Differences Between Hindi and Urdu
At morphological level, the differences between Hindi and Urdu are mostly in the area of vocabulary. But there are few other differences also, which are:
- In the indirect constructions employing chaahiye, Urdu also uses plural form chaahiye'n.
| Language | Transliterated sentence | Translated meaning (in English) |
|---|---|---|
| Hindi | mujhey kitaab chaahiye mujhey kitaabe'n chaahiye |
I want the book. I want the books. |
| Urdu | mujhey kitaab chaahiye mujhey kitaabe'n chaahiye'n |
I want the book. I want the books. |
- In another indirect construction, Hindi usually has the infinitive, functioning as a complement, agreeing with the grammatical subject of the verb; Urdu however has two additional possibilities.
| Language | Transliterated sentence | Translated meaning (in English) |
|---|---|---|
| Hindi | mujhey kuchh kitaabe'n khariidnii hai'n | I need/want to buy some books. |
| Urdu | mujhey kuchh kitaabe'n khariidnii hai'n mujhey kuchh kitaabe'n khariidnaa hai'n mujhey kuchh kitaabe'n khariidnaa hai |
I need/want to buy some books. I need/want to buy some books. I need/want to buy some books. |
- In sentences in which a conjunctive participle is used to refer to the first act in a series of two, if the first act is in some sense a 'cause' for the second act, Hindi prefers the conjunctive suffix -kar be dropped and only the root of the first verb used. In Urdu, on the other hand, the use of conjunctive suffix is always required.
| Language | Transliterated sentence | Translated meaning (in English) |
|---|---|---|
| Hindi | un-ko dekh ham ro paRey | On seeing him we burst into tears. |
| Urdu | un-ko dekh-kar ham ro paRey | On seeing him we burst into tears. |
| The following sentence, however, will be same in both Hindi and Urdu: | ||
| Hindi/Urdu | un-sey jaa-kar miliye | Please go and meet him. |
- Many nouns which are masculine in Urdu are feminine in Hindi, the opposite also being true.
- There are any number of derivational suffixes and prefixes in Urdu, as well as numerous adverbial words and phrases, which are not found in Hindi.
- Urdu extensively uses Izāfa, a morphological device borrowed from Persian, to make nominal compounds. Izafat is not used in Hindi.
Read more about this topic: Hindi-Urdu Grammar
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