Pashto Basic course discussion topic.

[yashaf79]

Comparison of adjectives

Positive

da kitab kha day<<<<< This book is good

Comparative

kitab A da kitab B na kha day <<<<< book A is better than book B

Superlative

kitab A da toolo na/ DA GARHDO NA kha day<<<<<< book A is best of all

in Pashto the word NA is used for THAN and da toolo na/ da garhdo for best of all

JanaanGull Kha/sha de > JanaanGull is good

Smiley da JanaanGull na kha da > Smiley is better than JanaanGull

Aimal khan da Tolo na kha de > Aimal khan is best of all

Zeb Khesta de > Zeb is handsome

Sanam da Zeb na khesta de > Sanam is more handsome than Zeb

Fuad da tolo na khesta de > Fuad is most handsome of all

zamasite.com mashahoor site/web panrha de/da >zamasite.com is a famous site

Hewad.com da Pakwatan na mashahoor de > Hewad.com is more famous than pakwatan.com

pashtunforums.com da tolo na mashahoor de >pashtunforums.com com is the most famous of all

Pashto zda kol asaan di> Pashto is easy to learn

angrezi zda kol da pukhto na asaan wi > English is easier to learn than Pashto

spanish zda kol da tolo na asaan wi > spanish is easiest to learn of all

1) Yaseer kha lob gharhey dey........... Yaseer is a good player

Yaseer da Salman na kha player dey........ Salman is better than Yaseer

Afridi da toolo na kha player dey.......Afridi is the best playerof all.

2) Heena larnda da........................Heena is short.

Nausheen da Heena na larnd da............ Nausheen is shorter than Heena.

Fatima da toolo na larnda/chita/tita da........ Fatima is the shortest of all.

3) Sharmeen masroof da.........Sharmeen is busy.

Khushboo da Sharmeen na masroof da.......... Khushboo is busier than Sharmeen.

Sanam da toolo na masroof da...........Sanam is the busiest of all,

4) Amir khesta dey..........Amir is handsome.

Salman da Amir na khesta dey...........Salman is more handsome than Amir.

Haroon da toolo na khesta dey.......... Haroon is most handsome than all.

5) Zama bag droond dey..........My bag is heavy.

Sta bag zama da bag na droond dey...... Your bag is heavier than my bag.

Sta bag da toolo na droond dey........... Your bag is the heaviest.

PLEASE POST 5 SENTENCES WITH COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES

what is the difference between wi and di. and what is the difference between da and dey. please give examples. it's confusing

[Badlun]

We may talk of language not dialect at least for the beginners . Lets talk of Pashto as a language and leave the subject of dialect to prefessionels or liguists or the end users who have to use Pashto in a particular area.

[maiira]

SALAM...
I am new to this form..
I dont knw pushto at all...
but I really want to learn pushto....
can u guys help me:-D

[Badlun]

Welcome Maiira
I will advise you that you start reading the first pages of this Thread and quote whatever you dont understand and share your comments with us. Start from the basic words and phrases given there and discuss it here with us.

[2jan]

salam

i have a question ,how do you say
he was beatin/hitting him
he was beating/hitting her
she was beating/hitting him

[zarin144]

pronouciation disagreement between major dialects in Alphbet table

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
Reply With Quote
.

salamona .pashtu have two dialects and this division is was there when pashtu got its written form . it is necessary for a teacher to let his students know that why some additional alphabets are used in table when these sounds already exists . a pashtu word for one dialect is "zmonga " but for the other dialect is "moza" .

for the second dialect people "zhe" is silent. and "ge" is " ya"

Similarly when one dialect person pronounce "zama" other make "ze" silent and pronounce "ma". "pa kixay" is "pa kay" for the other dialect . "tsey" is another sign of disagreement between both dialect. one pronounce it like "say " the other pronounce it "chey" for example "sangay" comes 'changay" in other dialect . to conclude. "zhe" and "xin" are silent’s for one dialect but "Tsey" comes "Chey" whereas "Ge" becomes "Ze" for the people of other dialect.

[Badlun]

he was beatin/hitting him....hagha hagha wahalo (Simple present tense) OR Hagha lagya woo hagha ye wahalo(Present progressive tense)
he was beating/hitting her....hagha hagha wahala OR hagha lagya woo hagha ye wahala
she was beating/hitting him.....haghey hagha wahalo,,OR Hagha lagya wa hagha ye wahalo

Good question
Please note that in Pashto HAGHA ia used both for HE and HIM.
For she one form is HAGHEY
Wahalo is for HE while Wahala is for the SHE. In Pashto verbs are inflected.
We should also note that in Pashto the continuous or progressive tense can be expressed by indefinite or simple tenses.

