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I want to compliment the efforts of Admin Khan, Feroz Afridi,
Tor_Khan,shlombay and other friends who are already either helping or facilitating Pashto lessons here. I request all community members to help me further improve these lessons so that we can have a comprehensive Pashto teaching course here in Pashtunforums.
Lets talk to each other in our own language.
Pashto learning is a fun , Lets learn the national and one of the official languages of Afghanistan and the language of millions of Pashtuns in Pakistan.
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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