice
I .......................زۀ
WE.....................مونږ
YOU.SINGULAR....تۀ
YOU PLURAL........تاسو
HE/SHE...............هغه
THEY..................هغوی

VOCABULARY
زۀ هلک يم....... I AM A BOY.
هلک..................BOY.
يم ............................. AM

communication.
how are you?............... څنګه يې/څنګه يۍ
I m fine .........................زۀ ښۀ يم

Please help me correcting the words in Pashto fonts and write those Pashto sentences which are not written in Pashto letters. I cant write in Pashto letters because of technical problems.

the best way is to say ''sawldai samboldai kawatai''

tsanga yast namyano

that sounds dodgy , what does namyano mean, i have never heard of it before

oh, bakhana ghwaldam ma fikar kawa ka mithyazan wa, lol

De khudai paiman, da saba bah sara weweeno

Da sahi da? *ahem ahem* pakhto tutors