← Back

Nouns & Gender

Masculine and feminine nouns, plural formation
جمع مذکر: لڑکا←لڑکے
Masculine plural: boy→boys
larkā → larke
Masculine nouns ending in ā change to e in plural
جمع مؤنث: لڑکی←لڑکیاں
Feminine plural: girl→girls
laṛkī → laṛkiyāṃ
Feminine nouns ending in ī add yāṃ for plural
غیر قاعدی جمع: آدمی←آدمی
Irregular plural: man→men
ādmī → ādmī
Some nouns don't change in plural — context clarifies
عربی جمع: کتاب←کتب
Arabic broken plural
kitāb → kutub
Arabic loanwords sometimes use Arabic plural patterns
مضاف و مضاف الیہ
Possessive construction (izafat)
muẓāf va muẓāf ilayh
Persian-style izafat: noun + e + noun (used in formal Urdu)
مرد کا گھر / مرد کے گھر میں
Man's house / In the man's house
mard kā ghar / mard ke ghar meṃ
Possessive کا changes to کے before postpositions (oblique)
ذوی الارواح / غیر ذوی الارواح
Animate vs inanimate nouns
zawī-ul-arvāḥ / ghair
Animate nouns more likely to take کو as object marker
اسم معرفہ vs اسم نکرہ
Definite vs indefinite
ism-e-ma'rifa vs ism-e-nakira
Urdu has no articles — definiteness shown by context or ایک
اسم ضمیر: اس کا اس کی اس کے
Pronoun: his/her (agreement)
us kā / us kī / us ke
Third person possessive agrees with possessed noun's gender
جنس کے قواعد
Gender rules summary
jins ke qavā'id
No definitive rule — gender must be learned with each noun