Maharashtra SSC Urdu L2/L3 (MSBSHSE) key terms

Urdu prose. The branch of literature written in ordinary sentences and paragraphs, covering textbook lessons, stories and essays, as opposed to poetry with its metre and rhyme.

An Urdu poem written in continuous lines on a single theme, with metre and rhyme but usually without the couplet-by-couplet independence of a ghazal.

An Urdu poem of independent couplets sharing one metre, rhyme and refrain, each couplet usually standing as a complete thought on love, loss or life.

A single couplet of Urdu poetry, made of two lines called misra, which together carry one complete idea and are the basic unit of a ghazal.

One line of a couplet. A sher has two misre; in a ghazal the first line is misra-e-oola and the second misra-e-sani.

The opening couplet of a ghazal, in which both lines carry the rhyme and refrain, setting the pattern that later couplets follow in their second line.

The repeated word or phrase that comes immediately after the rhyme at the end of each couplet's second line in a ghazal, giving the poem its refrain.

The rhyming element placed just before the radeef at the end of a ghazal line; words sharing the same qafiya sound form the rhyme pattern of the poem.

Simile in Urdu rhetoric: likening one thing to another through an explicit comparison word such as jaisa, manind or ki tarah, without claiming they are the same.

Metaphor in Urdu rhetoric: using a word for something other than its literal meaning because of a resemblance, without any comparison word such as jaisa.

Figurative or transferred meaning, where a word is used beyond its literal sense; covers metaphor and related devices and is often contrasted with haqeeqat, literal meaning.

An essay. A piece of continuous prose written on one topic with an introduction, developed body paragraphs and a conclusion, usually for the composition section of the paper.

An application or written request addressed to an authority, following a fixed format: sender's address, date, addressee, subject, salutation, body and closing.

A letter. Formal letters follow set conventions of address and salutation, while informal letters to relatives use a warmer, simpler register and personal news.

A dialogue: a written conversation between two or more speakers, each turn marked by the speaker's name or a dash, used to test spoken register and turn-taking.

A noun: a word naming a person, place, thing or idea, such as larka, shehr, kitaab or mohabbat. It can be proper, common, collective or abstract.

A verb: a word showing an action or state, such as likhna, jaana or hona. Urdu verbs carry tense, person, gender and number through their endings.

An adjective: a word describing a noun or pronoun, such as accha, lamba or khoobsurat. In Urdu it normally precedes the noun it qualifies.

A pronoun: a word standing in place of a noun, such as main, tum, woh, yeh or hum, showing person, gender and number.

A particle or function word that has no full meaning by itself but links or colours other words, such as ko, se, mein, par, aur, lekin and ki.

An intransitive verb: a verb whose action does not pass to an object, so the sentence needs no mafool, as in bachcha so raha hai.

A transitive verb: a verb whose action passes to an object, so a mafool can follow it, as in us ne kitaab parhi.

The object of a verb: the noun or pronoun receiving the action, as kitaab in us ne kitaab parhi. It may be direct or indirect.

The past tense verb form, showing an action already completed, as in woh gaya, us ne likha or hum aaye.

The present or habitual tense verb form, showing an action happening now or done regularly, as in woh jaata hai or main parhta hoon.

The future tense verb form, showing an action still to come, usually built with ga, ge or gi, as in main kal jaoonga.

Singular number: a noun, pronoun or verb form referring to one person or thing, such as larka, kitaab or woh jaata hai.

Plural number: a noun, pronoun or verb form referring to more than one, such as larke, kitaabein or woh jaate hain, often formed with suffixes.

Masculine gender. Every Urdu noun is masculine or feminine, and this governs the form of adjectives and verbs agreeing with it, as in accha larka.

Feminine gender. A noun class requiring feminine agreement in adjectives and verbs, often marked by endings such as -i or -in, as in acchi larki.

An idiom: a fixed phrase whose meaning cannot be worked out from its individual words, such as aankh ka tara or haath malna.

A proverb: a short, well-known saying carrying popular wisdom or advice, quoted whole in speech and writing, such as der aaye durust aaye.

A dictionary or lexicon; also the vocabulary of a language or of one writer. Candidates use it to check spelling, gender and the exact sense of a word.

A synonym: a word with nearly the same meaning as another, such as khushi and aanand, tested by asking for a word of similar sense.

An antonym: a word opposite in meaning to another, such as din and raat, or uthna and baithna, tested by asking for the opposite word.

The central idea or main theme of a prose passage or poem, stated in one or two sentences after reading the whole text rather than one line.

A summary or précis: a shortened restatement of a passage that keeps its main points in the writer's own words and drops examples and repetition.

A literary sketch or portrait: a short prose piece drawing a person's appearance, habits and speech so the reader feels they know the subject.