Pashto grammar

Pashto is a S-O-V language with split ergativity. Adjectives come before nouns. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for gender (masc./fem.), number (sing./plur.), and case (direct, oblique I, oblique II and vocative). The verb system is very intricate with the following tenses: present; subjunctive; simple past; past progressive; present perfect; and past perfect. In any of the past tenses (simple past, past progressive, present perfect, past perfect), Pashto is an ergative language; i.e., transitive verbs in any of the past tenses agree with the object of the sentence. The dialects show some non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms that are discarded by the literary language.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

	Singular						Plural
	1st	2nd	3rd (visible)		3rd (invis.)		1st	2nd	3rd (visible)	3rd (invis.)
			Masc.	Fem.	Masc.	Fem.
(English)	I	you (sing.)	he	she	he (invis.)	she (invis.)	we	you (plur.)	they	they (invis.)
Direct	زه zə	ته tə	دی dai	دا dā	هغه hagha		موږ mūg	تاسو tāsō	دوی dūy	هغوی haghūy
Indirect	ما mā	تا tā	دۀ də	دې dē	هغۀ haghə	هغې haghē

Demonstrative pronouns

دغه dagha (this)

Direct	دغه dagha
Indirect	دې dē

هغه hagha (that)

	Singular		Plural
	Masc.	Fem.
Direct	هغه hagha
Indirect	هغۀ haghə	هغې haghē	هغو haghō

Possessive pronouns

Independent forms

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	زما zamā	زموږ zamūg
2nd	ستا stā	ستاسو stāsō
3rd (visible)	د دۀ da də (masc.) د دې da dē (fem.)	د دوی da dūy
3rd (invis.)	د هغۀ da haghə (masc.) د هغې da haghē (fem.)	د هغوی da haghūy

Enclitic forms

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	ـمې -mē	ـمو -mō
2nd	ـدې -dē	ـمو -mō
3rd	ـیې -yē

Interrogative pronouns

(English)	who	whose
Direct	څوك tsōk	د چا da chā
Indirect	چا chā

Nouns

Case

Pashto inflects nouns into four grammatical cases: direct, oblique I, oblique II and vocative. The oblique I case is used as prepositional case as well as in the past tense as the subject of transitive verbs, and the oblique II case is used as ablative case.

The following table shows the declension of the masculine noun غر (ghar, meaning "mountain"):

	Singular	Plural
Direct	غر ghar	غرونه ghrūna
Oblique I	غرۀ ghrə	غرونو ghrūnō
Oblique II	غره ghara	غرونو ghrūnō
Vocative	غره ghra	غرونو ghrūnō

The following table shows the declension of سړی (sarrai, meaning "man"), a masculine noun with ending "ai":

	Singular	Plural
Direct	سړی sarrai	سړي sarri
Oblique I	سړي sarri	سړيو sarrəyō
Oblique II	سړيه sarrəya	سړيو sarrəyō
Vocative	سړيه sarrəya	سړيو sarrəyō

The following table shows the declension of ښځه (khəza, meaning "woman"), a feminine noun with ending "a":

	Singular	Plural
Direct	ښځه khəza	ښځې khəzē
Oblique I	ښځې khəzē	ښځو khəzō
Oblique II	ښځې khəzē	ښځو khəzō
Vocative	ښځې khəzē	ښځو khəzō

The following table shows the declension of the feminine noun ورځ (wraz, meaning "day"):

	Singular	Plural
Direct	ورځ wraz	ورځې wrazē
Oblique I	ورځ wraz	ورځو wrazō
Oblique II	ورځه wraza	ورځو wrazō
Vocative	ورځې wrazē	ورځو wrazō

Gender

There are two genders: masculine and feminine.

Number

There are two numbers: singular and plural.

Definiteness

There is no definite article. But when necessary, definiteness may be indicated by other means such as demonstratives.

Adjectives

The adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.

			Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Class 4	Class 5
Masculine	Singular	Direct	-			-ay
		Oblique II	-a			-aya	-i
		Vocative					-e
		Oblique I	-	-ə		-i
	Plural	Direct
		Oblique/Vocative	-o			-io/-o	-yo/-o
Feminine	Singular	Direct	-a			-əy	-e
		Oblique II
		Vocative	-e
		Oblique I
	Plural	Direct
		Oblique/Vocative	-o			-əyo/-o	-yo/-o

Notes:

• In the plural, both obliques and the vocative merge into a single form.
• Singular Oblique I and plural Direct always merge into a single form.
• The above two conditions mean that there can be at most five distinct forms for masculine adjectives (but in fact, no class distinguishes more than four).
• For feminine adjectives, singular Oblique I and Vocative merge, while singular Direct and Oblique II merge; combined with mergers noted previously, there can be at most three distinct forms for feminine adjectives.
• Classes 2 and 3 have stem and stress alternations among different cases. Class 3 has a basic distinction between the masculine singular Direct, Oblique II and Vocative, with stem stress, and all other forms, with a (sometimes) different stem and with ending stress (e.g. masc. trix, fem. tarxá "bitter"; masc. sur, fem. srá "red"; masc. sor̂, fem. sār̂á "cold"; masc. run̂, fem. run̂á "light" with only one stem). Class 2 has the same stress alternation, but has three distinct stems, with stressed stem vowel 'o' or 'u' in masculine singular Direct, Oblique II and Vocative, unstressed stem vowel 'ā' in masculine singular Oblique I and plural Direct, and unstressed stem vowel 'a' in all other forms (e.g. masc. sing. pox, masc. plur. pāxǝ́, fem. paxá "ripe, cooked").

Verbs

Present tense of يم (yəm) "to be":

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	زه يم zə yəm	موږ يو mūg yū
2nd	ته يې tə yē	تاسو ياست tāsō yāst
3rd	دی دی dai dai دا ده dā da	دوی دي dūy di

Past tense of يم (yəm) "to be":

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	زه وم zə wəm	موږ وو mūg wū
2nd	ته وې tə wē	تاسو وئ tāsō wəi
3rd (masc.)	دی وو dai wō	دوی وي dūy wi
3rd (fam.)	دا وه dā wa	دوی وې dūy wē

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers (direct case, masc.)

• 0 صفر sifər
• 1 يو yaw
• 2 دوه dwa
• 3 درې drē
• 4 څلور tsalōr
• 5 پنځه pinzə
• 6 شپږ shpag
• 7 اووه ūwə
• 8 اته atə
• 9 نه nə
• 10 لس las

Ordinal Numbers (direct case, masc., sing.)

• 1st لومړی lumrrai
• 2nd دوهم dwaham
• 3rd دريم drəyam
• 4th څلورم tsaloram
• 5th پنځم pinzam
• 6th شپږم shpagam
• 7th اووم ūwam
• 8th اتم atam
• 9th نهم nəham
• 10th لسم lasam

External links

• Herbert Penzl, A Grammar of Pashto: A Descriptive Study of the Dialect of Kandahar, Afghanistan
• Georg Morgenstierne, "'AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṧtō'", Encyclopaedia Iranica
• Longnow, Rosettaproject, Pashto, Southern Grammar