| Your goal | Start with |
|---|---|
| Talk with Urdu-speaking relatives or friends | Roman Urdu |
| Talk with people in Pakistan or India, or listen to Urdu dramas and songs | Roman Urdu |
| Read Urdu news and books | The Urdu alphabet |
| Read ghazals and other poetry | The Urdu alphabet |
| Take an Urdu class or exam | The Urdu alphabet |
| Use Urdu for work | The Urdu alphabet |
| The Urdu alphabet | What changes for you |
|---|---|
| Urdu is written from right to left | Each line starts on the right side of the page. |
| Most Urdu is written in a style called Nastaliq | Each word slopes down from the upper right to the lower left. |
| Most vowel marks are left out | کتاب has four letters, for k, t, a long a and b. The short i after the k is not written. |
| Urdu has a second t and a second d | Roman Urdu spells both ت and ٹ as t, and the audio tells them apart. |
| Roman Urdu | Urdu alphabet | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| shukriya | شکریہ | Thank you |
| khuda hafiz | خدا حافظ | Goodbye |
| kitaab | کتاب | Book |
| dukaan | دکان | Shop |
| theek | ٹھیک | Fine, OK |
People mostly use Roman Urdu for texting and social media. It spells shared words the way Roman Hindi does, like kaam and theek, so a Hindi reader can follow everyday Roman Urdu.
Bubblegum is a language app where Poppy, your AI tutor, writes your Urdu lessons. Its Roman Urdu shows the short vowels that Urdu letters leave out, like the i in kitaab and the u in dukaan.
| With Roman Urdu you can | With the Urdu alphabet you can also |
|---|---|
| Follow what people say in Urdu | Read the writing on shop signs and menus |
| Text Urdu-speaking friends and family | Read Urdu news and books |
| Read Bubblegum's Urdu lessons, stories and news in Roman Urdu | Read a ghazal, a kind of Urdu poem, as the poet wrote it |
| Ask Poppy questions typed in Roman Urdu | Read a message a friend sends in Urdu letters |
| App | The Urdu alphabet |
|---|---|
| Bubblegum | Urdu lessons show in Roman Urdu or in Urdu letters, and you can switch any time. |
| Bol | It teaches Urdu in Latin letters, so you don't learn a new alphabet first. |
| Rekhta | It shows each poem in Urdu, Hindi or Roman letters. |
| Ling | It teaches the Urdu script one step at a time, with audio and visual guides. |
| UrduPod101 | It teaches the Urdu letters with a letter chart and a free eBook of practice sheets. |
Reading in Roman Urdu keeps the Urdu Alphabet course on your home screen.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Urdu (Pakistan). You learn from Urdu (Pakistan) you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- An Urdu Alphabet course of 12 short chapters teaches each letter with its sound.
- Read lessons in Urdu letters, or in the Latin letters many people text Urdu in.
- Read and listen to Urdu lessons, stories, and news about things you care about.
- Ask Poppy about a sentence while you read.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, and you can export them to Anki.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- Bubblegum has no shows or videos. However, you can paste a page or send a photo, and Poppy will break it down. The app is built around the lessons she writes for you.
- Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches the Urdu Alphabet
Mobile
Does Roman Urdu Work for Pakistani and Indian Urdu?
Yes. Roman Urdu works for both Urdu (Pakistan) and Urdu (India), and both use the same Urdu Alphabet course. Bubblegum spells ڑ as r, the way Pakistan texts it, so you see larka. Reader Settings also lists ladka, and Poppy understands both.
Is There One Right Way to Spell Roman Urdu?
No. People spell the same word in different ways, like shukriya and shukria, or theek and thik. Bubblegum shows one spelling for each word, and Poppy understands the others when you type them.
How Do I Start the Urdu Alphabet Course?
You can start the Urdu Alphabet course at chapter 1 whenever you like. Its 12 chapters begin with ا and ب, which already spell باب, the word for a door.
Which Urdu App Should a Beginner Choose?
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read. Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Roman Urdu (English Wikipedia): Urdu written in Latin letters, mostly used for informal communication on the internet, social media and text messaging; mutually intelligible with Romanised Hindi in informal contexts
- Urdu alphabet (English Wikipedia): written from right to left, typically in Nastaliq, most vowel diacritics omitted in most Urdu writing
- The Urdu Alphabet, Introduction (UNC Chapel Hill): Urdu is written from right to left, and Nastaliq words cascade from the upper right to the lower left
- Bol on the App Store (learn Urdu without first learning a new alphabet, in familiar Latin letters)
- Rekhta on the App Store (Urdu poetry and literature in three scripts: Urdu, Hindi and Roman)
- Ling: Learn Urdu (teaches the Urdu script step by step, with audio and visual guides)
- UrduPod101: the Urdu alphabet (free eBook)
- Bubblegum: Urdu Alphabet course, chapter 1
