English-Urdu Dictionary

Christoph DusenberyUrdu Language 2 Comments

Introducing a Free English-Urdu Dictionary for Learners

I'm excited to share a resource I've been developing for Urdu learners: a free, downloadable English-Urdu dictionary. This dictionary is available as a PDF file and is designed specifically with learners in mind. You are welcome to access, share, and utilize the content for personal, educational, and non-commercial purposes.

I plan to update the dictionary over time, so stay tuned for future versions. You can check out the Changelog below to see what's been updated.

Please Note:

  • Modification Prohibited: The content of this dictionary may not be modified in any way without prior written permission.
  • Attribution Required: When presenting or distributing this dictionary, please provide appropriate credit.

Why This Dictionary Stands Out

There are very few English-Urdu dictionaries that cater specifically to the needs of Urdu learners. This dictionary tries to help fill that gap by offering a user-friendly format that makes learning more efficient. Here's what sets it apart:

Organized by Part of Speech: Each word is grouped into its respective category, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. This allows learners to focus on a specific type of word as they expand their vocabulary. A future, alternative version may list all entires together.

Searchable PDF: You can easily search for words using the built-in search feature of your PDF viewer, making it quick and simple to find exactly what you're looking for.

Easy Navigation: By enabling the "Table of Contents" or "Bookmark" view in your PDF viewer, you can effortlessly jump between sections of the dictionary. You can also navigate the longer sections by beginning letter.

Useful Vocabulary: The vocabulary of Urdu, like English, is vast. My aim in this dictionary is to include the most useful words in modern Urdu, including the words Urdu students are most likely to come across when learning the language.

Special Thanks

I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to The Pine Family for making this project possible. Their support has been instrumental in bringing this resource to life, and I’m deeply grateful for their contribution.

A Work in Progress

While I'm proud of this resource, it's still a work in progress. You may find errors or areas that can be improved. If you notice any mistakes or have suggestions for enhancing the dictionary, I'd love to hear from you. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and will help make future versions even better.

I hope this dictionary becomes a helpful tool on your journey to mastering Urdu!

Changelog

2.2 (Nov 06, 2024):
  • The number of entries in Verbs increased from 908 to 1158, with a focus on M to Z.
  • A number of small miscellaneous changes were made.
2.1 (Oct 21, 2024):
  • Three new sections have been added: Family Relations / Months / Seasons.
  • A top row was added to the top of each section to display column titles (e.g. Entry # / English, etc.)
  • A copyright page has been included as the second page of the dictionary.
  • The formatting of some entries was redone in the first four sections (Pronouns - Direct Case / Pronouns - Oblique Case / Question Words / Relative Complements) to better match the rest of the dictionary.
  • The entries in Colors were highlighted with their respective colors.
  • The number of entries in Nouns increased from 1,527 to 1,575.
  • The number of entries in Verbs increased from 833 to 908.
  • The number of entries in Adjectives increased from 302 to 304.
  • A number of small miscellaneous changes were made.
2.0 (Oct 09, 2024):
  • Key has been added to the beginning of the dictionary to explain the abbreviations used.
  • The plural form of nouns (when given for special cases) is now treated as the same entry as the singular form in Nouns.
  • The entires in Colors, Days of the Week and Parts of the Body can now also be found in Adjectives and Nouns, respectively.
  • The number of entries in Nouns increased from 1,503 to 1,527.
  • The number of entries in Adjectives increased from 288 to 302.
  • A number of formatting improvements were made, especially to make the Urdu script entries more vertically centered.
1.9 (Sep 26, 2024):
  • The Nouns section now has just one English headword per entry to match the other sections.
  • The number of entries in Nouns increased from 1,308 to 1,503.
  • A number of small changes were made in the Nouns entries, including fixing some spelling and formatting errors.
1.8 (Sep 19, 2024):
  • The Urdu script has been added to all remaining sections (Adjectives / Adverbs / Possessive Pronouns / Postpositions / Conjunctions / Phrases).
  • Navigation by first letter has been added to Adjectives and Adverbs.
  • Adjectives and Adverbs are now listed with just one English headword to match the Verbs section (this still needs to be done for Nouns).
  • The number of entries in Adjectives increased from 165 to 288.
  • The number of entries in Adverbs increased from 101 to 136.
  • Several miscellaneous errors were fixed.
1.7 (Sep 17, 2024):
  • All sections are now in table format.
  • All sections now have the English headword first.
  • The Urdu script has been added to all entries in Particles, Colors, Days of the Week, Parts of the Body, and Numbers (including all sub-sections).
1.6 (Sep 14, 2024):
  • The number of entries in Verbs has increased from 571 to 833. The verbs from A to L are pretty thoroughly covered. Additions are required in M to Z.
  • The entries in Nouns and Verbs can now be navigated by first letter.
1.5 (Sep 09, 2024):
  • The number of entries in Verbs has increased from 375 to 571.
  • The English column in Verbs now has just one English verb.
1.4 (Sep 07, 2024):
  • Each item within the table of contents is now clickable and will take you straight to that section.
  • An image of the Urdu script was added to the title page.
  • Conjunct Verbs was merged with Verbs and the Urdu script for their entires was added.
  • The number of entries in Verbs increased from 255 to 375.
1.3 (Sep 05, 2024):
  • A table of contents was added that should be usable in all PDF readers which should make navigation much easier.
  • Pronouns has been separated into Pronouns - Direct Case and Pronouns - Oblique Case.
  • The order of the first several sections has been reworked (hopefully it's more logical now).
  • Five additional sections have been brought into the "table" format to match the formatting of Nouns and the Urdu script has been added to those sections.
  • The Urdu script columns have been formatted to be easier to read (many of the words in Nastaliq were getting cut off on the top).
  • Several other miscellaneous changes were made, including error corrections and formatting issues.

Comments 2

  1. Hi Christopher,

    I recently finished reading through your Urdu dictionary, and I really appreciate the effort you’ve put into it! I’m excited to share it with my partner, who’s learning Urdu, and some friends as well. I had a couple of questions, though—did you study Hindi as part of your preparation for this project? I noticed a few words that seemed more common in Hindi than in Urdu. For instance, “desh” دیش for “country” is rarely used in Urdu, where “des” دیس is more typical. Here’s a link with the pronunciation guide in IPA.
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/دیس#Urdu

    I also spotted some romanization choices that could be worth looking into, like the use of a regular “g” for غ instead of a bold “g,” which might make pronunciation clearer. This is a detail that sometimes trips up Hindi speakers, as they often blend گ and غ in practice.

    Overall, it’s a fantastic resource, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with others!

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Hadi,

      Thanks very much for your kind words and for the feedback!

      Yes, my studies have focused extensively on Hindi (and on Urdu as spoken in India). I just added دیس (des), so it’ll be in the next version.

      As you mentioned I’ve tried to differentiate غ from گ by using a bold “g” but I’m sure I missed some. Do you happen to remember which words you saw were missing the bold font?

      Thanks again and do let me know of other errors you come across if it’s not too much trouble—I appreciate it!

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