UPMSP Intermediate Urdu flashcards
UPMSP Intermediate Urdu · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Afsana
- Urdu short story with plot, characters, setting, dialogue, and point of view; it is fictional and builds to a turning point and resolution.
- Mazmoon
- Urdu essay that argues a central thesis in logical order with evidence; it is expository, not narrative like an afsana.
- Khaka
- Literary sketch portraying a real person through selected traits and anecdotes; it must not invent events, unlike fiction.
- Safarnama
- Travelogue in Urdu prose recording a journey chronologically, mixing observation of places with personal reflection and description.
- Nazuk mor
- The turning point in an afsana where the conflict sharpens or reverses; identifying it is essential for plot analysis.
- Premchand
- Urdu-Hindi fiction writer (1880–1936) known for realistic stories of rural poverty, including 'Kafan'; a founder of the Progressive Writers' Movement.
- Nazm
- Urdu poem with one sustained central idea and continuous metre; unlike a ghazal, it is not divided into independent couplets.
- Behr
- The metre of an Urdu poem; every line must conform to the same behr, and taqti' is the scansion that verifies it.
- Rukn
- A foot or metrical unit of the behr; repeating rukns build the line, and faulty rukns break the metre.
- Qafia
- The recurring rhyme sound placed immediately before the radif in a ghazal; it must match across all shers.
- Radif
- The repeated word or phrase that follows the qafia in a ghazal; it appears in both lines of the matla and in the second line of each sher.
- Tashbeeh
- Simile in Urdu rhetoric: an explicit comparison using words such as 'jaise' or 'tarah'; distinct from isti'ara (metaphor).
- Isti'ara
- Metaphor in Urdu rhetoric: a comparison made without a connective, where one thing is stated as another.
- Iqbal
- Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), philosophical poet of 'Bang-e-Dara' and 'Bal-e-Jibril', known for the concept of khudi (selfhood).
- Matla
- The opening sher of a ghazal in which qafia and radif appear in both lines; it sets the rhyme scheme for the poem.
- Maqta
- The closing sher of a ghazal, usually containing the poet's takhallus (pen name) and often a personal address or reflection.
- Sher
- A couplet of two lines (misra-e-oola and misra-e-sani) that is complete in meaning; the building block of a ghazal.
- Takhallus
- The poet's pen name, traditionally inserted in the maqta of a ghazal; examples include Ghalib, Mir, and Firaq.
- Mir Taqi Mir
- Eighteenth-century Urdu ghazal poet (1723–1810), called Khuda-e-Sukhan, admired for simplicity and pathos in his couplets.
- Ghalib
- Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869), ghazal poet known for philosophical doubt, complex imagery, and his Urdu letters.
- Ism
- Noun in Urdu grammar; types include ism-e-khas (proper), ism-e-aam (common), ism-e-jins (collective), and ism-e-masdar (verbal noun).
- Zameer
- Pronoun in Urdu grammar; it must agree with its noun in gender (jins) and number (wahid or jama).
- Fi'l
- Verb in Urdu grammar; tenses are mazi (past), haal (present), and mustaqbil (future), with amr (imperative) and nahi (prohibitive) forms.
- Sifat and mausuf
- Adjective (sifat) and the noun it describes (mausuf); in Urdu the sifat follows the mausuf and agrees in gender and number.
- Muhawara
- Fixed Urdu idiom whose meaning is figurative, not literal; it must be used only where the context matches exactly.
- Zarb-ul-masal
- Urdu proverb: a complete sentence of folk wisdom with fixed wording; it should be quoted unchanged in composition.
- Darkhwast
- Formal application in Urdu composition; its format includes addressee, subject line, body, and signature.
- Markazi khayal
- The central idea of a passage or poem; in comprehension answers it is stated in one sentence, not as a full summary.
- Unwan
- Title of a passage; a correct answer must cover the whole passage, not merely repeat its opening line.
- Mushkil alfaz
- Difficult words in a comprehension passage; the answer gives a simple Urdu synonym that fits the sentence context.
- Taraqqi Pasand movement
- Progressive Writers' Movement founded in 1936, led by Premchand, Sajjad Zaheer, and Faiz; it demanded socially committed literature.
- Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq
- Literary circle founded in Lahore in 1939, associated with N. M. Rashid, which promoted free verse and modern Urdu poetry.