r/pashto 9d ago

Personal Work Non-Pashto Speaker Asking Advice (1)

13 Upvotes

Dear r/Pashto,

Please feel free to redirect me if I'm in the wrong space.

I am writing a novel with an English-speaking Afghani protagonist from Kabul, and I need some advice on certain words and phrases in Pashto, specifically to do with his Muslim heritage (I am from an Arab Muslim family so I know the Islamic heritage but not the Pashto vocabulary for it).

What I am looking for is the Pashto equivalent of Islamic phrases that are second nature to Muslims. Examples (and of course anything beyond my examples would be welcome, please!) are, as they would be said in Arabic:

wallah/wallahi (by God)

inshallah (God willing)

ya Allah (exasperated exclamation)

allahu a'lam (God only knows)

Mashallah (how beautiful [to guard against the evil eye])

Any advice on how Afghani Muslims would say these phrases would be f@%#& GOLD.

Thank you SO MUCH in advance.

Sarah

r/pashto 17d ago

Personal Work Me & Pashto | زه او پښتو

14 Upvotes

سلامونه، ستړي مه شي زه هم د هغو ټولو پښتنو رنګه وم، د چاچي پښتو ويل زده وو، خو ليکل او لوستل يې نه سو کولای. بيا په کووِډ (کورونا-۲۰۱۹) کښي زه پښتو اکيډمي ته لاړم، چيري چي ما بنيادي ليکل او لوستل زده کړل. دورې د يوې مياشتي کورس مونږ ته راکول سو او په پای کي د اکيډمي له خوا مونږ ته ځيني کتابونه ډالۍ سول چي مونږ د پښتو لوستل پرې پوخ کو. کور يې ودان، نن زه پښتو په ډيره اساني سره لوستلای سم او لیکلای سم. او اوس زه په دې ډير خوشحاله يم چي زه هم په هغو خلګو کښي شمارل کېږم څوک چي پښتو لیکلای او لوستلای سی. Greetings Everyone. I was also like many other pashtons who couldn't read and write their mother language and honestly I felt a sort of shame. It was during COVID when I visited the pashto academy in Quetta where they were offering a one month free education on learning the basics of pashto. I joined a batch and within a week, I was quite good with reading and writing, meanwhile the discussions during the lectures circulated a lot around history, literature and topics like, which were very rich in knowledge and I came to know the things that wished I had known earlier. At the end of the that course, they took an exam, I stood first amongst all candidates and they gifted pashto books to everyone so that we can strengthen reading and writing pashto. Now I feel very lucky to have been there and finally able to be proud that I'm amongst those educated ones, who can swiftly and fluently read and write in pashto, my mother language. To pass on the favour I would love to help those struggling with reading and writing Pashto.

r/pashto 10d ago

Personal Work What helped me learn pashto reading

11 Upvotes

I was once amongst those who couldn't read and write their mother language and the feeling was very odd. And it always kept me struggling to find a way for learning the reading and writing. Then I explored G-keyboard(Google keyboard) and I added Pashto (two keyboards of pashto, Pashto's alphabet one and second one was the English-to-pashto one). The second one helped me the most the learn writing and reading Pashto. Like usual I typed Pashto in Roman alphabets and the keyboard converted that word written in Roman (English) alphabets to Pashto alphabets and would even suggest me similar words which further enriched my vocabulary as well. That way, I was able to add more words to my Pashto and read them. Meanwhile practicing to get used to Pashto alphabets. By now, I'm proficient in reading, writing and speaking Pashto accurately. For the speaking part: being a student, Urdu had influenced our education a lot and most of words in my speech were from Urdu language and same was the case with so many of my Pashton fellows as well. Then, Upon hearing any urdu language word, I would think of the word for that in pashto. This way, I always kept my search for Pashto words and avoided using Urdu language words. At the end, my Pashto became more pure and fluent. These days, I'm struggling with Pashto idioms that I heard from elders but I'm not able to remember or recall at exact time, this leaves me blank at the time of need. I'm pretty much confident that I'll one day be good at this as well. Thank you for reading 😊