Short Vowels

Before beginning to memorize the letters with the tutorial, you will need to know how vowels are handled in Urdu. Urdu distinguishes between short and long vowels.

The three short vowels are not represented by letter symbols. There are three small diacritic marks (called “Ahrāb”) that may be used to indicate which short vowel is desired, but these are generally omitted. The reader must infer them from his/her knowledge of the spoken language.

The three short vowels are:

“a” as in “about”
“i” as in “ink”
“u” as in “put”

For more information about short vowels, go to the Ahrāb section.

Long Vowels

The long vowels are represented by certain letter symbols, as shown below. Read the information on the letters ALIF, VAO, CHHOTI YAY, and BADI YAY.

Vowels in Urdu can also be nasalized: refer to the notes on the letter NOON.

ALIF (ی) represents the long “ā” sound as in “father”. ALIF may also function as a dummy consonant at the beginning of words.
VAO (ی) can represent three vowel sounds: “o” as in “open”, “aw” as in “awesome”, and long “oo” as in “oops”. VAO may also represent the consonant “v” sound.
CHHOTI YAY (ی) represents the long “ee” sound as in “green”. CHHOTI YAY may also represent the consonant “y” sound.
BADI YAY (ی) can represent two vowel sounds: “a” as in “ache” or “a” as in “after”. For more information about vowels, refer to “More About Vowels and Ahrāb”.

b
CHHOTI YAY and BADI YAY are actually considered variations of the same letter and look the same in their initial and medial forms.