The Urdu alphabet: 39 letters, Nastaliq and the sounds Arabic lacks

Urdu is written in an extended Arabic script, right to left, usually in the flowing Nastaliq style. It has every letter of the Persian alphabet plus a handful of its own: three for sounds made with the tongue curled back (ٹ ڈ ڑ), a letter for nasal vowels (ں), a two-eyed h that marks breathy consonants (ھ) and a long ye for the vowel e (ے). This guide shows them all, with words to read. Ready to check your level? Try the free Urdu level test.

Updated November 12, 2026 · 6 min read

Where Urdu is written

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan: Article 251 of the Constitution of Pakistan says so, and allows English for official purposes until arrangements are made to replace it with Urdu. In India, Urdu is one of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, alongside Hindi.

The Unicode Standard counts Urdu among the languages that extended the Arabic script, and notes that it is often written in the ornate Nastaliq style. If you know the Arabic alphabet or the Persian one, you already read most Urdu letters.

How many letters?

Wiktionary's list of Urdu letters has 39, ending with ے. Books and charts do not always agree on the count, so do not worry if yours shows another number: the letters themselves are the same.

ٹ ڈ ڑ: the small ط on top

Urdu has a series of sounds made with the tip of the tongue curled back — retroflex sounds. It marks them by putting a small ط above an existing letter. Unicode's joining data names them exactly that way: dotless beh with tah above, dal with tah above, reh with tah above.

Our rough guide: say an English t or d, then curl the tongue tip back towards the roof of the mouth. ڑ is a quick flap made the same way, heard inside words like گاڑی.

Two letters for h

• ہ — choṭī he ("small he") is the ordinary h, and at the end of a word often a vowel, as in شکریہ shukriya (thanks).
• ھ — do-chashmī he ("two-eyed he") has, in Wiktionary's words, no sound of its own: it makes the consonant before it aspirated — pronounced with a puff of breath. گ + ھ = گھ gh, as in گھر *ghar* (house, home). The same way you get بھ bh, پھ ph, تھ th, ٹھ ṭh, کھ kh.

ں and ے: the end-of-word letters

• ں — noon ghunna is a dotless ن. It is not pronounced as n: it makes the vowel before it nasal, like the French bon. The Unicode Standard notes it typically appears only at the end of a word: ماں mā̃ (mother), ہاں hā̃ (yes), نہیں nahī̃ (no, not).
• ے — baṛī ye ("big ye") stands at the end of a word for the vowels e and ai, while ی usually writes i. Unicode explains that Urdu adopted it as a distinct letter for its richer set of vowels: compare ہے hai (is) with پانی pānī (water).

Joining: ten 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 ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ و ے. ء (hamza) does not join at all. Learn this list early — it is what lets you see where one letter ends and the next begins.

Nastaliq: the style, not a different alphabet

Nastaliq is a way of drawing the letters, not a separate set. In Nastaliq, joined letters often sit at different heights, so a word can look very different from the same word in plain printed Arabic style. Our advice: learn the letters in a simple print style first, then read Nastaliq every day — newspapers, signs, song titles — until the shapes become familiar.

Urdu and Hindi: the same words, two scripts

Wiktionary gives a Hindi spelling in Devanagari for many everyday Urdu words — the sound is the same, only the script differs. If you already read Devanagari, these pairs are a shortcut; if you read Urdu, they are a way into the Hindi level test.

First words to read

A two-week plan

1. Days 1–4: the shared Arabic–Persian letters, starting with the ten that never join forward.
2. Days 5–7: ٹ ڈ ڑ and ھ — say each aspirated pair aloud (k / kh, p / ph, t / th).
3. Days 8–10: ں and ے at the end of words; read the tables above.
4. Days 11–14: switch to Nastaliq texts and learn ten words a day. Then take the Urdu level test.

Keep learning

• The Persian alphabet and the Arabic alphabet — the scripts Urdu builds on
• Devanagari for Hindi — the same everyday words in another script
• The Azerbaijani alphabet and the Hebrew alphabet
• Level tests: Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Pashto or all 36 languages
• All guides · Plans and prices