Script guide › Arabic Script

How to recognize Urdu

Urdu 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

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).

What Urdu looks like

تمام انسان آزاد پیدا ہوتے ہیں اور عزت میں برابر ہیں۔

آپ کیسے ہیں؟ سب ٹھیک ہے؟

پاکستان ایک خوبصورت ملک ہے۔

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

Pakistan
India

Easy to confuse with

Persian (Farsi) — Urdu hangs in diagonal nastaliq style and ends words with the wide ے; Persian sits closer to a flat baseline.
Arabic — Urdu slopes diagonally (nastaliq) with the wide ے; Arabic sits on a flat baseline with ال starting words everywhere.
Pashto — 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.
Kurdish (Sorani) — Sorani sits flat and spells every vowel with ە/ۆ/ێ; Urdu slopes diagonally in nastaliq.