I was just thinking of those heady days (!) when it was time for Urdu grammar class and we were conjugating verbs. We used to draw these rectangular boxes and form columns, which was a pain in the ass because mine were always so sloppy. The columns were never even for those who demanded perfection.
If memory serves me correctly we called the conjugation box a gardaan. An Urdu expert is welcome to correct me on that. I was never good at Urdu grammar or composition. Letters had to be addressed and written a certain way. I was a rebel. I did not want to write formal letters. I wanted to write the way I talked. Christopher Hitchens used to tell his writing classes that anybody who could talk could also write. Well, I did not talk so pretty in Urdu, or English for that matter.
So the verb for to be in Urdu is hona (the h is not silent. the o like the o in bone)
meiN hooN - I am
tum ho - You are
vo hai - he/she/it is
hum haiN - we are
aap haiN - you (pl.) are
vo haiN - they are
At least that is how the verb is conjugated here. But perhaps they do not want to confuse you right away. I don't know if this site tells you that the plural you -- aap -- is not just used in the plural. We use it as the formal you, like usted in Spanish. For example, it would be highly rude and improper for us to address our elders as tum, or tu, ever (unless they do not give a fuck about such proprieties, and the elders in my family have always done so.).
I always have found it interesting and amusing that we address god as tu, tum, tumhara. Like in the Lord's Prayer. Ay hamare baap, tu jo aasmaan par hai, tera naam pak maana jaye, teri badshahat aaye . . .
but we address our elders as aap.
If god does not care about tu ya aap, why the hell do we? I know, silly question.
note: I capitalize the N, at the end, to differentiate the urdu letter noon (n) from the noon guna where the N is not pronounced. It is differentiated in our script as the noon without the dot.
End of Urdu lesson for today. :-)
