In our quest to help you learn about Pashto — from having almost no communicative strength or cultural background — let us first cement a firm foundation so that we may then begin to edify our linguistic architecture. Here are some essential Pashto basics:

1. Right-to-Left. Pashto is written and read from right to left, unlike most languages.

2. Subject-Object-Verb. Pashto is an SOV language. This means the subject, object, and verb of sentences in Pashto almost always occur in this order. Adjectives also appear before nouns.

3. Masculine-Feminine. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders.

4. Alphabet. The Pashto alphabet has 44 letters. It employs 28 letters from Arabic and shares 3 letters with Urdu and Persian.

5. Speakers. There are about 40 million speakers worldwide. In the north of Afghanistan, Pashto speakers are called Pakhtuns. In southern Afghanistan and throughout Pakistan, they are referred to as Pashtun and Afghan.

Shaded red area indicates high density of Pashto speakers

Pakhtunwali or Pashtunwali is a codified set of ethical rules for developing personal conduct amongst Pakhtun / Pashtun tribes and clans. Pashtunwali promotes self respect, justice, independence, hospitality, caring, revenge, and tolerance toward all people. Such living concepts are invited largely out of homage to Sunni Islam, the religion with which the majority of Pashtun people associate.

Pashtun schoolboys

One final basic Pashto fact: to say hello in Pashto, you would pronounce it: “As-salam-aleikum”. We’ll pick up next time with the Pashto alphabet!