Qawaid: Applied Urdu grammar - word classes, sentence parsing, idioms
The syllabus core
Qawaid here is applied, not recited. Expect: kalma ki aqsam (ism, fail, harf), ism ki aqsam (ism-e-khas, ism-e-aam, ism-e-jins, ism-e-masdar, ism-e-mausul, ism-e-ishara), tazkeer-o-tanees, wahid-o-jam'a, mutazad alfaz, muhawara and zarb-ul-masal, sift-o-mausuf, izafat, and jumla ki aqsam (jumla-e-ismiya, jumla-e-failiya).
Rules worth memorising
- Fail: mazi (past), haal (present/habitual), mustaqbil (future). Fail-e-lazim needs no maf'ul; fail-e-mutaaddi takes one. Ma'loom and majhool change the verb form, not the sense of the sentence.
- Jumla-e-ismiya opens with a mubtada and closes with its khabar; jumla-e-failiya opens with the fail and its fa'il.
- Muhawara is a figurative phrase that does not stand alone as a proverb; zarb-ul-masal is a complete, oft-quoted sentence of folk origin.
- Izafat links two nouns, as in 'shab-e-gham'; the first noun loses its own ending and takes the linking kasra.
Worked example
Parse: 'us ne kitaab padhi.'
- 'us ne' is the fa'il: singular, so the verb stays singular regardless of the object.
- 'padhi' is fail-e-mazi, mutaaddi, ma'loom, feminine singular - it agrees with the maf'ul 'kitaab', which is feminine.
- Structure: jumla-e-failiya, in the order fail + fa'il + maf'ul.
With 'ne' in the mazi, the verb follows the object, not the doer. Examiners test this deliberately, so stating the rule earns the second mark.
Traps
Writing 'us ne kitaab padha' (gender agreement lost); calling 'kitaab' masculine; confusing harf with fail; giving a literal meaning for a muhawara; forming izafat without the kasra link; pluralising an ism-e-jins that has no plural in the given sense.