# Urdu: Basic greetings



## satimis

Hi folks,

Is Urdu Pakistan language ?

Are

good bye        
*accha bye*

good morning        
*accha subh*

good evening       
*accha shaam*

good night        
*accha raat*

accha means *good* ?

Thanks

B.R.
satimis


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## stranger96

*Is Urdu Pakistan language ?*
Yes *U*rdu is our national language *I* am from *K*arachi, *P*akistan*.*

Yes, satimis, GOOD mean acha but here we can*'*t say acha with every phrase the correct meanings are here:

*good bye        *
acha bye
Khuda hafiz

 *T*his is not perfect meaning of this phrase but 100% people say that the perfect meaning is "acha bye" as *you* said but it hasn't any sense. So just say "khuda hafiz" or "Allah hafiz".

*H*ere "kuda" & "Allah" mean GOD.

*good morning        *
accha subha
acche subha
morning = subha but here not come "acha" correct word for morning is "ache" so you can say that simply "ache subha".

*good evening       *
accha shaam
achhe shaam
evening = shaam but here not come "acha" correct word for evning is "ache" so you can say that simply "ache sham"*.*


*good night        *
accha raat
acche raat
night = raat is correct but here not come "acha" correct word for night is "ache" so you can say that simply "ache raat".


*I*t*'*s difficult to tell *you* *why* we use "ache" at place of "acha" but *I* can give simply example of he and she use in *E*nglish.


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## satimis

stranger96 said:


> *Is Urdu Pakistan language ?*
> Yes urdu is our national language i am from karachi,pakistan



Hi stranger96,

Thanks for your advice.  Are there other official languages in addition?
 



> Yes satimis GOOD mean acha but here we cant say acha with every phrase the correct meanings are here


Does it follow the rule, masculine/feminine genders, similar to Spanish/Italian/etc. ?




> *good bye        *
> acha bye
> Khuda hafiz



bye is masculine gender.  So it uses "acha" ?




> this is not perfect meaning of this phrase but 100% people say that the perfect meaning is "acha bye" as u said but it hasn't any sense.So just say "khuda hafiz" or "Allah hafiz"


What is the difference in meaning amongst all of them.




> here "kuda" & "ALLAH" mean GOD.


What is the meaning of "hafiz"?  Is it "kuda" referring to Buddha?



> *good morning        *
> accha subha
> acche subha
> morning = subha but here not come "acha" correct word for morning is "ache" so you can say that simply "ache subha"
> 
> *good evening       *
> accha shaam
> achhe shaam
> evening = shaam but here not come "acha" correct word for evning is "ache" so you can say that simply "ache sham"
> 
> 
> *good night        *
> accha raat
> acche raat
> night = raat is correct but here not come "acha" correct word for night is "ache" so you can say that simply "ache raat".
> 
> its difficult to tell u y we use "ache" at place of "acha" but i can give simply example of he and she use in english.


They are feminine gender so using "ache" instead.  I learned this rule in Spanish, Italian and German.


How about the Urdu pronunciation.  Is it pronouncing all vowels similar to Spanish and Italian.   How to pronouce "Urdu"?

To my understanding Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine language (Visaya/Togalog) are all the same.  Their grammar follows Spanish rules.

TIA


I'll start new postings asking some more questions.  Hope you can help.


B.R.
satimis


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## meray_paas

Satimis, I have noticed that in a few of your posts, you follow a very rigorous word for word translation. For example, you would probably translate the phrase _have a nice day _ as _acha din lo_, where _acha _means good, _din _means day, and _lo _means take. I can most certainly say that this is the incorrect way to approach the complicated tasks of learning a new language. 

Moreover, what (I think) you've asked for in the original post are the common greetings for the  different times of the day. You said _accha subh_ for _good morning_. Here you are describing the morning as being good, and not offering a greeting. If you are describing the morning as being good, then you could say _yeh itni achi subah hai_. _Subah _is female and so is _raat_. 

If you wanted to greet someone then using_ Asslam-o-Alaikum_ at anytime of the day (or night) is perfectly fine. The same goes for using _Namaste _in Hindi._Subah bakhair_ can be used for early morning hours.


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## bakshink

I know little Urdu but the language spoken on both sides of the border is nearly the same. So let me try to answer some of your queries.
Achcha can have different meanings in different context.
Achcha aadmi, Achcha mausam- Good man, Good weather (here achcha means good).
Achcha phir milte hain- O.K. then, we'll meet again. (here Achcha means O.K.).
Achcha? Woh tumhara bhaee hai?- Is it? Is he your brother? (here achcha stands for "Is it").
When Achcha stands for Good then Achcha mausam (good weather) because mausam(weather) has a masculine gender.
Achchi ladaki (good girl) and Achchi subha (Good morning) because subha has a feminine gender.
The plural for achcha is achche log, achche ladke (as in say)-Good people, Good boys.
But plural for achchi (feminine) is also achchi so while talking of girls we will say  Achchi Ladkiyaa.n (Good girls).

Every culture has it's own way of addressing when people meet or part. We may have devised replicas for English form of address when meeting but it doesn't need to be necessarily adopted and used by everyone.

Since you are asking about how is it said in Urdu, so I will only allude to that because it's different in different communities and religions.
In Urdu when people meet, no matter when, they say
Salaam- al-lekum- (Some one may please elaborate it's meaning) but it has to do with Salaam or Salaamat which means wishing well being or peace.
The answer to this is Wa-lekum salaam which means "Peace unto you".
Shab-al-khair means "good night". and I think Sab-al-khair will stand to mean "good morning".
Khuda hafiz, Khuda means God and Hafiz means the one who proivdes, preserves and protects. So I guess, it's either praising His benevolence or asking Him or wishing that May God take care of you. 

Khuda means God without specifically naming Him and it's not same as "Budha" because "Budha" stands for "Gautama Buddha" the spiritual teacher who founded Buddhism. By the way Buddha was not his name but later he came to be known as Budhha because Budhha in Sanskrit means the "enlightened".

There are many learned forum members who have a vast knowledge of Urdu. They will throw more light on the above subject and correct my mistakes. Mine is just a humble attempt to answer your questions as my knowledge of Urdu is little.


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## satimis

meray_paas said:


> Satimis, I have noticed that in a few of your posts, you follow a very rigorous word for word translation. For example, you would probably translate the phrase _have a nice day _ as _acha din lo_, where _acha _means good, _din _means day, and _lo _means take. I can most certainly say that this is the incorrect way to approach the complicated tasks of learning a new language.


Hi meray_pass,

Thanks for your advice.

Can I translate it as;
*aik acha din have*
?

What is the official translation for good?  "acha" OR "accha"?



> Moreover, what (I think) you've asked for in the original post are the common greetings for the  different times of the day. You said _accha subh_ for _good morning_. Here you are describing the morning as being good, and not offering a greeting. If you are describing the morning as being good, then you could say _yeh itni achi subah hai_. _Subah _is female and so is _raat_.


_yeh itni achi subah hai_

What is "yeh itni"

Is hai=have ?
achi is plural for acha ?



> If you wanted to greet someone then using_ Asslam-o-Alaikum_ at anytime of the day (or night) is perfectly fine. The same goes for using _Namaste _in Hindi._Subah bakhair_ can be used for early morning hours.


Thanks.

Could you please shed me some light on Urdu pronunciation.  Whether I can apply the same rules as in Spanish and Italian?  Any pointer?  TIA


B.R.
satimis


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## bakshink

Dear Satimis

My previous post will have you in clearing the confusion between achcha, achchi and achche.
"Achcha" "Chch" is different from "ch" sound in English. There is no equivalent of it in English. It is "ch" stressed and aspirated.
Ye itni achchi subha hai- Here "Ye" means "this".
"Itni" stands for quantifying (and here means what "what a" will mean in a sentnece- Oh, What a beautiful morning it is!).


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## satimis

Hi bakshink,

Lot of thanks for your detail advice.



bakshink said:


> Achcha .....


