Why Urdu to English is harder than it looks
Urdu is written right to left in a flowing script. Letters change shape depending on where they sit in a word, and the traditional nastaliq style slopes down the line. Mixed messages containing English names or numbers switch direction mid-sentence, which is where text gets scrambled.
Respect is grammatical. Tu, tum and aap set three levels, and plural verb forms are used for one person to show deference. English has none of this, so a carefully respectful message arrives flat unless the English wording carries it instead.
The verb waits until the end. Urdu is subject-object-verb, and negation often arrives with it. A sentence translated left to right can be halfway through before the meaning reverses.
Formal vocabulary comes from Persian and Arabic. Everyday Urdu sounds much like Hindi, but formal Urdu reaches for a different word stock entirely. A translator that treats them as interchangeable produces English that misses the register of the original.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
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