Script guide › Arabic Script
Pashto vs Urdu
Pashto and Urdu 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's extra letters wear rings and below-hooks (ټ ډ ښ څ); Urdu's tell is the wide ے and its diagonal, hanging flow.
Side by side
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
Urdu
تمام انسان آزاد پیدا ہوتے ہیں اور عزت میں برابر ہیں۔
آپ کیسے ہیں؟ سب ٹھیک ہے؟
پاکستان ایک خوبصورت ملک ہے۔
Urdu's own tells
- Written in hanging nastaliq style — lines slope diagonally down to the left.
- The wide ے at word ends is Urdu-only; so are ٹ ڈ ڑ (a tiny ط on top).
On signs in:
- Pakistan
- India