I'm still in puzzle.  Some people use "acha" and some uses "accha".  You use "achcha".  Is there an official spelling?



> Achcha phir milte hain- O.K. then, we'll meet again. (here Achcha means O.K.).


"we are" is;
*hum hain*

"we will" is;
*hum gaay

*What do* "*phir milte" stand for?



> Achcha? Woh tumhara bhaee hai?- Is it? Is he your brother? (here achcha stands for "Is it").




Is it "*bhAi" *standing for brother ?

he/she is        woh hai

Others noted with thanks


B.R.
satimis


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## satimis

bakshink said:


> ...
> "Achcha" "Chch" is different from "ch" sound in English. There is no equivalent of it in English. It is "ch" stressed and aspirated.


Pronunciation is really a problem to me.  I don't know whether Spanish/Italian rules can be applied, just sounding all vowels.



> Ye itni achchi subha hai- Here "Ye" means "this".
> "Itni" stands for quantifying (and here means what "what a" will mean in a sentnece- Oh, What a beautiful morning it is!).


Noted and thanks


B.R.
satimis


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## bakshink

Dear Satimis,
I don't know how are you learning Urdu but first you will need to learn the sounds of the alphabets. To the best of my knowledge there is no universally accepted transliteration code for Urdu/Hindi. The people who write in this forum use many different codes. But those like me who are not in to learning languages and are not doing language studies but write on this forum out of love for the languages do not conform to any code and try to write the word as closely as it is pronounced. There is no difficulty in understanding us by those who know the language but I can understand your problem. I just searched on Google and found that Youtube has video clip for Hindi alphabets.There must be some for teaching sounds of the Urdu alphabets too.I have often suggested to anyone coming on this forum for learning Hindi/Urdu to listen to Hindi/Urdu songs/videos as it will help you to learn the language faster. 

You can't translate the Hindi/Urdu sentence in to a meaningful English sentence by literally translating each word because many words have different meanings in different context and even if you get all the words right still their order will need some shuffling too.
Yes "Hum hain"  means 'we are' but "We will" can not be explained without the verb. So "We will do" will be Hum kareinge and "We will go" will translate to Hum jayeinge and so on. Kareinge is the future tense of verb "karna" which means 'to do". Also kareinge is plural. So for We will do the translation is "Hum kareinge" but for I will do the translation will be "Main Karoonga".
"Phir" can mean again and also "So-then?". Here Phir stands for again. Milte is from verb "Milna" which means to meet.Actually Phir mileinge will translate to "Will meet again". "Phir milte hain" is a kind of a phrase which is something informal like Oks! See Ya!!


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## BP.

I didn't ever imagine it'd come to this, but I'm totally overwhelmed, totally at a loss at what to say but "welcome to the forum, both of you"!

Bakshi sahab seems to be the lone warrior on the thread, and out of respect for the man I'd join the fray and try answer the very first post:



satimis said:


> good bye
> *accha bye*
> good morning
> *accha subh*
> good evening
> *accha shaam*
> good night
> *accha raat*
> accha means *good* ?



Yes _achchhaa_ does mean good, but it is hardly the choisiest word I'd use for good.

Here are some Urdu equivalents for the four phrases respectively:

_khudaa/xudaa Haafiz
chalte hae.n
rukhSat chaahate hae.n_
...

_sub-H bakhaer/baxaer
saHar baxaer_
...

Don't know.

_shab bakhaer_
...


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## satimis

bakshink said:


> Dear Satimis,
> I don't know how are you learning Urdu but first you will need to learn the sounds of the alphabets. To the best of my knowledge there is no universally accepted transliteration code for Urdu/Hindi. The people who write in this forum use many different codes. But those like me who are not in to learning languages and are not doing language studies but write on this forum out of love for the languages do not conform to any code and try to write the word as closely as it is pronounced. There is no difficulty in understanding us by those who know the language but I can understand your problem. I just searched on Google and found that Youtube has video clip for Hindi alphabets.There must be some for teaching sounds of the Urdu alphabets too.I have often suggested to anyone coming on this forum for learning Hindi/Urdu to listen to Hindi/Urdu songs/videos as it will help you to learn the language faster.



