Urdu letter

Pronunciation

English Equivalent

آ

It is a long vowel like ‘a’ in “father”.

A

ا  (alif)

Short vowel like ‘u’ in “cut” if it occurs in the beginning of a word; but it is always a long vowel if it comes in the middle or at the end of a word.

ب  (be)

Like ‘b’ in English, but less aspired

B

پ  (pe)

Like ‘p’ less aspirated

P

ت

Like French ‘t’ softer then English ‘t’.

T

ٹ

Like English ‘t’ but less aspirted.

T

ث

In urdu, unlike Arabic, it sounds like English ‘s’.

S

ج

English ‘j’ sound less aspirated.

J

چ

Like English ‘ch’ sound as in Urdu “church”

Ch

ح

English ‘h’ sound as in “hen”.

H

خ

Resembles French ‘r’ guttural sound; it has no exact equivalent in English.

د

Like ‘d’ in French similar to “the”

D

ڈ

Like ‘d’ in English

D

ذ

Like ‘z’ in English

Z

ر

Like ‘r’ sound in “rose” but to be pronounced more clearly.

R

ڑ

Like ‘r’ sound in English but harder.

R

ز

Also English ‘z’ sound

Z

ژ

Heavier and aspirated sound of ‘z’ as in “azure”

Zh

س

Sounds like ‘s’ in “sun”

S

ش

Similar to English ‘sh’ sound in “shine”

Sh

ص

Another letter for ‘s’ sound

S

ض

Yet another letter for ‘z’

Z

ط

Another letter having soft ‘t’ sound

T

ظ

‘z’ sound

Z

ع

Like ‘a’ sound in “father” but to be pronounced in the throat.

غ

It has no equivalent in English, it is a guttural wound having some similarity to ‘gh’ sound in English.

ف

Like ‘f’ in “fan”

F

ق

Like ‘q’ sound in “quarrel”, but to be pronounced in the throat.

Q

ک

Like ‘k’ sound in “ kite”

K

گ

Like ‘g’ sound in “gun”

G

ل

Like ‘l’ sound in English

L

م

Like ‘m’ sound in English

M

ن

Like ‘n’ sound in English

N

و

Like ‘v’ sound in English

V

ہ

Another letter for ‘h’ sound

h

ی

Sounds like ‘ee’ as in “tree”

Ee

ے

Sounds like “ai” as in “paid”

ai