About the Urdu Script
Urdu grew out of the Hindustani spoken around Delhi and took its written form in the Perso-Arabic script during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal era — the name comes from the Turkic ordu ("camp"), short for zaban-e-urdu-e-mualla, "the language of the exalted camp." Its visual identity is Nastaliq, the "hanging" calligraphic style perfected in 14th–15th century Persia and credited to Mir Ali Tabrizi, which Urdu made its standard while Arabic kept the flatter Naskh. Declared Pakistan's national language in 1947 (and one of India's 22 scheduled languages), Urdu struggled digitally for decades: Nastaliq's diagonal cascade was so hard to render that computers displayed Urdu in Arabic-style Naskh, and the publishing world ran on InPage (1994) until modern Nastaliq web fonts finally brought the authentic style online.
The Urdu Alphabet — Every Letter
Here is the full Urdu character set. You can click any letter on the Kactyl Urdu keyboard to type it instantly — no need to memorize positions.
- Script: Nastaliq script (modified Arabic-Persian), right-to-left, 38 letters
- Speakers: 246 million worldwide
- Writing direction: Right-to-left
- Distinctive feature: Urdu doesn't sit on a flat baseline — in Nastaliq, each word cascades diagonally from top-right to bottom-left, letters stacking vertically as they connect. Render the same text in an Arabic Naskh font and every native reader instantly sees it as "computer Urdu," not real Urdu. The alphabet also extends Persian with letters Arabic keyboards simply don't have: the retroflexes ٹ ڈ ڑ (marked with a small ط), do-chashmi he (ھ) that builds aspirated sounds like بھ and کھ, noon ghunna (ں) for nasal vowels, and yeh barree (ے). That's why typing Urdu on an Arabic keyboard never quite works — and why this page gives Urdu its own layout and a Nastaliq-style font.
The Urdu Alphabet, Letter by Letter
Every Urdu letter with its name, the sound it makes, and a real example word. Tap any letter to copy it — keep this reference open while you learn to read or type:
| Letter | Name | Sound | Example word |
|---|---|---|---|
| alif | long ā / vowel carrier | آم — ām (mango) | |
| be | b | بادل — bādal (cloud) | |
| pe | p | پانی — pānī (water) | |
| te | soft dental t | تارا — tārā (star) | |
| ṭe | hard retroflex ṭ | ٹماٹر — ṭamāṭar (tomato) | |
| se | s | ثبوت — sabūt (proof) | |
| jīm | j | جنگل — jangal (forest) | |
| che | ch | چاند — chānd (moon) | |
| baṛī he | h | حال — hāl (state) | |
| khe | kh | خواب — khwāb (dream) | |
| dāl | soft dental d | دروازہ — darwāza (door) | |
| ḍāl | retroflex ḍ | ڈبہ — ḍibba (box) | |
| zāl | z | ذائقہ — zāiqa (taste) | |
| re | r | راستہ — rāsta (path) | |
| ṛe | retroflex flap ṛ | لڑکا — laṛkā (boy) | |
| ze | z | زبان — zabān (language) | |
| zhe | zh (as in “measure”) | ژالہ — zhāla (hail) | |
| sīn | s | سورج — sūraj (sun) | |
| shīn | sh | شہر — shahr (city) | |
| su’ād | s | صبح — subah (morning) | |
| zu’ād | z | ضرورت — zarūrat (need) | |
| to’e | t | طاقت — tāqat (strength) | |
| zo’e | z | ظلم — zulm (cruelty) | |
| ain | vowel-like (from the throat) | عید — īd (Eid) | |
| ghain | gh (guttural) | غار — ghār (cave) | |
| fe | f | فون — fon (phone) | |
| qāf | q (deep k) | قلم — qalam (pen) | |
| kāf | k | کتاب — kitāb (book) | |
| gāf | g | گھر — ghar (home) | |
| lām | l | لباس — libās (clothes) | |
| mīm | m | مور — mor (peacock) | |
| nūn | n | نمک — namak (salt) | |
| nūn ghunna | nasalizes the vowel | ہاں — hāṇ (yes) | |
| vā’o | v / ū / o | وقت — waqt (time) | |
| choṭī he | h | ہوا — hawā (air) | |
| do-chashmī he | adds aspiration (bh, kh…) | بھائی — bhāī (brother) | |
| hamza | glottal stop / vowel break | جاۓ — vowel break | |
| choṭī ye | y / ī | یاد — yād (memory) | |
| baṛī ye | final e / ai | سے — se (from) |
Click any letter to copy it to your clipboard.