Hi bakshink,

Thanks for your explanation and suggestion.  Several years ago when I learned French, Italian and German I have cassette tapes to listen with recording corresponding to the lessons on the books sold together with the aforesaid tapes.  Nowadays it is even much easier for me when I come back to learn them again.  I found many sound clips on the websites which will ease my learning.

I have made heavy search on Internet googling around without any discovery.  I'm System Admin working on IT.  

I found many Urdu/Hindi/Hindu songs on YouTube.  But it would be difficult for me making use of them to learn Urdu.  Unless there are lyrics displayed on the screen.  I can download the video and songs from YouTube making them playing repeatedly.  However it can't help a beginner like me.  I don't understand their content at all.

Please shed me some guidance on Urdu pronunciation;

Salaam-al-lekum  
to say it as;
sa-la-am al le-kum

Achcha aadmi        Good man
ach-cha a-ad-mi

Achcha mausam        Good weather
ach-cha mau-sam
or
ach-cha ma-u-sam

Achcha phir milte hain        O.K. then, we'll meet again
ach-cha phi-r mil-te ha-in
(Is "h" pronounced?  OR like Spanish "h" is silent?)

Achcha? Woh tumhara bhaee hai?    Is it? Is he your brother?
ach-cha woh tum-har-a bha-e-e ha-i
OR
ach-cha woh tum-ha-r-a bha-e-e ha-i

tumhara=your ?
bhaee=brother ?

Achchi ladaki (good girl)
ach-chi la-da-ki

Achchi subha (Good morning) 
ach-chi sub-ha

Is it goodbye = Achchi bye ?

The plural for achcha is;
achche log        Good people
ach-che log

achche ladke        Good boys.
ach-che lad-ke
(Is "ke" pronounced as "kee" or ke like cat ?)

Is there any stress on pronunciation like Spanish?  Or like French, all sound being flat.

So "We will do" will be Hum kareinge (hum kar-e-in-ge)

and "We will go" will translate to Hum jayeinge  (hum ja-ye-in-ge)

Others noted with thanks


B.R.
satimis


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## satimis

BelligerentPacifist said:


> I didn't ever imagine it'd come to this, but I'm totally overwhelmed, totally at a loss at what to say but "welcome to the forum, both of you"!
> 
> Bakshi sahab seems to be the lone warrior on the thread, and out of respect for the man I'd join the fray and try answer the very first post:


Hi BelligerentPacifist,

Thanks for your advice and joining in.

_khudaa/xudaa Haafiz 
_khu-da-a / xu-da-a ha-a-fiz (goodbye ?))

_ chalte hae.n
_cha-l-te ha-e-n (good morning ?)
(Is "te" pronounced as "tee" ? or "ter"?)
_ rukhSat chaahate hae.n_
ruk-sat cha-a-ha-te ha-e-n
...



> _sub-H bakhaer/baxaer
> saHar baxaer_
> ...
> 
> Don't know.
> 
> _shab bakhaer_
> ...


Sorry I don't follow.


B.R.
satimis


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## BP.

> _chalte hae.n
> _cha-l-te ha-e-n (good morning ?)
> (Is "te" pronounced as "tee" ? or "ter"?)



It certainly doesn't mean good morning mate! It is to the tune of 'I'd be off now'.

These days on this forum we write _e_ for the _ay_ sound in _say_, albeit said without the flourish.


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## meray_paas

Satimis, for writing Hindi/Urdu in the Roman alphabet, there is no one standard. Personally I dont even follow a standard. Here are a few examples:

_Ham karenge_ or _Ham kareinge_. Even _Hum _is place of _Ham _is used often. 
_Tum kaise ho_ or _Tum kaisay ho_
_Main (I)_ or _Mai (I)_
_Main hun_ or _mai hu_
_Mein (in_) or _mei (in)_

Usually, some people just omit the nasalization (the n) at the end of words. Like _kahan
(where)_ is often spelt as _kaha_. Oddly enough _kaha_ is also the past tense of _say_. I can tell you that you should not follow a strict spelling system, but what you should do is follow how the word is meant to be said or pronounced. Because for all intents and purposes _kaise _and _kaisay _as well as _maine _and _mai nay_ or _main nay_, all sound the same and are used very often.

