Reading Urdu Script

Foundations

Urdu uses a Perso-Arabic writing system. Read the letters from right to left.

How It Works

Look for the letter body and its dots together. A word can contain more than one joined group because some letters do not connect to the next letter on their left.

Urdu also has letters for sounds that Arabic does not write in the same way. For example, پ represents p, چ ch, and گ g. Learn these as Urdu letters rather than giving them Arabic pronunciations.

Some marks add reading information. Compare unmarked دل with دِل: the small mark gives the short i vowel without adding a new base letter. Most ordinary writing expects you to recover short vowels from the word and its context.

Keep ہ and ھ separate. In پھل, the two-letter combination پھ represents an aspirated p sound. Do not replace its second letter with ہ.

Numbers keep their own left-to-right digit order inside Urdu text. Direction, spelling and pronunciation are separate things to notice as you read.

Examples (4)

  1. دل

    heart

    This ordinary spelling leaves the short i vowel unwritten.

  2. دِل

    heart

    The vowel mark makes the short i explicit; this is the same word as دل.

  3. پھل

    fruit

    Read پھ as the aspirated consonant ph, followed by ل.

  4. گھر

    house; home

    گھ is another aspirated consonant combination, using ھ.

How It Connects

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Reading Urdu ScriptFoundations

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