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3.5: Grammar- Adjectives

  • Page ID
    187505
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    Instructor Video: Adjectives in Urdu

    Adjectives qualify nouns and pronouns. In Urdu, adjectives can be classified in two categories: (a) Marked and (b) Unmarked.

    (a) Marked Adjectives end in . A marked adjective changes its form according to the number and gender of the noun that it qualifies.

    آ : -آ ending adjective is for masculine singular.

    آ :-ے changes in for plural nouns, and masculine honorific.

    آ : -ی changes in for feminine noun.

    Examples:

    “good boy” (m.) اچھا لڑکا “good girl” (f.) اچھی لڑکی “good children” (plu.) اچھے بچچے

    “big house” (m.) بڑا گھر “big wall” (f.) بڑی دیواد “big houses” (plu.) بڑے گھر

    “tall man” (m.) لمبا آدمی “tall woman” (f.) لمبی عورت “tall people” (plu.) لمبے لوگ

    Exception: There are a few adjectives like بڑھیا “good,” زندہ “alive,” and مادہ “female,” etc., that end in آ- but do not change their forms according to number and gender of the nouns that these adjectives qualify. Most of these adjectives are Persian-Arabic loan words.

    (b) Unmarked Adjectives are adjectives that do not end in آ- . Unmarked adjective does not change its form according to number and gender of the noun that it qualifies.

    Examples:

    “smart boy” (m.) تیز لڑکا “smart girl” (f.) تیز لڑکی “smart children” (plu.) تیز بچچے

    “strong house” (m.) مضبوط گھر “strong wall” (f.) مضبوط دیوار “strong houses” (plu.) مضبوط گھر

    “rich man” (m.) امیر آدمی “rich woman” (f.) امیر عورت “rich people” (plu.) امیر لوگ

    Word order for adjectives: Adjectives can be used predicatively (following) and attributively (preceding).

    For examples:

    Predicatively

    Attributively

    -یہ کتاب اچھی ہے

    This book is good.

    -یہ ایک اچھی کتاب ہے

    This is a good book.

    -وہ لوگ امیر ہیں

    Those people are rich.

    -وہ امیر لوگ ہیں

    They are rich people.

    -یہ لڑکا ہوشیار ہے

    This boy is intelligent.

    -وہ ایک ہوشیار لڑکا ہے

    He is an intelligent boy.

    Use of سا With Adjectives

    In Urdu, سا – is used with adjectives to add extra meaning.

    (a) Adjective + سا : It adds “looking, seeming”.

    For example:

    • “fat looking man” موٹا سا آدمی
    • “seemingly good tea” اچھی سی چائے
    • “seemingly crazy children” پاگل سے بچچے

    (b) Quantitative Adjective + سا :

    • “a great deal”بہت سا
    • “just a little” تھوڑا سا

    Activities

    رنگوں کے نام “Names of Colors”

    Please read the following adjectives and decide whether the adjective is marked or unmarked adjective.

    Marked/Unmarked English Urdu
     

    Black

    کالا
     

    Blue

    نیلا

     

    Brown

    بھورا

     

    Gray

    بھورا

     

    Green

    ہرا

     

    Orange

    نارنجی

     

    Purple

    بائینی

     

    Red

    لال

     

    White

    سفید

     

    Yellow

    پیلا

    Adjectives of Quality

    Please read the following adjectives and decide whether the adjective is marked or unmarked adjective. Please also make a sentence with each adjective.

    Chapter 3.5 Adjectives of Quality

    Activities

    An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
    https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/urdu/?p=65#h5p-30

    Please choose the correct form of the adjective for the following nouns.

    An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
    https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/urdu/?p=65#h5p-31

    !شکریہ


    This page titled 3.5: Grammar- Adjectives is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rajiv Ranjan (Michigan State University Libraries) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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