Urdu

Notes on Urdu

Urdu is mutually intelligible with Hindi, sharing vocabulary and with very similar phonology and syntax. The biggest difference between them is that Urdu uses a Persio-Arabic script, while Hindi uses an abugida script.

As I have written in General tips for learning languages, it’s okay to put the script aside if you want to focus on conversation. There are resources available that use English romanisation.

Books

There’s a book specifically teaching you how to read and write Urdu script:

For beginners, you can start with these two books:

and supplement your learning with this essential grammar, dictionary, and graded reader:

and other books!