[Badlun]

salamona .pashtu have two dialects and this division is was there when pashtu got its written form . it is necessary for a teacher to let his students know that why some additional alphabets are used in table when these sounds already exists . a pashtu word for one dialect is "zmonga " but for the other dialect is "moza" .

for the second dialect people "zhe" is silent. and "ge" is " ya"

Similarly when one dialect person pronounce "zama" other make "ze" silent and pronounce "ma". "pa kixay" is "pa kay" for the other dialect . "tsey" is another sign of disagreement between both dialect. one pronounce it like "say " the other pronounce it "chey" for example "sangay" comes 'changay" in other dialect . to conclude. "zhe" and "xin" are silent’s for one dialect but "Tsey" comes "Chey" whereas "Ge" becomes "Ze" for the people of other dialect.

Good points. Please note that Pashto like any other language has different accents, dialects , geosynonyms and other variations but core of the language is the same thats why Pashto is considered as one language if its spoken in Qandahar or Peshawar or Kabul or Waziristan. mainly there are two dialects hard with Khin and Soft with Shin sound patterns. Details have been given above.
As for any other language there is a received pronunciation(RP). Pashto RP is the language spoken in Qandahar or Peshawar. These are the standard dialects with standard pronunciation. If you speak Pashto in any of these two dialects you will be understood and your pronunciation will be accepted. However it does not mean that the accent used in other regions is substandard. Basically the accent used in these two cities almost represent nuances of the variations in other areas.

For a beginner it is must to learn the basic grammar, vocabulary and phrases instead of involving in complications of accents, dialects, phonetics and phonology. We should talk of Pashto language and not of its dialects. This should be left for more advanced stages.

[2jan]

Der manana Osho

Thank you for posting a reply to my questions.
How do you say
I sent You
You sent me
He sent You
She sent you
He sent her
He sent him
She sent her
she sent him

[Badlun]

For the verb to send in Pashto we have two verbs, legal and astawal. LEGAL can also be pronounced as LEJAL in soft dialect. Also this verb is transitive so needs an object as we have to send some thing. For your sentences I have added the object BOOK-KITAB

I sent You MA TA TA KITAB ULEGALO-WASTAWALO(ulegalo can also be pronounced as walegalo -walejao in some areas)
You sent me TA MA TA KITAB ULEGALO
He sent You HAGHA MA TA KITAB ULEGALO
She sent you HAGHEY MA TA KITAB ULEGALO
He sent her HAGHA HAGHEY TA KITAN ULEGALO
He sent him HAGHA HAGHA TA KITAB ULEGALO
She sent her HAGHEY HAGHEY TA KITAB ULEGALO
she sent him HAGHEY HAGHA TA KITAB ULEGALO

If the sender is at the other end far away and for emphasis then infinitives ralegal -rawastawal can also be used. The inflection will be rawastawalo-raulegalo or rawalegalo

Also for the preposition TA some poeple use LA as ta ma la kitab ulegalo

[Badlun]

Past Continuous Tense

Past Continuous Tense

I was going< za lagya wum tlam
mong/j lagya woo tloo
hagha lagya wu tlo
hagha lagya wa tla
haghoi lagya woo tlo
ta lagya way tlay
taso lagya wai tlai

here lagya +wum, woo, wu,wa,woo,way and wai are used for English was and were

The permanent part is lagya woo, lagya wum etc . You might have read in present continuos tense that the forms of lagya kaidal are yam, yoo, day, da, dee, ye, yai

for example
I was looking
za lagya wum lidal me
mong/j lagya woo lidal mo
hagha lagya wo lidal ye
hagha lagya wa lidal ye
haghoi lagya woo lidal ye
ta lagya way ledal de
taso lagya wai lidal mo

Here me. mo, ye, de and mo are used for the object

Past continuous tense is rarely used in pashto..but its part of the language. We can easily use Simple Past tense for Past continuous tense.
Suppose some one called me and I was busy eating.
He called again and said. I called you before but you didn't answer. So my reply should be like this
za lagya wum dodai meh khwarha.. But I can simply also say.. Ma dodai khwarha

Mong pa kaar lagya woo(this sentence is correct but lagya kaidal is used as main /principal verb)/mong/j lagya woo kar mo kawaloo ==haghoi lagya woo pati ye kawalay==taso lagya way daig mi/mo pakhawoo

Please try to understand the difference in lagya kaidal as helping verb and lagya kaidal as main verb. In continiuos tenses it is used as helping verb. in the above sentence ZA PA TV LIDALO KAGYA WUM lagya kaidal here is as main verb which mean to be busy/ , while doing an action but lagya kaidal used as helping verb/auxilary verb in such a sentence would be za lagya wum tv me koot/katalo. Here the verb lidal is not appropriate instead the verb katal.

