LESSON NO.

I .......................ZA. WE.....................MONG/J.YOU.SINGULAR....TA

YOU PLURAL........TASO.HE/SHE...............HAGHA.THEY..................HAGH OI

VOCABULARY.ZA HALAK/ZANKAY YAM....... I AM A BOY.

HALAK/ZANKAY..................BOY.

YAM............................. AM

communication.

how are you?............... sanga ye? / saranga ye ?

I m fine ......................... za kha/sha yam

GENERAL

there are two main dialects in pashto language.

hard dialect.......... spoken in areas like peshawar, mardan, swat, malakand, dir, kohat, paracinar, jalalabad, bajawar, mohmand, khyber,etc mainly in northern part of pashto speaking areas.here the pure pashto words are prounced as kh and g not sh and j if the word comprises the sound. as the word for fine is prounced here as kha not sha. the word for beard is prounced as gira not jira. from the pure pushtu words i mean not words borrowed from other languages .for example. the word khalis is

prounced in both the dialects the same as it is not a pure pashto word. and such words are written with arabic khe not pashto khin

soft dialect......... spoken in SOUTHERN areas like banu, karak, waziristan, baluchistan, qandahar, paktya etc. here the above sounds are prounced as sh and g . fine is sha here and beard is jira here.

I will try for your orientation of both the dialects or accents.THERE IS NOTHING TO DO SPECIAL .often the symbol/ denotes the difference of dialects. however it is not necessary to learn both the dialects as both are easily mutually intelligible. accents of qandahar and peshawar or mardan are the strandard accents throug out the world.

remember that both the dialects are written in the same script . thats why you see special pashto letters for khe and ge

lesson no 2. pronouns my..................................zama. our...................zamong/j your.sing.........................sta. your.plu..............staso his..... da hagha... her......da haghay. their......... da haghoi vcocabulary my house/home......... zama kor your book...................sta kitab his cow.......................da hagha ghwa her university.............. da haghaay univesity/ pohantoon communication welcome....................... pakhair raghlay/starhi mashay thanks..........................merabani/manana

general pashto is the natioional language of afghanistan and one of the two official languages(the other one is Dari). thus we see particular words used there which has no so much currency in pakistan as here urdu or english words are dominant. as we saw above the actual pure word for university is pohantoon. similarly for hospital the word is roghtoon but to many pashtuns in pakistan these words are not known because in pakistan the official language is english or urdu and the langauges of sign boards lesson no 3 pronouns for the english pronouns mine pashto pronoun is the same zama, for them da haghoi , for him da hagha and so on vocabulary it is for him........ da da hagha da para day/da it......................da,him................. da hagha for................. da para, is...............day(masc.)da(fem) comunication imperatives come......................................raza go.........................................za general in pashto you will come across many synonyms and homonyms. context make the meaning clear. as we saw two meaninigs of the word za one I, second go. there is a little diffrence of stress as the one for go is more stressed LESSON NO 4 grammar nouns noun is a name . in pashto for name the words num/nama are used.number of the noun is either plural or singular. for making plural the suffixes AN ,ONA/una ,EE/i, are most frequently used

vocabulary person............. kas/tan, persons............ kasan/tanan table.................mez, tables...............mezona man..................sarhay men................sarhee communication meet these men.............. de sarho sara milaw sha/uwina/ogora(milaw sha is an urdu influence on pashto specially in pakistan) general in the above sentence we see the plural sarho not sarhee. yes in a sentence and in oobjective case this plural is used. but these are men da sarhee dee. lesson no. 5 grammar nouns gender masculine ......... nar, feminine...............khaza/shaza in pushtu often the feminine ends with the suffix a or ai or ee there are also totally separete words for feminine and masculine there are masculine/ feminine difference in human beings, animals and things. there is also neuter(no feminine/masculine) and common (both masculine/feminine)gender which is mostly found in words taken from other languages different auxiliary verbs are used for masculine and feminine. remember that in grammar (language rules) there are always exceptions. i write mostly generalizations. if u come across some anomalies or exceptional cases please discuss it with me vocabulary

this is a man.......................da sarhay day,this is a woman... da khaza/shaza da this is a girl........................ da jinai da , this is a boy......... da halak day meal/bread............ dodai/marhai/tikalay meal is good...................dodai kha /sha da dog ............spay, bitch .............spai communication eat/take meal.................. dodai ukhra/wakhla bring one chair for me..............mala yawa kursai/chawkai rawrha general we see in the above examples that feminine words end with a, ai ,ee. for feminine is is da for masculine day . one chair is yawa kursai but one book is yaw kitab because kursai is feminine and kitab is masculine. Mother > Mor Father > plaar Brother > Ror Sister > Khor Son > Zwey Daughter > Loor Uncle > tra/kaka/mama Auntie > tror chachi/maasi(urdu influence) Grandfather > Neeka Grandmother > Nyaa Grandson > nwase/masse Grandaughter > Nwasai/Masai