Punjabi Language
Punjabi Language tests Gurmukhi script, grammar, vocabulary, idioms and comprehension. The paper expects standard Punjabi, not Hindi or English transliteration.
Script and grammar
Gurmukhi is written left to right. Its traditional alphabet has 35 primary letters, with supplementary letters for sounds borrowed from Perso-Arabic. Punjabi is tonal and distinguishes gender and number in nouns and verbs. Normal sentence order is subject-object-verb. Postpositions follow the noun. Verbs agree with the subject in person, gender and number.
Worked example
"ਕੁੜੀਆਂ ਸਕੂਲ ਜਾਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ।" means "The girls go to school." The subject ਕੁੜੀਆਂ is feminine plural, so the verb takes the feminine plural ending -ਦੀਆਂ and the auxiliary ਹਨ. With masculine plural ਮੁੰਡੇ, the same sentence becomes "ਮੁੰਡੇ ਸਕੂਲ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ।" The reasoning is agreement, not word-for-word translation.
Idioms and vocabulary
Learn ਮੁਹਾਵਰੇ and ਅਖਾਣ as fixed units. "ਅੱਖਾਂ ਦਾ ਤਾਰਾ" means a very dear person, not a star in the eye. For comprehension, identify the subject and verb first; Punjabi often omits the pronoun when the verb ending shows it.
Traps
Do not translate idioms literally; do not mix ਣ and ਨ or sihari and bihari spellings; do not assume Punjabi word order matches English; and check honorific forms such as ਤੁਸੀਂ with plural verb.