Discussion and usual errors

Za lagya wum lwalam> is incorrect. I was reading.please note that lwalam is present indifinite tense. here it should be <za lagyam wum lwastal me
Mong lagya woo lwaloo>We were reading<mong lagya woo lwastal mo
Hagha lagya wu lwalee>He was reading<lwastal ye
Haghoi lagya woo lwalee>They were reading<lwastal ye
Ta lagya way lwalay>You were reading<lwastal de
Taso lagya wai lwalai>You were reading(plu)<lwastal yo or mo

Comparison Of Present And Past Continuous Tenses

present.,, za lagya yam khwram< I am eating
past .,,za lagya wum khwarhal me < I was eating
mong lagya yoo khwroo
mong lagya woo klhwarhal mo
hagha lagya day khwree
hagha lagya wo khwarhal ye
hagha lagya da khwree
hagha lagya wa khwarhal ye
haghoi kagya dee khwree
haghoi lagya wu khwarhal ye
ta lgya ye khwrey
ta lagya way khwarhal de
taso lagya yai khwrai
taso lagya wai khwarhal mo

MORE SENTENSES
I was talking
to talk khabarey kawal , khabarey means talks and kawal means to do
za lagya wum khabarey me kawaley
taso lagya wai khabarey mo kawaley
hagha lagya wo khabarey ye kawaley
hagha lagya wa khabarey ye kawaley
haghoi lagya woo khabarey ye kawaley
ta lagya wey khabarey de kawaley
taso lagya wai khabarey yo/mo kawaley

To talk can also be translated by infinitives like jaghedal, ghagedal, gonrhedal etc

Please conribute more sentences in Present Continuous tense.

[2jan]

salam
he was beatin/hitting him....hagha hagha wahalo (Simple present tense) OR Hagha lagya woo hagha ye wahalo(Present progressive tense)
he was beating/hitting her....hagha hagha wahala OR hagha lagya woo hagha ye wahala
she was beating/hitting him.....haghey hagha wahalo,,OR Hagha lagya wa hagha ye wahalo

how would you say
she was beating/hitting her?
haghey hagha wahala or haghey haghey wahala?
i get confused.

[Badlun]

salam
he was beatin/hitting him....hagha hagha wahalo (Simple present tense) OR Hagha lagya woo hagha ye wahalo(Present progressive tense)
he was beating/hitting her....hagha hagha wahala OR hagha lagya woo hagha ye wahala
she was beating/hitting him.....haghey hagha wahalo,,OR Hagha lagya wa hagha ye wahalo

how would you say
she was beating/hitting her?
haghey hagha wahala or haghey haghey wahala?
i get confused.

She was beting -hitting her. haghey(she) hagha(her) wahala. the correct one is haghey hagha wahala

[کیش]

Can someone help me with structuring Pashto sentences, this is my main difficulty. This is what I know so far:

Subject-can be pronoun, noun, interrogative pronoun
Object- nouns, prepositions, adjectives, conjunctions
Verb- action

Can someone help me, explaining how to structure the object? Like the order which comes first and such?
Thanks

[Badlun]

Structuring Pashto sentences.

Pashto is a S-O-V language with split ergativity. SOV means subject-verb-object. Adjectives come before nouns.
Pashto is an ergative language; i.e., transitive verbs in any of the past tenses agree with the object of the sentence.

The usual structure of Pashto sentences is like English

Subject-verb-object
I-read-book
za-kitab-lwalam

I eat meal
za dodai khwram

Khayasta jinai-beautiful girl adjective-noun

Ergativity-hagha dodai ukhwarha-he ate meal
hagha aam ukhorh-he ate mango
Here we see that the verb khwarhal-to eat changes with the object. Dodai is feminine object so the verb is ukhwarha while mango.aam,,is masculine so the verb is ukhorh

Structure of some poetic or figurative language may differ with the SVO system as we may see

HAGHA LWALI KITAB ...HE READS BOOK.. but as it seems its a poetic structure and is not day to day construction of Pashto sentences

Please share your further questions and comments