Lesson Six

Dialogue six: A guest at your door

NOTE:

Unstinting hospitality is a highly cherished virtue in Pukhtun society.

Pronunciation drill

1. Contrasting غ - gh and خ - kh

Try this tongue twister:

2. Contrasting و - o and هٔ or unwritten in script - u

A complete listing of subject pronouns and the present equative

NOTES:

1. You will hear speakers using both هغی - haghee and هغوی - haghwee to mean 'they’; referring to people who are being talked about, but who are not present.

2. دوی - dwee is used to describe more than one person or animal; referring to people / animals which are close at hand and visible.

3. Commonly anything close at hand is often called دا - daa (demonstrative pronoun), but it is only by listening to the verb ending that you know whether this refers to 'he’, 'she’, 'they’, etc.

Feminine Plural Nouns

NOTE:

Feminine nouns ending in ه - a change the ending to ې - e in the plural. Feminine nouns ending in ۍ - uy do not change in the plural. Others use an انې - aane ending to show plurality.

Feminine plural adjectives

NOTE:

The 3rd person plural form of the equative دی - dee is the same for both genders, so only the adjective ending indicates gender.

Some useful adjectives in their masculine and feminine forms

It would help to memorize the following chart:

👆 Practice the use of these adjectives until they become second nature. Using the illustrations in Picture it in Dari and Pashto or generating some simple pictures to go with this chart will enable you to practice these adjectives with your language helper as well as illiterate friends. Find pictures of masculine singular and plural, and feminine singular and plural objects, then get your helper or friend to drill you. Here is an example using trees and books with the adjectives غټ - ghaT and ارزان - arzáan:

دا غټه ونه ده.

daa gháTa wúna da. (f.s.)

دا غټې ونې دی.

daa gháTe wúne dee. (f.pl.)

دا ارزان کتاب دے.

daa arzáan kitáab day.

دا ارزان کتابونه دی.

daa arzáan kitaabóona dee. (m.pl.)

Now you can substitute other adjectives from the list.

Recognising feminine plural nouns and adjectives

1. Feminine singular and adjectives ending in ه - a with the suffix ې - e for their plural forms.

2. Feminine nouns ending in ۍ - uy do not change in their plural forms.

3. Feminine nouns ending in و - o and ه - a add the suffix ګانې - gaane ګانې for their plural forms.

4. Words that end in a consonant are normally masculine, but there are a few feminine inanimate nouns that also end in a consonant. They become plural by adding ې - e.

5. Natural gender words for family members are declined as follows:

NOTE:

It is very easy to confuse the following:

Try these sentences:

The use of شته - shta and نشته - nishta

شته - shta and نشته - níshta are commonly used words expressing 'presence' and 'absence'.

NOTES:

1. صېب - seb is a term of respect, rather like the English word 'sir'. It is the contracted form of صاخب - saahíb.

2. The expression څوک زنانه نشته؟ - tsok zanaana nishta? is useful for men to ask before entering a place where women might be present.

The verb کېدل - kedúl in the present and future tenses

NOTES:

1. The verb کېدل - kedúl is an auxiliary verb, used with nouns, adjectives, and adverbs to form intransitive (stative) compound verbs. For example, مړ کېدل - muR kedul (to become dead) i.e. 'to die' and وادهٔ کېدل - waadu kedul (to become married). These types of combinations are common in Pukhto.

2. Transitive and intransitive verbs are introduced in more detail in Lessons Seven and Eight.

Recognising plural nouns

There are several nouns, especially liquids and grains, which are considered plural in Pukhto. It is worth memorizing the more common ones. Here are a few of them:

These plural words include uncountable nouns like چائې - chaay (tea) and پۍ - puy (milk) and a few countable nouns such as مازغهٔ - maazghú (brain).

Comprehension drill: Identifying numbers on a calendar

Use a calendar to learn the numbers 1–31.

👆 First learn the numbers in order, and then try practising them out of order. Start by pointing to the numbers as your teacher calls them out, then try to name the correct number as your teacher points. The new numbers are:

More parts of the body

These examples are all feminine in gender:

ورُوځه - wrooza (ayebrow)

سترګه - sturga (aye)

پوزه - poza (nose)

سینه - seená (chest)

خېټه - khéTa (stomach)

پښه - khpa (foot)

Memorising Moment

متلونه - matalóona

👆 In collecting language information it is helpful to be able to write in phonetic script. Try writing the phonetics for this maˈtəl after your language helper has said it a few times:

Now memorise it and learn its usage.

Exercises for Lesson Six

1. Practice describing people, animals and objects with the following sentences:

Now start with these sentences:

👆 Find a children’s picture book or use Picture It in Dari and Pashto and have friends give adjectives to describe the pictures. Make a list of the adjectives you have learned.

3. Replace the bold word in the following sentence with the words listed below:

Then make the sentences negative.

3. Repeat exercise 2. with these feminine nouns:

4. Make the following singular feminine nouns and adjectives plural.

5. Using the question دا څه شے دے؟ - daa tsu shay day? point to the following parts of the body: