Translating into Pashto: Some Common Mistakes

Some people think that Pashto is a very complicated and hard-to-learn language. The reason behind this perception is a lack of knowledge and inaccessibility to the resources of this ancient yet live and interesting language.

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Illustrated learning Pashto books for non-Pashto speakers and foreigners

 The Pashto Academy of Peshawar University of Peshawar has published a Bilingual Primer, an illustrated book aimed for non-Pashto speakers and foreigners to learn Pashto from.

 The beautiful book contains a lot of activity based information for learning the Pashto language. It has made the job easy and quicker.

 Another book is Pashto Teacher, written by Prof. Gul Jan Wror in 1990, which is now unavailable in the market but we have made some copies.

 The third is a booklet which contains links and information of all Pashto websites and online forums.

 The set of these three books is available for those who want to learn English. To order the set, just contact ahhairan@gmail.com.

English-Pashto Primer

Learn Pashto Writing and Speaking

As a language learner need so much and different resources to learn fleunt writing and speaking, unfortunately, there is a lack of these much resources on the internet to learn Pashto. Some websites and softwares are available as I have written about in my previous posts, yet a learner, beginner and advance level, needs real practice.

I have started to teach Pashto through regular lessons by email, chat on skype and  phone conversations for low fees. For those who want to improve their reading and writing skill want to practice their speaking skills can contact anytime.

Also contact for translating books, phmaplets, documents, ads, etc from English into Pashto and Urdu and vice versa. And other information on Pashto, Pashtoons, Pashto books and Pashto literature.

For more details please contact on ahhairan@gmail.com

Special letters of Pashto

There are six special letters in Pashto that Dari, Urdu and other neighboring languages don’t have. They are څ، ځ، ړ، ږ، ښ، ڼ. Even some Pashtoons misuse or avoid them in their writings due to the complexity and their similarity with other letters.

څ is similar in sound with ث and س. The pronunciation is like ts.

څوک دروازه وهي؟ Tsok darwaza wahi? (Who is knocking at the door?)

Some of the words contained this letter:
څپلۍ (shoe[s]), څوکيدار (watchman),  څارنه (observation), څرمن (skin), څړځاى (pasture), څومره؟ (how much?), لوڅ (naked)…

ځ is similar in sound with ز and ذ. The pronunciation is like z.

ښه خوراک ددې رستورانت ځانګړتيا ده Kha khwarak da dey restorant zangarrtia da (Good service is specialty of this restaurant)

Some of the words contained this letter:
ورځ (day), ځان (self), ځارېدل (to sacrifice), ښځه (woman), مينځ (center)…

ړ is a letter of completely different sound with a little similarity to ر. The pronunciation is rh.

ړوند په امسا روان دى rhond pa amsa rawan dai. (The blind is going with the stick)

Some of the words contained this letter:
زاړه (old), موړ (rich), وړتيا (capability), زړورتيا (bravery), زړه (heart)…

ږ is similar in sound with گ. The pronunciation is like g.

زوږ مه کوئ Zwag ma kawey (don’t make noise)

Some of the words contained this letter:
غوږ (ear), مږه (rat), غږ (sound), لږ (little), ږومنځ (comb)…

ښ is similar in sound with خ. The pronunciation is kh. (Note: People of Kandahari dialect pronunciate it like ش).

زه ښار ته روان يم Za khar ta rawan yam (I am going to the city)

Some of the words contained this letter:
کوښښ (try), مښل (to rub), راښکل (to pull), ښکلا (beauty), ښوروا (soup)…

ڼ is similar in sound with نړ. The pronunciation is nh.

کوڼ سړى څه نه اوري Konh sarai tsa na awri (Deaf man cannot hear anything).

Some of the words contained this letter:
مڼه (apple), بڼ (garden), رڼا (light), ګاڼه (jewelry)…

No money and no life

نه پېسې شته نه ژوند

يو ټولنيز کارکوونکى په يو ټوپک په لاس شوکمار ورپېښ شو.

شوکمار ورته وويل: “پېسې دې خوښې دي که ژوند؟”

هغه ځواب ورکړ: “بښنه غواړم، زه خو يو ټولنيز کارکوونکى يم، زه نه پېسې لرم نه مې ژوند شته.”

No money and no life

A social worker is facing a mugger with a gun.

“Your money or your life!” says the mugger.

“I’m sorry,” the social worker answers, “I am a social worker, so I have no money and no life.”