What Makes the Urdu Alphabet Distinctive
These are the features of the Urdu script that trip up learners coming from the Latin alphabet — the things worth understanding before you start reading or typing:
- Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script, extending Arabic and Persian with extra letters for South Asian sounds — and it is traditionally set in the flowing, diagonal Nastaʿlīq calligraphic style, which is why Urdu looks different from Arabic even where the letters are the same.
- The retroflex consonants ٹ (ṭ), ڈ (ḍ), ڑ (ṛ) — made by curling the tongue back — mark words of Indic origin and exist in neither Arabic nor Persian.
- Aspiration has its own letter: the “two-eyed” he ھ (do-chashmī he) is placed after a consonant to make an aspirated pair — کھ (kh), گھ (gh), بھ (bh) — a whole series of sounds.
- ں (nūn ghunna) marks a nasalized vowel rather than a full n, and ے (baṛī ye) is a distinct final e/ai letter, separate from the ordinary ی.
- As in Arabic and Persian, short vowels are usually unwritten and the script is cursive, with letters changing shape by position.
Urdu Script — The Facts
- Unicode block: Arabic, U+0600–06FF (+ Arabic Extended-A)
- ISO 15924 script code: Arab (160), Nastaʿlīq style
- Script family: Perso-Arabic abjad, extended for Urdu
- First attested: ~13th–14th century CE (Hindavi/Urdu in Perso-Arabic script)
- Speakers: 246 million (Ethnologue)
Sources: Unicode Arabic block (U+0600) · Ethnologue — Urdu · ISO 15924 — Arab
Common Urdu Words to Learn
These everyday words are a fast way to start recognizing Urdu letters in real context:
- آداب (aadab = respectful hello)
- شکریہ (shukriya = thank you)
- آپ کیسے ہیں (aap kaise hain = how are you)
Common Urdu Phrases
| Urdu Script | Romanized | English |
|---|---|---|
| آداب | aadab | respectful greeting |
| شکریہ | shukriya | thank you |
| آپ کیسے ہیں؟ | aap kaise hain | how are you? |
| خدا حافظ | khuda hafiz | goodbye / God protect you |
| ماشاء اللہ | masha Allah | what God has willed |
Type Urdu Online Without Learning the Layout
You don't need to memorize where each Urdu letter sits on a physical keyboard. Open kactyl.com/urdu/, click the letters you see on screen (or type phonetically), then copy your text anywhere — WhatsApp, documents, social media.
Tips for Typing Urdu
- Urdu has more letters than Arabic — including ٹ ڈ ڑ
- Nastaliq font displays beautifully
- Type in Roman Urdu for phonetic input
About the Urdu Language
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan with 230 million speakers. It uses the Nastaliq calligraphic style — considered the most beautiful script in the world — which flows diagonally right-to-left. Pakistani diaspora communities in the UK, US, Canada, and Middle East use WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube extensively in Urdu for family communication.
Nastaliq — The World's Most Beautiful Script
Urdu's Nastaliq script is not just a writing system — it's a form of art. Unlike the more rectangular Naskh style used for Arabic, Nastaliq flows in a diagonal, calligraphic manner that Urdu speakers consider deeply tied to their cultural identity. Typing Urdu digitally was historically challenging because Nastaliq rendering requires sophisticated font technology. Today, Unicode Nastaliq fonts like Jameel Noori Nastaleeq display correctly on most modern devices. Kactyl's Urdu keyboard produces Unicode Urdu text that renders in the proper Nastaliq style on phones and computers that have the appropriate font. For users without Nastaliq fonts, the text still displays correctly in Naskh style. The keyboard includes Urdu-specific letters not found in Arabic: ٹ (te), ڈ (dal), ڑ (re), ژ (zhe), ہ (he), and ء (hamza).