Pronominal Adverbs

Pronominal adverb is a special class of adverbs. They occur in many languages, including English (when, then, where, there, how, so, etc.). Some of them are used in questions, others are used in declarative sentences. In Urdu, the pronominal adverbs are divided into several subclasses according to their meaning.

The main subclasses are:

Pronominal adverbs of time:

کب

kab 'when?'

تب

tab 'then'

اب

ab 'now'

کبھی کبھی

kabhii kabhii 'sometimes'

ھمیشہ

hameshaa 'always'

Pronominal adverbs of place:

کہاں

kahaaN 'where?'

وہاں

vahaaN 'there'

یہاں

yahaaN 'here'

Pronominal adverbs of quantity:

کتنے

kitne 'how many?'

اِتنے

itne 'so many'

اُتنے

utne 'that many'

Pronominal adverbs of manner:

کس طرح

kis tarah 'how?'

اِس طرح

is tarah 'so, this way'

اُس طرح

us tarah 'that way'

کیسے

kaise 'how? '

ایسے

aise 'so, this way'

ویسے

vaise 'that way'

Relative pronominal adverbs are another very important group of adverbs. They are used in the compound sentences to introduce relative subordinate clauses. In English, relative pronominal adverbs sometimes coincide in form (but not in meaning) with interrogative pronouns. (For example, 'When he comes, I'll do it.' 'The place where he lives is far away.') In Urdu, however, the pronominal adverbs of this group differ from all the others in initial consonant, which is j ج:

جب

jab 'when'

جہاں

jahaaN 'where'

جتنے

jitne 'as many as'

جس طرح

jis tarah 'as'

جیسے

jaise 'as'

In a compound sentence with a relative pronominal adverb, the principal clause is very often introduced by another pronominal adverb called a correlative:

جب وہ آئیگا تب میں اس کے ساتھ باتیں کرونگا

jab vah aegaa tab maiN us ke saath baateN karuuNgaa

'When he comes, I'll talk to him'

(literally: 'when he will come, then I him-with talk will do')

جہاں وہ رھتا ھے وہاں میں کام کرتا ھوں

jahaaN vah rahtaa hai vahaaN maiN kaam kartaa huuN

'I work where he lives (literally: 'where he lives, there I work')