Urdu, an Indo-European language, is an official language in Pakistan, India and Fiji and has between 60 and 80 million native speakers. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have the largest numbers of native speakers and The UK ranks 5th in the world, with around 400,000 people. Urdu is also spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Botswana, Germany, Guyana, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, the UAE and Zambia.
Hello: Asalamualaikum
How are you? Ap kase hai (ka-say hey!)
I’m fine, thanks: Mei theek hu shukriya (may teak who)
What is your name? Apka naam kya hai (Kia hey!)
My name is..: Mera naam…
Nice to meet you: Apse mel kar khushi hui
Welcome to… Khush amdeed
Goodbye: Hada fees
The words in brackets give more of an idea for an English speaker of how these Urdu words should be pronounced, for example (hey!) is a representation of our greeting “Hey!”.
