# Hindi-Urdu: Knife



## savera

What's the first word that comes to mind if you were to translate "knife"?


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## desi4life

Either *chaaquu *or *chhurii. *I associate chaaquu more with a pocket knife, and chhurii more with a kitchen knife. A chaaquu is more likely to be used as a weapon too.


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## littlepond

Chaakuu.


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## littlepond

desi4life said:


> Either *chaaquu *or *chhurii. *



Do you actually pronounce this as "chaa*q*uu", desi jii?


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## desi4life

littlepond said:


> Do you actually pronounce this as "chaa*q*uu", desi jii?



Yes, I try to maintain the *q *sound.


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## Sheikh_14

kitchen knife- chhurii. Deadly knife- chaaquu. I have never heard anyone call a kitchen utensil knife, a chaaquu.


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## littlepond

Sheikh_14 said:


> I have never heard anyone call a kitchen utensil knife, a chaaquu.



Well, you are wrong then! "chaakuu" is used in almost all homes in the kitchen: "chhurii" is a much less used word, in fact. And "chhurii" does actually have a lot of deadly connotations (in fact, it immediately conveys more fear than just a generic "chaakuu"): in expressions like "gardan pe/kaleje pe chhurii chalaanaa", I am sure no kitchen work is involved. Here are a couple of Dainik Bhaskar headlines, where no kitchen work was involved:

1 and 2.

In the first one, the police arrested a "badmaash" wandering around with a "chhurii", and in the second one, one youth did suicide by cutting his throat with a "chhurii".


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## Englishmypassion

"Chaakuu" is the more common term for the kitchen knife as well as the weapon. Both chaakuu maarna/bhonkna and chhura maarna/bhonkna are used in the sense of stabbing but, as I said, chaakuu is more common.

And for the kitchen knife, you will usually use "chhurii", not "chhuraa", if you don't use
 "chaakuu". "Chhuraa" sounds like a weapon, so "chhurii" the softer, feminine is used, though I'm sure a chhurii/female is no less dangerous and should be _handled_ equally _carefully_.


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## Sheikh_14

In Urdu you would never ask a waiter for a chaquu, he would stare vacuously at you! Instead aap churii mangeiN gay. I hope other Urdu speakers join in to confirm or deny this premise. Chaquu to us means a weapon. We use chaquu for stabbing related incidents and not the other way round. However, churii is used for either. Aap ke paas steak churii Hai is perfectly fine, steak chaaquu to Urdu speakers' would be to ask for a murder weapon. Churii-chaaquu as a set term together though, can be used.


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## marrish

^ I agree.

chaaquu is the first one I thought about on seeing this thread; chhurii was the second one. chhurii is used in the kitchen here, some might use the word chaaquu and it's alright too. The difference as described above is there, no doubt, but not as a rule of thumb, not always. chaaquu is not always a murder weapon.

chaaquu/chaakuu is used in kitchens where Hindi is spoken, as per Hindi related contributions.


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## Sheikh_14

Wonderful, Marrish saaHib and thank you for corroborating my premise. In an Urdu speaking household like yours' which term would you use in daily speech both for a murder weapon and a steak knife? Btw is plunging/driving a knife bhoNknaa or ghompnaa? Us ne churii ghompii yaa bhoNkii? A butcher's knife on the other hand would be kasaa'ii/kasaab ki/kaa churii/churaa. You could also just say kasaabii churaa.


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## mundiya

I agree with Sheikh jii too about using chhurii in kitchen and restaurant contexts. Nor would I ever refer to a simple butter knife as a chaaquu/chaakuu. It's a type of chhurii.

Hardev Bahri's dictionary agrees too [cf. छुरी (chhurii) which is table-knife].


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## littlepond

Well, a butter knife is indeed more "chhurii" rather than "chaakuu", mundiya jii, but butter knife is not the only knife used in a kitchen! Sheikh jii was mistakenly creating a wall between a knife for stabbing people and a knife for cutting vegetables, and so far all concerned, including the Urdu speaker marrish jii, have confirmed that there is no such sharp division.

By the way, a "chhurii", by figurative use, is also meant for a very sharp-witted (and -tongued) girl: "kyaa tez chhurii hai!" Which reminds me of the close connection between "kaiNchii" (scissors) and "chhurii"; there is also the saying "us kii zabaan/zubaan kaiNchii kii tarah chaltii hai").


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## littlepond

Sheikh_14 said:


> Wonderful, Marrish saaHib and thank you for corroborating my premise.



I don't think marrish jii has corroborated your premise: as far as I understand, he confirmed that chaaquu is also used for a knife in the kitchen.


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## Rani_Author

Based on my knowledge, "an usual knife" is translated "chaakuu" in hindi, but "chhurii" in urdu.

Basically, "chhurii" in hindi is used to "a pocket knife". Like in the scene of "Yeh jawaani hai dewaani" movie. The Lara's character was played by Evelyn Sharma asked a knife in the train to cut an apple. Then, Bunny's character was played by Ranbir Kapoor said "chhurii" in that time to explain the pocket knife. It's very logical that "chhurii" could be used as a weapon, too, "in Hindi".


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## mundiya

Rani_Author said:


> Based on my knowledge, "an usual knife" is translated "chaakuu" in hindi, but "chhurii" in urdu.



No, both words are used for a "usual knife" in both languages.



> Basically, "chhurii" in hindi is used to "a pocket knife".



chaaquu/chaakuu is also used for a pocket knife.


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## Rani_Author

mundiya said:


> No, both words are used for a "usual knife" in both languages.
> 
> 
> 
> chaaquu/chaakuu is also used for a pocket knife.




Hmmm... I don't know how is the way to explain it well. I meant, a "knife" in the general term. At least, if we wanna find the translation of the "knife" from my mother tongue or English, some offline and online dictionaries would give the same translation as the first word. "Chaakuu" in Hindi and "chhurii" in Urdu. The other choice of words would appear after those. Based on my knowledge, the first translation of each word in any dictionaries is the very common word. I meant, the word is used frequently and generally which it doesn't have the specific use.


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## mundiya

Rani_Author said:


> Hmmm... I don't know how is the way to explain it well. I meant, a "knife" in the general term. At least, if we wanna find the translation of the "knife" from my mother tongue or English, some offline and online dictionaries would give the same translation as the first word. "Chaakuu" in Hindi and "chhurii" in Urdu. The other choice of words would appear after those. Based on my knowledge, the first translation of each word in any dictionaries is the very common word. I meant, the word is used frequently and generally which it doesn't have the specific use.



No, unless otherwise indicated, it's not correct to make a conclusion based on the order of words given in a dictionary. I'm looking at two English-Hindi print dictionaries right now. One lists "chaakuu" first, the other lists "chhurii" first. Word order can vary in dictionaries. You will often be wrong if you conclude the first word is the most frequent. We've also mentioned in this thread that "chaakuu/chaaquu" and "chhurii" are not exact synonyms. In some contexts, one word is more appropriate than another.


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