Pashto grammar

Demonstrative pronouns

دغه dağa (this)

هغه hağa (that)

Possessive pronouns

Independent forms

Enclitic forms

Case

Pashto inflects nouns into four grammatical cases: direct, oblique I, oblique II and vocative. The oblique I case is used as prepositional case as well as in the past tense as the subject of transitive verbs, and the oblique II case is used as ablative case.

The following table shows the declension of the masculine noun غر (ğar, meaning "mountain"):

The following table shows the declension of سړی (saṛai, meaning "man"), a masculine noun with ending "ai":

The following table shows the declension of ښځه (ṣ̌ədza, meaning "woman"), a feminine noun with ending "a":

The following table shows the declension of the feminine noun ورځ (wradz, meaning "day"):

Gender

There are two genders: masculine and feminine.

Number

There are two numbers: singular and plural.

Definiteness

There is no definite article. But when necessary, definiteness may be indicated by other means such as demonstratives. Likewise, it may be contraindicated by use of the word for "one", يو; as in "يو روغتون" - "a hospital".

Adjectives

An adjective is called stāynūm in Pashto [ستاينوم]. The adjectives or stāynūmūna agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.

Notes:

Affixes

In Pashto, an affix is called تاړی [tâṛay]. An affix is an addition to the base form or stem of a word in order to modify its meaning or create a new word.

Prefixes

These are attached at the beginning of words. Here is a list of the most common ones:

A list of Examples:

Suffixes

These are attached at the end of a word. Here is a list of the most common ones:

A list of Examples:

Verbs

Verbal Suffixes

Pashto utilises verbal suffixes [د کړ تاړې]. It is easy to demonstrate these in Regular Verbs in the Imperfective.

Present Tense

Gəḍēẓ̌ is the present imperfective stem of the verb Gaḍedəl [to dance].

Past Tense

Gəḍēd is the past stem of the verb Gaḍēdəl [to dance].

The Verb ""to be""

The Verb to be is irregular in Pashto and does not have an infinitive form.

Present Imperfective

Present Imperfective tense of "to be":

The word شته [shta] is also used; this is the third person singular and plural of the present tense of the verb to be.

Present Perfective form

Present Perfective tense of "to be

Past Imperfective form

Past Imperfective tense of "to be":

Past Perfective form

Past Perfective tense of "to be":

Future Tense

In Pashto the Future Tense [ راتلونکی مهال] is the same as the Present Tense [اوسنی مهال] with the exception that in the future tense the marker به [bə] is added; به has a similar meaning to will/shall in English. In the Third Person Future Tense, also, irrespective of number or gender وي is used.

Simple Irregular

These are verbs whose Past Stems differ from their Present Stems like english think vs thought,

a) where ل is replaced by ن in the Present Tense:

b) where و is added in the middle in the Present Tense:

c) The verb ختل [to climb]:

d) where دل is dropped in the Present Tense:

Doubly Irregular

These are verbs whose imperfective and perfective stems differ as well as their present and past stems. The difference between perfective and imperfective is carried by stress; in perfective the stress is on the first part of the verb whilst in imperfective the stress is on the last syllables.
Here is list of these verbs with their verbal stems [note without verbal suffix]:
a) ښودل, as a part of the verb.

b) The verb "to go":

c) The verb "to take" [to a place]:

Idiosyncratic Third Person Form

Some doubly irregular verbs have idiosyncratic 3rd Person forms in the past forms, parallel to the idiosyncratic forms of the simple irregular verbs.

The list :

Infinitive

This is called Kaṛnūmay [کړنومی] in Pashto that is “the name of a verb”. It shows an infinite action or occurrence. In Pashto the verb acquires the gender and number of a masculine plural noun. They are formed from the verbal root and end with the verbal suffix: ل. Example:

The verb وکړل [past tense of verb کړل - perfective state of "to do"] shows agreement with masculine plural object that is the infinitive وهل.

Type of Infinitives

There are various types of infinitives.

Simple Infinitives

They are in there morpheme state. Examples: تلل [to go], وتل [to go out], ګرځېدل [to walk], ګرځول [to make someone/thing walk] etc.

Prefixed Infinitives

These are formed by attaching a prefix to the simple infinitive. These prefixes are usually directional/locative in nature. Examples:
1. را + تلل = راتلل
Râ [locative towards speaker] + Tləl [to go] = Râtləl [to come]
2. ور+ کول = ورکول
War [locative towards third party] + Kawəl [to do] = Warkawəl [to give]

Compound Infinitives

There are two categories of compound infinitives. There are also some exceptions to these.

First Category

These are formed by adding ول [from کول] and ېدل [from کېدل] verbal-suffixes to nouns, adjectives or adverbs. The attaching noun, adjective and adverb should not end in a vowel. Example:
ښخ [buried, adjective] - ښخول [to bury, verb]

Second Category

These are formed adding auxiliary verbs کول and کېدل to the noun and adjectives. The attaching noun and adjective end in a vowel.Examples:
1. پوښتنه [question, noun] - پوښتنه کول [to question, verb]
2. لېشه [seductive, adjective] - لېشه کېدل [to become seduced, verb]

Exceptions

There are also exception to the attachment of auxiliary verbs on the basis of vowel endings. Example: سوچ کول etc.

