The Pashto alphabet: 45 letters and the sounds Persian lacks

Pashto is written in an extended Arabic script, from right to left. If you already read the Arabic or Persian alphabet, most letters are old friends. What is new is a small set of Pashto letters: four with a little ring for sounds made with the tongue curled back, two for dz and ts, two whose sound depends on the region, and five ways of writing a y or an end vowel. This guide takes them one group at a time, with words checked in Wiktionary.

Updated November 13, 2026 · 7 min read

Where Pashto is written

Afghanistan's 2004 Constitution, as published by Constitute Project, names Pashto and Dari as the official languages of the state (Article 16) and says the national anthem shall be in Pashto (Article 20). This guide only reports what that text says; it does not cover the present legal situation in Afghanistan.

The Unicode Standard lists Pashto among the languages that extended the Arabic script, with Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and Uyghur. In practice that means you read it like the Urdu alphabet or Persian: letters change shape as they join, short vowels are often not written, and the line runs right to left.

How many letters?

Wiktionary's list of Pashto letters runs from ا to ئ, and its letter entries number ئ as the 45th and last. The list also shows ں (nun páza), which Wiktionary gives no number: it marks a nasal vowel and is limited to certain dialects. Charts elsewhere may count differently; the letters are the same.

The ring: ټ ډ ړ ڼ ګ

Look closely at ټ, ډ, ړ and ڼ: each has a small ring under it. Unicode's character data names them exactly that way — dal with attached ring below, reh with attached ring below, noon with attached ring below — and the same ring sits on ګ, Pashto's g. In Pashto, the ring on ټ ډ ړ ڼ marks a retroflex sound, made with the tip of the tongue curled back. Urdu marks the same kind of sound with a small ط on top instead, so ټ and Urdu ٹ are two spellings of one idea.

Our rough guide: say an English t, d or n, then curl the tongue tip back towards the roof of the mouth. ړ is a quick flap made in the same place. You hear ډ twice in ډوډۍ ḍoḍə́y (food, bread).

ښ and ږ: one letter, four sounds

Two Pashto letters are said differently from region to region. Wiktionary's entry for ښ gives four pronunciations, and ږ follows the same pattern:

You can hear the split in real words. Wiktionary gives ښځه x̌əźa (woman) as /ʂəˈdza/ in Kandahar, /xəˈdza/ in the north and /ˈçədza/ in Wardak, and the name of the language itself, پښتو, as /pəʂˈt̪o/ in Kandahar. Our advice: learn the letter once, then follow the accent of the teacher or recordings you learn from.

ځ and څ: dz and ts

ځ (źim) is /dz/ and څ (śim) is /ts/ — both look like a ح with a mark on top. Two everyday words: ځای źây (place) and څه śə (what). Wiktionary notes that څه is /tsə/ in the north and /sə/ in the south, another reminder that Pashto has strong regional accents.

Five ways to write y, and the end vowels

• ي — the ordinary y, as in Arabic.
• ې (pasta ye, 42nd) — the vowel /ɪ/; Wiktionary also lists it as an ending that makes nouns and adjectives feminine.
• ی — the Persian-style ya. The Unicode Standard says it has two dots below when it starts or sits inside a word, and no dots at the end.
• ۍ (44th) — /əi/, only at the end of a word: Wiktionary says it ends feminine nouns and adjectives stressed on the last syllable, as in ډوډۍ.
• ئ (45th, the last letter) — /əi/ or /j/; Wiktionary lists it as the ending of the second-person plural of verbs.

One more end letter: ۀ (he-hamza, 40th) is the vowel /ə/ and, like ۍ, appears only at the end of a word. These endings carry grammar — gender, person — so it pays to read them carefully from the start.

Joining: the letters that never join forward

As in Arabic, most letters join the next one. These never do, so a small gap follows them: ا د ډ ذ ر ړ ز ژ ږ و ۀ ۍ. Unicode's joining data marks the Pashto additions ډ ړ ږ ۀ ۍ as right-joining, exactly like د ر ز. Learn this list early: it is what lets you see where one letter ends and the next begins.

First words to read

Read each word letter by letter before you look at the transliteration. Notice how much the transliteration adds: short vowels such as the ə in ښځه are not written, so a new word is easier to read once you have heard it.

A two-week plan

1. Days 1–3: the letters Pashto shares with Arabic and Persian. If you know one of them, skim; if not, start with the Arabic alphabet guide.
2. Days 4–5: the ringed letters ټ ډ ړ ڼ ګ, and ځ څ.
3. Days 6–7: ښ and ږ — pick one accent and stay with it.
4. Days 8–10: the y-letters and end vowels ي ې ی ۍ ئ ۀ, and the letters that never join forward.
5. Days 11–14: read the word table above every day, then take the free Pashto level test to see where you stand.

A note on 16Word's Pashto: it is marked New in the app. Our Pashto word list was machine-authored and is waiting for native review, and very few words have recordings yet, so use it for reading and recall, and a teacher or native speaker for sound. Our plans page says what is free and what is in 16Word Plus.

Keep learning

• The Persian alphabet — the letters Pashto shares with Dari and Persian
• The Urdu alphabet — another way of writing retroflex sounds
• The Arabic alphabet — joining forms and short vowels
• The Sorani Kurdish alphabet — an Arabic script with its own vowel letters
• The Hebrew alphabet · Devanagari for Hindi · the Georgian alphabet
• Free level tests: Pashto · Persian · Urdu · Arabic · Sorani Kurdish · all 36 languages
• All guides