Participles

In Urdu, there are two types of participles: present and past.

The present participle is formed by adding the suffix ﺗ t and the ending ﺎ aa to the stem of a verb:

رکھتا

rakhtaa 'keeping'

پڑھتا

paRhtaa 'reading'

کرتا

kartaa 'doing'

The present participle inflects for gender, number, and case in the same way as declinable adjectives that end in ا aa. It always agrees with the noun it qualifies.

دوڑتا آدمی

dauRtaa aadmii 'a running man'

دوڑتی عورت

dauRtii aurat 'a running woman'

دوڑتے کتے

dauRte kutte 'running dogs'

The past participle is formed by adding the ending ا aa to the verbal stem: :

رکھا

rakhaa 'kept'

چلا

calaa 'moved'

پڑھا

paRhaa 'read'

If the stem ends in a vowel, the participial ending is usually preceded by ﻳ y:

آیا

aayaa 'came'

بنایا

banaayaa 'made'

دھویا

dhoyaa 'washed'

Several verbs form the past participle irregularly. The most important of these verbs are given in the table below.

Infinitive	Past participle
جانا jaanaa 'to go'	گیا gayaa, feminine گئی gaii
لینا lenaa 'to take'	لیا liyaa, feminine لی lii
دینا deNaa 'to give'	دیا diyaa, feminine دی dii
کرنا karnaa 'to do'	کیا kiyaa, feminine کی kii
پینا piinaa 'to drink'	پیا piyaa, feminine پی pii
ھونا honaa 'to be'	ھوا huaa, feminine ھوئی huii Note: The spelling here is irregular, and the short vowel u is represented by the letter و (vaav).

Past participles inflect for gender, number, and case in the same way as declinable adjectives that end in ا aa. The only difference is in the feminine plural form, where, unlike adjectives, past participles have the nasalized vowel iiN: چلیں caliiN 'moved (women)', گئیں gaiiN 'gone (women)'. The rules of agreement for past participles will be discussed in the tense topics associated with the section on finite forms.

Urdu also has compound present participles and compound past participles. Each of these forms consists of a present participle or a past participle plus a past participle of the verb 'to be' ھوا (huaa):

دوڑتا ھوا

dauRtaa huaa 'running'

لکھا ھوا

likhaa huaa 'written'

Present and past participles (both simple and compound) can function as attributes of nouns. In this situation, the past participles of transitive verbs have passive meanings:

لکھی (ھوئی) کتاب

likhii (huii) kitaab 'a book (that is) written'

بنایا (ھوا) گھر

banaayaa (huaa) ghar 'a house (that is) built'

When a past participle functions as an attribute, its final vowel is not nasalized in the feminine plural form:

لکھی (ھوئی) چٹھیاں

likhii (huii) ciTThiyaaN 'letters (that are) written'