Translation: Persian↔Hindi/Urdu sentences and passages
Domain 4 - Translation (ترجمہ). Marks are awarded for meaning, tense and agreement - not for word-for-word equivalence.
The structural fact to exploit
Persian and Hindi/Urdu are both SOV, so clause order is broadly parallel. Three things still move:
- Ezafe chains reverse. کتابِ تاریخِ ایران → "Iran ki tarikh ki kitab" (head noun comes last in Hindi).
- را → کو / نے, and Hindi adds the ergative نے with transitive past.
- Passive with شدن → جانا: لکھا گیا.
Procedure
Find the verb at the end → identify subject and its number → bracket the را object → unwrap the ezafe chain from the head outward → fix tense and aspect → reorder → read the output aloud to test it.
Worked example
دانشآموزان کتابہای تاریخِ خود را بہ معلم دادند.
- Verb دادند = "gave", 3rd plural past → Hindi دی / دیں with نے.
- Subject دانشآموزان = students (plural ـان) → vidyarthiyon ne.
- Object: head کتابہا, modifiers تاریخِ خود → apni tarikh ki kitaben.
- بہ معلم = "to the teacher" → shikshak ko. Result: "Vidyarthiyon ne apni tarikh ki kitaben shikshak ko din."
Traps
- Keeping Persian order inside a compound: "tarikh-e kitab".
- Dropping نے, which turns a completed action into a general statement.
- Translating idioms literally.
- Forgetting Hindi gender on adjectives (kitaben is feminine).
- Rendering را as کا instead of کو.