How Urdu Letters Join: Start, Middle and End Shapes
حروف جوڑناIn Urdu, letters inside a word join together, and many letters get shorter when they join. A letter can look different at the start, middle or end of a word. Once you see the pattern, reading becomes much easier.
One letter, different shapes
Find the letter in each word. Notice how it gets shorter when it joins, and only shows its full tail at the end.
| Letter | At the start | In the middle | At the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| ب | بات | کبوتر | کتاب |
| ج | جب | عجیب | حج |
| س | سب | بستہ | بس |
| ک | کب | مکان | نمک |
Words: baat (talk), kabootar (pigeon), kitaab (book) · jab (when), ajeeb (strange), hajj · sab (all), basta (school bag), bas (enough) · kab (when?), makaan (house), namak (salt).
Letters that never join forward
These nine letters join to the letter before them, but never to the letter after: ا د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ و. After one of them, the next letter starts a new group, so you see small gaps inside a word.
Build words letter by letter
| Letters | Joined | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ک ت ا ب | کتاب | kitaab · book |
| ق ل م | قلم | qalam · pen |
| ب ل ی | بلی | billi · cat |
| س ی ب | سیب | seb · apple |
| م ی ز | میز | mez · table |
| د ر و ا ز ہ | دروازہ | darwaaza · door |
Look at دروازہ: every letter except the last is a non-joiner, so the word is made of separate pieces.
Tips
- When you see a gap inside a word, the letter just before it is usually ا د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ or و.
- Use the Urdu keyboard on this site: type letters one by one and watch them join automatically.
- Most letters keep their dots when they join. Follow the dots to find each letter.
Practice
Choose the right answer. You will see the correct one straight away.