Script guide › Arabic Script
Arabic vs Pashto
Arabic and Pashto sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Arabic Script group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Pashto adds ring-and-dot letters like ټ, ښ, ږ, څ that never appear in Arabic.
Side by side
Arabic
يولد جميع الناس أحراراً متساوين في الكرامة.
مرحبا بك في العالم العربي.
الشمس تشرق من الشرق.
Arabic's own tells
- The article ال (alif-lam) starts words constantly.
- Never has پ, چ, گ or ژ — those extra letters mean Persian, Urdu or Kurdish.
On signs in:
- Saudi Arabia
- Egypt
- Iraq
- Morocco
- United Arab Emirates
- Algeria
- Syria
- Jordan
- Yemen
- Libya
- Sudan
- Oman
- Qatar
- Kuwait
- Tunisia
- Lebanon
- Mauritania
- Bahrain
- Djibouti
- Comoros
- Somalia
- Chad
- West Bank
Pashto
ټول انسانان آزاد او په حقوقو کې سره برابر زېږیدلي دي.
سلام، څنګه یې؟
د پښتو ژبه ډېره ښکلې ده.
Pashto's own tells
- Letters with little rings and below-dots: ټ ډ ړ ښ ږ څ — circles attached to letters mean Pashto.
On signs in:
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan