Corpus research says a handful of verbs power most daily speech. Here are Urdu's core eight, plus the sentence pattern that runs them. Remember the golden rule from Level 2: the verb always parks at the END.
The phrases
🔊 Listen کھانا khānā : to eatYes, the same word as 'food' from Level 5. Context decides.
🔊 Listen پینا pīnā : to drink
🔊 Listen جانا jānā : to go
🔊 Listen آنا ānā : to come
🔊 Listen دیکھنا dekhnā : to see / watch'Dekho!', look! You'll hear it constantly.
🔊 Listen کرنا karnā : to doThe workhorse: pairs with nouns to make new verbs, kām karnā (to work).
🔊 Listen بولنا bolnā : to speakFrom Level 2's 'āhista boliye', now you own the verb itself.
🔊 Listen سمجھنا samajhnā : to understand
🔊 Listen میں بازار جا رہا ہوں maiṉ bāzār jā rahā hūṉ : I am going to the bazaarSOV in action: 'I bazaar going am.' Verb last, always.
🔊 Listen مجھے سمجھ نہیں آیا mujhe samajh nahīṉ āyā : I didn't understandThe honest learner's best sentence. Deploy freely.
🔊 Listen سمجھ گیا samajh gayā : Got itA woman says samajh gaī. The gayā seals the understanding shut.
🔊 Listen کیا کر رہے ہیں؟ kyā kar rahe haiṉ? : What are you doing?Rahā/rahe/rahī + hai is the -ing of Urdu.
🔊 Listen لینا lenā : to takeHalf of every compound verb in L23. Learn it early.
🔊 Listen دینا denā : to giveIts partner. Lenā points at you, denā points away.
🔊 Listen رہنا rahnā : to live / to stayThe verb inside āp kahāṉ rahte haiṉ.
🔊 Listen سیکھنا sīkhnā : to learnThe verb you are doing right now: maiṉ urdū sīkh rahā hūṉ.
Good to know
✨ Every Urdu infinitive ends in -nā : khānā, pīnā, jānā, ānā. Spot a -nā, you've spotted a verb. English wishes it were this organised.
✨ Karnā (to do) is Urdu's LEGO brick: kām karnā (work-do = to work), fon karnā (phone-do = to call), maaf karnā (forgive-do = to forgive). Learn one verb, unlock dozens.
✨ Urdu word order is basically Yoda's: “maiṉ chāy pī rahā hūṉ” = “I tea drinking am.” Embrace the inner Yoda and the grammar clicks.