Pashto Language Blog

1. The unique letters: Pashto adopted the Arabic alphabet and added some extra letters to accommodate for the sounds that are unique to Pashto.  In order to read the Pashto script correctly you need to be able to pronounce these letters correctly. The following are the letters that are unique to Pashto. You can listen to the correct pronunciation and example words in the accompanying video: څ ځ ښ ږ ڼ ړ ډ ټ

 2. Diacritic Marks: Diacritic marks are used to show the short vowel sounds. In Pashto, the short vowel symbols are not normally writing, but if you are learning Pashto as a second language it is always a good idea to have your instructor write the diacritic marks on the letters to make reading and pronouncing easier. There are three diacritic marks you can use in Pashto: َ  zabar which represents a short “a” sound and appears above a letter; ِ kasra represents a short “e” sound  and appears underneath a letter: ُ Paikh represents a short “o” sound and appears above a letter. The little circles are placeholders; when these marks are used in a word the circle does not appear. Here are the examples: لړَم “larram”, مِلت  “melat”  مُبارزه  “mobareza”.

3. Shape of letters: In Pashto, the letters have different shapes depending on where they appear in a word. Most of the letters in Pashto have three shapes: initial, medial, and final. Some of the letters may have a fourth form when they are not attached. If you know the letter, usually, you can recognize all the different shapes it takes. But it is important to know that they change and remember their identifying characteristics such as the number of dots, and the position of dots. Here is an example of how the letter “ain” ﻉ  looks like in different position in a word: initial  ﻋ medial  ﻌ finalﻊ

4. Letters that don’t connect: Majority of letters in Pashto connect to each other in a word, however, there is a group of ten letters that only can be connected to the preceding letter in a word, they never can be connected to the letter following them in a word. For example, the in the word لرم  the letter “ray”, highlighted in red, is connected only to the letter preceding it, but not to the letter following it. Also remember that letters in this group can never be connected to each other. د ډ ذ ر ړ ز ژ ږ و ا

5. The letters alef and laam: When the letter “alef” ا, and the letter “ laam” ل  appear in a word they look very similar and can be mistaken for each other quite often. For instance, in the wordلپاره  (read left to right) the two letters highlighted in red look very similar . As mentioned, alef is one of the letters that does not connect to the following letter, therefore, in this case we can easily recognize that the second letter is alef because it is not connected to the following letter.

بودن

The “to be” verb in English has only two forms (was, were) in the past tense. In Pashto, however,  we have at least six forms for the past tense of the verb “to be”. The reason we have so many forms for the verb “to be” is because unlike the English verbs, Pashto verbs have genders and also verbs are conjugated according to the subject of the sentence. For example, If we want to say Hagha wa “she was” vs.  Hagha woo“he is” as you can see the verb, which is underlined, is different and that is because in Pashto for the masculine nouns we use a masculine verb. As the example shows, wa “is” is used for feminine nouns and woo is used for masculine nouns.

And here are the past tense of the “to be” verbs:

Pashto                   transliteration                   meaning

زه وم                         za  wom                             I was

ته وې                         ta way                              you were

هغه و                        hagha wo                         He was

هغه وه                       hagha wa                         she was

مونږ وو                     moong woo                      we were

تاسې وئ                   taase  wai                         you were (plural)

هغوی وو                   haghoi  woo                     they were

دوی وو                     dooi woo                           they were

As y you can notice, the word “they “appears two times at the last two lines. That is because in Pashto there are two versions of the word “they”.  The first one haghoi refers to the group of people who are far away from the speaker. The second one, dooi , refers to a group of people who are located very close to the speaker.

Here are the example sentences for the verbs above.

زه خوشحاله وم          za khoshala wom                 I was happy.

هغه خوشحاله وه       hagha khoshala wa                she was happy.

تاسې خوشحاله وئ    taase khshala wai                  You were happy.

men holding hands

In this post I would like to start by asking you a question. Suppose you are a man and you are in Afghanistan, what would you do if an afghan male-coworker or a friend approaches you and holds your hand? Well, I bit you will panic, blush, and be nervous. In this post we will share with you some information on holding hands in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, it is totally normal for a man to hold another man’s hand, or for a boy to hold another boy’s hand. However, it is prohibited for the opposite sexes to hold hands unless they are engaged or married. Men and women don’t even shake hands when they greet each other; there is no physical contact between men and women who are not related. It is rare to see a woman shake a man’s hand.

When two men greet each other, they will shake hands and also kiss each other on the cheek.  Sometimes, depending on how well they know each other, or how often they see each other, they will hug. It is very normal to see two adult males holding hands in public and talking to each other.  Even in formal sittings like offices and workplaces it is not unusual to see two adult male coworkers holding hands and discussing a business matter.

Remember that when a man holds your hand it does not mean anything; it is only an expression of friendship. Of course, it will make you uncomfortable at first if you are not used to this kind of culture, but you can constantly remind yourself that it does not mean anything similar to what it would mean in the west. Also, never refuse holding someone’s hand. You can always find an excuse to have your hand released, for example, you can pretend to wipe your nose or to scratch your face or head.