VĀO

و

Urdu Letter	Letter Name	Sound	Hindi Equivalent	Teacher
و	VAO	Nasal English “V”	व	Teacher Icon

	Final	Medial	Initial	Detached
Basic Forms	و	Use Final	Use Detached	و
In Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in
Write in Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in

Sounds

 

Sound	Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
the consonant “v”	vāris	مختلف	व
the long vowel “o” as in “chore”	chor	چور	औ
the long vowel “aw” as in “awful”	daur	چکر	ओ
the long vowel “ū” as in “moon”	angūr	fill-in	fill-in

Notes	Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
At the beginning of a word VĀO always sounds like consonant “v”.	vardī	یکساں	वर्दी
	vatan	ملک	वतन

 

Sound	Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
When VĀO comes in the middle or end of a word, it may represent any of the three long vowel sounds or the consonant “v”. Diacritic marks may be used to indicate which sound VĀO represents, but they are usually omitted. The special sign over VĀO indicating the long vowel “ū” is called “ulta pesh”: (fill-in): it is not used in any other context.	lo	لو	लो
	law	لو	fill-in
	loo	لو	लू
	love	محبت	लव
The zabair-zair-pesh signs (fill-in) can be used with VĀO to specify that it is to be read as the consonant “v”. However these marks are usually ommitted.	anvar	انور	अनवर
	dilāvar	دلاور	दिलावर
Any word starting with a vowel sound must begin with silent ALIF. So far words beginning with “o”, “aw”, or “ū”, VĀO must be preceded by ALIF:	os	اور	ओर
	awr	اور	और
	oopar	اوپر	ऊपर

Two vowels cannot occur together without an intervening Hamza. So if you ever see two vowel letters in a row, one of them must be functioning as a consonant. Examples:

Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
sovay	بونا	सोवे
jāved	جاوید	जावेद
rāvi	راوی	रावी

Special Cases with VĀO

1. In some words borrowed from Persian, VĀO is silent:
   

   Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
   khāb	خواب	ख्वाब
   khāhish	خواہش	ख़ाहिश

   Note that VĀO is transliterated into व in the Hindi spelling, but it should not be pronounced.

2. In some rare cases, Urdu uses VĀO where Hindi used a short “u” (उ):
   

   Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
   khush	خوش	खुश
   khud	خود	खुद
   dukān	دکان	दुकान
   Madhubālā	مدھوبالا	मधुबाला
   Hanumān	ہنومان	हनुमान

   While some Hindi and Sanskrit words end with a short”u” (उ), Urdu words cannot end with a short vowel. When transliterating such words from Hindi to Urdu, use a VĀO at the end.

Connections

VĀO can connect from both sides: Thus it has four forms: detached, initial, medial, and final.

VĀO is a breaker: no letter can be connected after it. Thus VĀO has only two forms: a detached and a final form:

When VĀO appears at the beginning of a word, it will be in its detached form.	vatan	ملک
When VĀO appears after another breaker, it will be in its detached form.	do	دو
When VĀO appears after a non-breaker, it will be in its final form.	sonā	سونا