The mistaken interchangeability of the ‘z’ - ‘j’ sounds in Urdu is perhaps the most common one amongst speakers. When ‘sabzi’ becomes ‘sabji’ or when ‘mujrim’ becomes ‘muzrim’, Urdu speakers cannot help slightly cringing at the brutal replacement of ...continue reading

We are almost reaching the end of chilly winters and the wait for spring has filled many hearts with excitement already. Colourful flowers, soothing winds and the hustle-bustle of spring bring about a wave of warmth and joy. And for this very essence ...continue reading

Travel stories are one of the most loved genres amongst people. From young children to grown-ups, everyone enjoys long tales of both real and fictional travels. But, have you ever heard stories about the journey of a word ...continue reading

The world of how are you and how are things in Urdu is an entire category of conversation, with a dedicated vocabulary. This category is known as Mizaaj-Pursi which refers to enquiring about one’s wellbeing, and its response ...continue reading

If you’re here early, you know it’s the season of festivities, celebrating different Indian Demi-Gods and -Goddesses. If celebration is something to be taken as a precursor of things to come, you’d sure have caught the whiff that Jashn-e-Rekhta is ...continue reading

Grammar can be aesthetically pleasing. On that bold claim, I begin to take to one of Urdu grammar’s most charming facets, the Izafat. From ‘Tah-e-Dil se Shukriya’ to ‘Chashm-e-Bad-Door’, we come across the Izafat several times in our Roz-Marra. But ...continue reading

Words morph, pronunciations whirl, expressions change, and meanings shift, but rarely do we come across utterances that have been so drastically revamped that modern-day speakers need a reintroduction to what they originally sounded like ...continue reading

Ifs and buts create the gray areas in our speech that shine brighter than all other colors produced by all of language. Grammatically a conjunction, or Harf-e-Atf as it’s called in Urdu, this one set of words is just an inevitable part of our vocab. ...continue reading

A word is often meshed with so many warps and wefts (Taana-Baana) that we barely ever realize how nuanced the fabric of language is. But once we do, it seems like nothing short of a fit! On the back of this allegorical intro, let’s return to our tra ...continue reading

A great many words in our everyday rhetoric are mispronounced, and no better testament to that exists besides the ‘J’-for-‘Z’ confusion. Take Zamaana spoken as Jamaana, Zor as Jor, Marzi as Marji, and so on ...continue reading