The other advise I can give you is to learn the proper script. Knowing that will clear up the confusion. Besides with time, you will learn to know whether or not the user meant to say _kaha _(where) or _kaha _(said). Just like in English where the use of the word _mean_ takes on several meanings depending on context and use. The same applies for _kaha._ Even _mai _and _mei _ are used often is place for either _I_ or _in_!

I have been through this, and I know how confusing it gets. But watching for the exact spelling and word for word translation is not the way to go. Besides when urdu/hindi is written using the roman alphabet, we aim to produce the proper sounds and not spelling.


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## stranger96

yes STAMIS MERE_PASS is right that there is no fix spelling in roman Urdu 

we also use like

Ma (I) or Mae (I)


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## stranger96

meray_paas said:


> The other advise I can give you is to learn the proper script. Knowing that will clear up the confusion. Besides with time, you will learn to know whether or not the user meant to say _kaha _(where) or _kaha _(said). Just like in English where the use of the word _mean_ takes on several meanings depending on context and use. The same applies for _kaha._ Even _mai _and _mei _ are used often is place for either _I_ or _in_!



But here I am not with MERAY PASS I thing if my bro is Urdu than he have to know that 

Kaha is not for when but correct word is  "Kahan" for when

And :Kaha" is correct for "Said"


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## Faylasoof

stranger96 said:


> yes STAMIS MERE_PASS is right that there is no fix spelling in roman Urdu
> 
> we also use like
> 
> Ma (I) or Mae (I)



Firstly, welcome to the forum! 

I see a lot has happened while I was away!

I agree that we have no fixed rules really for romanised Urdu-Hindi but here we try to adhere to some kind of rules that you'll soon discover. So in your example above, we would always pronounce the first one, <ma>, as ما and not <mai.n میں> - the <.n> denotes for many of us nasalisation.

... and I also agree with you that we would note the difference between <kaha> and <kaha.n>, with the meanings you clarify.

For the rest, it is best that I leave it for my colleagues here to continue. I'd say many of the things that BP (BelligerentPacifist) and Bak (bakshink) have already said.

Satimis, just to reiterate, for greetings one can say either _*assalaam o alaykum*_ (or just _*salaam*_) or *namaste* or *sasri akaal* any time of the day and depending on whom you are greeting from our cultural / religious background. Even foreigners have adapted to these! They've become the equivalent of <hello> in English. In fact these are heard all the time rather than the exact equivalents of the greetings in English for the different times of the day that you mentioned early on. In theory, subH baxair, shab baxair etc. do exist but are used much less. Can't say for the future. They may become more popular.

Similarly, for <bye> we normally say <khudaa haafiz خُدا حافِظ>....and for expressing the wish to take leave you already know that.

PS: Urdu is the national language of Pakistan but it started in what is present-day India. KhaRii bolii  كھڑی بولی, the dialect that was spoken around Delhi, is the common ancestral language of the everyday Urdu and Hindi - the street language. As Bak says, Urdu on either side of the border is pretty much the same. I'm sure of this as I'm from both sides!!


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## meray_paas

Hi stranger96,

I think you may have misinterpreted my reply. I was simply showing the OP examples of spelling variations which are common and can be confusing for new comers. For example, when I chat with friends, it is very common for me to use:

1) _Tum kaha thi_
2) _Maine kaha ki....._

In 1) its obvious that it should have been _kahan_, but folks usually omit the nasalization and just use _kaha_. I was trying to show statimis that with time he would see that _kaha_ (said) would not be correct for 1) because it should have been _kahan._


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## afzallarka

it was good to find this explanation about that. 
acha


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