# Urdu: friendly



## Alfaaz

Inspired by this thread: Urdu: Use of Persian suffix-aanah

*Background:* While reading the other thread and trying to translate into Urdu, appropriate words did not come to mind. It seems as if there was a loss of words to express a simple sentence as the one below. (This could be due to a lack of knowledge or attention!) It seems Online Urdu-English dictionaries didn't have many entries either, except things like دوستانہ ، دوستانہ طریقے سے ، وغیرہ وغیرہ

S/he is friendly. 

_Suggestions from Platts, GT for Arabic and Persian:_ تعاونی، مهربان، ودود، حميم، لطيف، اخلاصمند، الفتی، خیر خواہ، مانوس، مخلصانہ، محبّت آمیز، ملنسار، یارانہ، یاور

_Attempts at translating:_ compromising, beneficent/friend, friendly, given by GT as friend but Urdu definition is boiling hot water, pleasant/courteous, genuine/sincere/friendly, loving/affectionate, well-wisher, familiar, sincere, full of love, sociable, friendship/friendly, friend
*
Questions: *(sorry for so many that seem to go all over the place, but were related to friendly...)

Leaving the dostaanah argument (whether it can be used to describe a person or not) aside for the other thread, what are other words that can be used to mean "friendly" in Urdu*? Which ones from the above list would forum members use and consider to mean friendly? 

Considering the definitions that Platts provides, from the words listed above...only ودود، یاور، اخلاصمند seems to be equivalent to "friendly"...?
Is there a word such as دوستیلا / دوستیلی ? 

on the pattern of شرم ---> شرمیلا / شرمیلی
رفیق، رفیقی، رفیقانہ، رفیقہ 

Are rafeeqi, rafeeqanah actual words? Could rafeeqah be used to mean friendly.....and would it only be applicable to females?
*Here I would like actual words/synonyms equivalent to the English word (as was asked in the contribution thread) and not ways to phrase the idea depending on context (which seemed to be the reply in the contribution thread-that there is no generic word, and word choice would depend on context) for example وہ ہر کسی سے دوستانہ روابط رکھتا / رکھتی ہے.


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## marrish

Even after having had the pleasure to read an opening post of a good length, and even more after having acquainted myself with the footnote, the answer I am able to offer at the moment, to the question as it is illustrated:

"She is friendly."

is that there are many answers, but all depends on the context. 
It would be nice if you could define what is meant to be expressed by your illustrative sentence.

In the meanwhile, I find most of the suggestions are very good, except for rafiiqaanah and muxlisaanah, because they don't apply on individuals.

The best one from the above is 'milansaar' - you can stay with it if your objective is to create a single word pair. In fact, it is a very good word!

Other ways to say it of course exist, but it is not clear whether they are called for.


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## Alfaaz

marrish said:
			
		

> having had the pleasure to read a opening post of a good length


Excuse the long length



			
				marrish said:
			
		

> The best one from the above is 'milansaar' - you can stay with it if your objective is to create a single word pair. In fact, it is a very good word!


It might be that my perspective about the word is wrong, but couldn't a person be milan-saar..yet not be friendly: 

_A: Hello, kaisi ho tum? Nazar hi naheeN aati! 
B: Theek. aur tum sunaa'o? 
A: Are mein bhi Theek hooN. yeh dress tumne kahaaN se liya? 
B: main ne khud design kiya thaa! 
A: uff kyaa hogaya hai tumheiN aur tumhaare zauq ko? aisi fabric to maiN Sweety ko bhi na pehnaaoN! 
B: Sweety kaun? 
A: My doggy! mera matlab hai keh meri paaltu kutiyaa...tum low-class logoN ko English kahaaN samjh aati hogi  
B: hmmm....
A: Achha, phir maiN chalti hooN! tum to ziyaadah baat hi naheeN karti! maiN to har are gare se bhi mil leti hooN aur sub isi liye kehte haiN keh main bahut milan-saar hooN!
B: milan-saar to aap hoNgi muHtarmah, but you certainly aren't friendly!
A: _


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## greatbear

"milansaar" is someone sociable, not necessarily friendly. Since the purists here have struck out "dostaanaa(h)" from the equation, I wonder what a an appropriate word for "friendly" in "she is friendly" would be in Urdu. Which word is used in day-to-day life for "friendly"?


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## Alfaaz

greatbear said:
			
		

> Since the purists here have struck out "dostaanaa(h)" from the equation


I'd say here that it's not just the "purists" or "dictionary-lovers" who would strike dostaanah out of the equation...doubt that even an Urdu speaker who is illiterate would say something like "woh dostaanah laRka/laRkii hai".  Instead something like: 

woh har kisi se dostaanah rawaabit / ta'aluqaat / rawayyah rakhta/rakhti hai 
woh sub se achhi tarH milta/pesh aata hai
woh khush-akhlaaq hai
woh tamaam logoN se dosti karne ki koshish karti hai 

Of course, all of the above could be translated into English using words other than "friendly", which takes us back to the OP question...


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## marrish

Alfaaz SaaHib, there was no need for excuses, it is a pleasure to read longer write-ups!
I begin to realize what you mean with the sample sentence, but please, don't consider it obstinate if I ask you to kindly define your adjective so that there is clarity regarding its meaning/context not only for me but for everyone's benefit.


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## Alfaaz

> kindly define your adjective so that there is clarity regarding its meaning/context not only for me but for everyone's benefit.


I guess that is a bit difficult, as everyone would have their own "meaning"...but here is a bit from Wiki:



> *Friendly* means acting in a non-threatening manner toward and/or showing kindness to someone, as a friend would behave. Thus friendly implies a mode of friendship as distinct from amiable or genial. Professional service is expected to be amiable or genial but not necessarily friendly. The opposite is *unfriendly* or even hostile.


