Pashto for beginners ?

[Talal]

@ Admin khan, zama pohantoon sanga dy ?

@ Feroza_Banu i thought "staso" meant your ?

taso -> you plural

staso -> your plural

my -> zama

our -> mong (not sure about this one)

his/her -> da hagha ?

dont tell me these are wrong i had to memorize them all

[Feroza_Banu]

@ Admin khan, zama pohantoon sanga dy ?

@ Feroza_Banu i thought "staso" meant your ?

taso -> you plural

staso -> your plural

my -> zama

our -> mong (not sure about this one)

his/her -> da hagha ?

dont tell me these are wrong i had to memorize them all

lol no they are not wrong... in pashto there are two ways to express possesion.

sta = your (singular)
staso = your (plural/respect)
zma = my
zmong = ours
his/her = da hagha
theirs = da haghoi.

you can write possesion sentences in two ways.

zama mor (my mom) or mor mai (my mom)...

zama mor dera kha khaza da (my mom is a very good woman)
mor mai dera kha khaza da (my mom is a very good woman)

[BoldGold_AF]

Wow I think my head just popped with all the informationon here... what is the easiest wasy for a beginner to read write and speak Pashtu/o? And where could find grammer rules?

[یاسمینه]

^ First, go to Pashto language section - I am sure you will find usefull information there. Beside, in July/Aug 2011 I wrote some posts related to Pashto grammar.
Second - check the kitabtoon - Pashto dictionaries thread. There are German and English textbook for Pashto learning.
In my opinion there is no perfect book for Pashto lelarning. The best option - to learn from few books. Btw, the best Pashto grammar is in Russian.
Good luck!

[SiiNii]

You could try this book and let us know what you think of it when you're done. I would not recommend using the Hegey pdf unless its all that you can get your hands on.

http://www.amazon.com/Pashto-An-Elementary-Textbook-Volume/dp/1589017730

[BoldGold_AF]

You could try this book and let us know what you think of it when you're done. I would not recommend using the Hegey pdf unless its all that you can get your hands on.

http://www.amazon.com/Pashto-An-Elem.../dp/1589017730

I will give it a try! I saw it is quite expensive! Thank you!

and whats the Hegey pdf?

[SiiNii]

http://www.pashtunforums.com/showthread.php?t=4959
http://www.pashtunforums.com/showthread.php?t=4960
http://www.pashtunforums.com/showthread.php?t=12669

[randolph85]

"speaking afghan pashto" by randall olson is a good book to pick up.

[یاسمینه]

From my point of view, a person who learned Pashto from the beginning, and before did not know a single word in Pashto Pashto, and who saw and tried to learn Pashto from different texbooks wirtten in Russian, French, German and English, the best Pashto textbook is Lehrbuch des Pashto by Manfred Lorenz.
Although grammar is not very extensive (but still sufficient), topics of texts about Afghan-Russian friendship at least sound ridiculous, but lexical and idiomatic resource in the textbook is really amazing. When I had to communicate only in Pashto, it turned out that the vocabulary I had known from the Lorenz book enabled me to express my opinions and thoughts almost freely. Of course it does not mean that learning the Pashto language should be limited only to this one book.
Maybe later in this year I will have the opportunity to pass the exam at the B2 level.

Olson's Speaking Afghan Pashto maybe is good, but its graphical presentation, especially writting long vowels with capital letters in the phonetic transcription makes this book rather useless. A mixture of small and capital letters in one word makes it hard to concentrate on a text. But it is only my opinion.

[HalloIsBack]

From my point of view, a person who learned Pashto from the beginning, and before did not know a single word in Pashto Pashto, and who saw and tried to learn Pashto from different texbooks wirtten in Russian, French, German and English, the best Pashto textbook is Lehrbuch des Pashto by Manfred Lorenz.
Although grammar is not very extensive (but still sufficient), topics of texts about Afghan-Russian friendship at least sound ridiculous, but lexical and idiomatic resource in the textbook is really amazing. When I had to communicate only in Pashto, it turned out that the vocabulary I had known from the Lorenz book enabled me to express my opinions and thoughts almost freely. Of course it does not mean that learning the Pashto language should be limited only to this one book.
Maybe later in this year I will have the opportunity to pass the exam at the B2 level.

Olson's Speaking Afghan Pashto maybe is good, but its graphical presentation, especially writting long vowels with capital letters in the phonetic transcription makes this book rather useless. A mixture of small and capital letters in one word makes it hard to concentrate on a text. But it is only my opinion.

wish you luck and success

[یاسمینه]

Thank you Hallo, but it is still a long way to go. The most important is to organize such an exam. I already heard about some procedural difficulties. I also don't know if I will be allowed to perform this exam (because Pashto language is my main language at the university).
If finally everything is ok and exam can be carried out, it probably will be the first center in the world where people may take the Pashto proficiency exam at the B2 level.