Script guide › Arabic Script
How to recognize Pashto
Pashto is one of 5 languages in Grafle's Arabic Script group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- Letters with little rings and below-dots: ټ ډ ړ ښ ږ څ — circles attached to letters mean Pashto.
What Pashto looks like
ټول انسانان آزاد او په حقوقو کې سره برابر زېږیدلي دي.
سلام، څنګه یې؟
د پښتو ژبه ډېره ښکلې ده.
Arabic Script scripts: Flowing right-to-left script where letters connect like cursive; dots above and below distinguish letters.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
Easy to confuse with
- Urdu — 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.
- Arabic — Pashto adds ring-and-dot letters like ټ, ښ, ږ, څ that never appear in Arabic.
- Persian (Farsi) — Pashto adds ringed/dotted letters (ټ ډ ښ) on top of the Persian set — rings mean Pashto.