So I would say a person that isn't rude, hostile, antagonistic, and disrespectful. A person who is polite, enjoys the company of others and talking/interacting with others, who is supportive when you're down, etc.


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## marrish

^ *آشنا پرست aashnaa-parast* is a good unisex adjective, otherwise you might go for _دوست نواز dost-navaaz_. There are still many more ways to say it!


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## marrish

Alfaaz said:


> I guess that is a bit difficult, as everyone would have their own "meaning"...but here is a bit from Wiki:
> 
> So I would say a person that isn't rude, hostile, antagonistic, and disrespectful. A person who is polite, enjoys the company of others and talking/interacting with others, who is supportive when you're down, etc.


In this sense I'd use always _mihrbaan (maihrbaan) مہربان, _like _vuh mihrbaan laRkii hai._


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## Qureshpor

As you might have gathered from the "-aanah" thread, I have had had difficulty with finding an equivalent Urdu word for the English "friendly" as used in a sentence of the type below, based on the word "dost"

S/he is (very) friendly.

"dostaanah" can mean "friendly" as in your sentence.

vuh har kisii se dostaanah ravaabit rakhtaa/rakhtii hai

S/he has friendly relationships with all and sundry.

The best word, IMHO, for "friendly" and NOT based on "dost" is "milan-saar"

S/he is (very) friendly.

vuh (bahut) milan-saar hai.

We can not say..

vuh (bahut) dostaanah hai.

The reason for this difficulty, it appears, is that "dost" is conceived to be animate only and when the word "friendly" is to be employed, it is just reserved for inanimate things and concepts...ravaabit, ta3alluqaat and the like. I think the same happens to the Hindi "mitr". 

On the other hand "milansaar" is acceptable because (I think) the concept of "milan" is inanimate and only with it combining with the "saar" suffix does it acquire, in the totality, an animate sense.

No, rafiiqii and rafiiqah would not impart the meaning encompassed in the word "friendly". The former would mean "my friend" and the latter "a female friend".


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## Alfaaz

Thanks for the detailed answer Qureshpor SaaHib. 


> The best word, IMHO, for "friendly" and NOT based on "dost" is "milan-saar"


Agree, generally the word is considered to mean "friendly" but as mentioned above-it means "sociable" and doesn't necessarily encompass the full meaning of "friendly"


			
				Alfaaz said:
			
		

> but couldn't a person be milan-saar..yet not be friendly:


Any thoughts on the quote below? 


			
				Alfaaz said:
			
		

> Is there a word such as دوستیلا / دوستیلی ?
> 
> 
> on the pattern of شرم ---> شرمیلا / شرمیلی


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## Qureshpor

I would say that if a person is sociable, he/she would also most likely be friendly too. Of course, one could pretend to be sociable and have hidden not so friendly grudges!

Well, I have n't come across "dost-iilaa" etc. sharm is a concept, dost is a person and that is the thing blocking its formation.


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## greatbear

QURESHPOR said:


> I would say that if a person is sociable, he/she would also most likely be friendly too.



Probably, but a person who is not sociable at all can also be friendly to someone. 'Sociable' and 'friendly' are not at all synonyms!


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## marrish

"sociable" and "friendly" may be no synonyms but "milansaar" doesn't
necessarily and exclusively mean "sociable".


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## greatbear

marrish said:


> "sociable" and "friendly" may be no synonyms but "milansaar" doesn't
> necessarily and exclusively mean "sociable".



Unfortunately, the thread is to discuss "friendly", not "sociable": so I don't wish to go off topic by answering you. If "milansaar" means "friendly", then it only means as one of the meanings of "sociable" (refer to Webster's for all the meanings of "sociable"). A person could be milansaar and non-friendly; a person can very well be non-milansaar and friendly. So I don't see what your above post contributes in this thread dedicated to the word 'friendly'.


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## marrish

greatbear said:


> Unfortunately, the thread is to discuss "friendly", not "sociable": so I don't wish to go off topic by answering you. If "milansaar" means "friendly", then it only means as one of the meanings of "sociable" (refer to Webster's for all the meanings of "sociable"). A person could be milansaar and non-friendly; a person can very well be non-milansaar and friendly. So I don't see what your above post contributes in this thread dedicated to the word 'friendly'.


I stated the word 'milansaar' to mean 'friendly'. Friendly is not synonymous to sociable.


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## Qureshpor

Another word that might be worth considering for "friendly" is "dost-navaaz".


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## Sheikh_14

Just to be the devil's advocate here the argument being made that aanah is only to be used with inanimate objects can be quashed by the fact that peshawaraana I.e. professional isn't used purely for inanimate objects but also for animate people. Do correct me if I'm wrong. Same goes for the likes of mardaana or zanaana. Thence we needn't be so rigid with its usage. Coming back to dostaanaa how about when referring to animals I.e. x is the friendliest dog breed? Could we say x dostaana-tareen kutta-nasl hai or we would be better off saying x maanoos-tareen kuttaa-nasl i.e. kutte kii nasl (if you're a stickler) hai. Personally I have a penchant for compound terms for the sake of ease and variety as opposed to articles/izafats on all occasions, where I can get away with it. This appears to be one of those occasions.


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## Alfaaz

Sheikh_14 said:
			
		

> the argument being made that aanah is only to be used with inanimate objects can be quashed by the fact that peshawaraana I.e. professional isn't used purely for inanimate objects but also for animate people. Do correct me if I'm wrong.


That assertion/suggestion is not correct.

پیشہ ور افراد 
پیشہ ورانہ صلاحیت، مصروفیات، وغیرہ


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