Point at anything in your own house and name it. Twelve everyday objects, then twelve everyday verbs, the ones you would use fifty times before lunch. Urdu verbs all arrive in the same shape: they end in -nā, and that ending IS the English 'to'. Learn khānā and you have learned 'to eat' with no extra parts.
پلنگpalang: bedthe bed itself; the bedding on it is bistar
کرسیkursī: chairArabic kursī, a word Urdu, Persian and Turkish all share
میزmez: tablefrom Persian mīz, one syllable, easy win
دروازہdarwāza: dooryour Sound School word for the rolling r, back with a picture
کھڑکیkhiṛkī: windowthat ṛ is the tongue-flick retroflex from Paṛho
چابیchābī: keythe lock it opens is a tālā
ٹیلیفونṭelīfon: telephonein everyday speech just fon
کتابkitāb: booksame k-t-b root as kātib, the scribe from Virsa
گھڑیghaṛī: clock / watchone word for wall clock, wristwatch, and a moment in time
پیالیpyālī: teacupthe bigger bowl is a pyālā: ī small, ā large, a pattern you will keep meeting
لیمپlaimp: lampborrowed straight; the light or bulb itself is battī
پلیٹplaiṭ: plateborrowed too; the steel one you eat off at home is a thālī
کھاناkhānā: to eat (also: food)the meal and the eating are the same word
پیناpīnā: to drinkalso how you smoke: sigreṭ pīnā, to 'drink' a cigarette
چلناchalnā: to walkmachines chalnā too: chal rahā hai = it's working
آناānā: to comethe āyā and āī you met in the stories are its past
بولناbolnā: to speakbolnā is speaking out loud; kehnā is saying a thing
سنناsunnā: to listen / to hearthe double n is held, sun-nā
سوناsonā: to sleepspelled and said exactly like sonā, gold
پڑھناpaṛhnā: to read / to studyreading and studying are one verb, hence Paṛho, the track name
لکھناlikhnā: to writeaspirated kh, a puff of air after the k
کام کرناkām karnā: to workkām (work) + karnā (to do), the karnā trick builds hundreds of verbs
پکاناpakānā: to cooksame family as pakkā, cooked, ripe, solid, settled
دھوناdhonā: to washthe dhobī, the washerman, is named from this verb
Good to know
✨ Every Urdu verb in the dictionary ends in -nā, and that ending already means 'to'. There is no separate infinitive word to remember, which is one of the kindest things Urdu does for a beginner.
✨ sonā means 'to sleep' and sonā means 'gold', identical in script and in sound. Context does all the work, and Urdu poetry has been enjoying the overlap for centuries.
✨ karnā (to do) is Urdu's workhorse: bolt it onto a noun and you have a verb. kām karnā (to work), intizār karnā (to wait), pasand karnā (to like). Learn one verb, unlock hundreds.
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