Phrasal Infinitives

This is done by adding words with infinitives to make a metaphoric meaning.

Double Infinitives

These are formed by combining two infinitives.
Either by combining a Simple Infinitive with a Prefixed Infinitive.

Or either by combining two Simple Infinitives.

Prepositions and Postpositions

Pashto has pre-positions, post-positions and pre-post-positions. Adpositions generally govern either oblique or ablative case assignment to their objects.

Prepositions

There are two Preposition in Pashto:
1. د [də] meaning "of"
2. په [pə] meaning "with" and "at"

Postpositions

In Pashto there is the dative post-position: ته.

Ambipositions

Pashto uses a significant amount of ambipositions (circumpositions). These usually have two elements, with the noun object positioned between the two elements.

The first element is likely to be ones of these four elements:

The second element is likely to be one of these words:

Here is a list of the most common formations:

Sometimes in colloquial Pashto, the word له is dropped from نه and سره.

The first element must be dropped when the object of the pre-position is a weak pronoun. Examples:

Phrases

A number of common phrases translate into English prepositional phrases, which in Pashto consist of combinations of prepositional phrases and additional words.

Some Examples:

In phrases that start with the possessive phrase د [də] plus noun, the possessive phrase [də/د] can be substituted for with a weak possessive pronouns. Examples:

Conjunctions

Pashto utilises conjunctions. These are used as adverbs. Example:

Syntax

Pashto has subject-object-verb (SOV) word order as opposed to English subject-verb-object (SVO) word order. In intransitive sentences where there is no object Pashto and English both have subject-verb (SV) word order.

In Pashto, however, all modifiers precede the verb where as in English most of the verbal modifiers follow the verb.

Phrasal Syntax

Pashto exhibits strong head-final order in noun phrases and verb phrases.

Noun Phrases

Pashto noun phrases generally exhibit the internal order Determiner - Quantifier - Adjective - Noun.

Adpositional phrases

The salient exception to the head-final principle can be found in adpositional phrases, given the existence of prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions.

Verb phrases

Generally, head-final order is found also in the verb phrase, with the verb, if any, as the final element. Relative clauses and sentence-level modifiers may appear in postclausal position.

Light Verb Constructions

Pashto has a robust system of light verb constructions (LVC), two-word expressions that are semantically interpretable as a single predicate. Only one of the two canonical types—those of the form Noun/Adjective + Verb (N-V).

As verbs are a closed class in Pashto, the LVC is the only means of creating new verbal forms in the language; it is also used as a way of importing loanwords, with the borrowed word filling the complement slot.

The inventory of light verbs in Pashto should not surprise anyone familiar with LVCs. In addition to the verbs کېدل /kedəl/ ‘to become’ and کو ل /kawəl/ ‘to make; to do’, which we refer to as the intransitive and transitive verbalisers when they act as light verbs, Pashto uses the verbs اخیستل /axistəl/ ‘to take’, وهل /wahəl/ ‘to beat’, نيول /niwəl/ ‘to seize; to grasp’, and ایستا /istəl/ ‘to throw out’ as light verbs, as in the following examples:

Adjective complements of N-V LVCs always show agreement with the undergoer of the action of the verb, which is in turn marked in accordance with Pashto’s system of split ergativity. Nominal complements are usually treated as the direct object of the verb, and are therefore also case-marked according to split-ergative alignment. The undergoer of the action, on the other hand, cannot be a direct object, as the verb can have at most two arguments; it is instead indicated by an adposition and accordingly case-marked oblique.

Elements in the verbal group

The verbal group in General Pashto

Certain particles can be inserted between:

The particles that interact with verbs in this way are:

Modals, weak personal pronouns, and adverbials are all second-position clitics. They also obey strict rules of ordering relative to each other. Tegey (1977) reports the following ordering of enclitics between verbal components: خو /xo/> به /bə/> { مو /mo/| مې /me/| دې /de/| یې /ye/} > نو /no/. If the first syllable of the verb does not carry stress (that is, if it is a non-aorist form), the negative precedes the verb, and the clitics follow the negative. Also, if an aorist form is negated, the negative marker—not the initial syllable of the verb—takes the stress.

Negative placement in the aorist verb phrase

The negative particle نه /ná/ nearly always precedes the verb and is placed as close to the verb stem as possible. In aorist constructions, it therefore follows the aorist marker و /wə/ for simplex verbs, and either initial /a/, the prefix, or the light verb complement for complex verbs. Because it carries an inherent stress, it takes the main stress in an aorist verb phrase.

Pashto and Borrowings

Contemporary Pashto contains a lot of Persian and Persianised-Arabic words, although Pashto equivalents for these words often do exist.

Borrowed Phonology

The sounds /q/, /f/ are non-native Pashto sounds borrowed from Arabic and Persian. The phonemes /q/, /f/ tend to be replaced by [k], [p]. So for instance, the Arabic word فرق would be pronounced as /par(ə)k/.

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers (direct case, masc.)

Ordinal Numbers (direct case, masc., sing.)