Pashto Grammar

Intro

Pashto has a reputation for being difficult or mysterious. Learners are often overwhelmed and baffled by the how the words are constantly inflecting and changing, and they can be confused by the structure of sentences with past tense verbs, etc. 😩

But once we dive in and see how the language works we will see that Pashto has a very beautiful and clear structure. Like interlocking stones 🧱, or Lego pieces, the words and phrases have clear rules and constraints about how they can be placed together. Once we understand these rules, we can confidently and happily build little structures of meaning.

Grammar is basically a set of rules about how words and phrases are joined together to express ideas. It's the rulebook our brain uses whenever we hear or speak a language. 🧠📔

For native speakers, grammar is something that is internalized from childhood. 👶 It just 'feels right' and they never need to think consciously about what these rules are or why they work the way they do.

For adult learners, it's a little more complicated. There is a degree of subconscious internalization of these grammar rules that happens just by exposure or immersion in a new language. Our adult brains are able to discern and internalize some of the patterns and rules automatically. But just as with accent, the adult brain doesn't automatically pick up the grammar perfectly. We misunderstand things and are puzzled about what some sentences mean or how to say certain things. We can feel really confident that we are saying something correctly, but in reality be spewing awkward gibberish. 😬

So, when learning any language we need to put in some good hard effort in to discover what these rules of the language are, so we can understand how words and phrases are put together to express ideas clearly.

Learning a language and its grammar is more than just discovering and memorizing a few rules. It's a constant process of discovery, understanding, and internalizing or re-training our brains to follow these new rules automatically. Our brains learn a lot (maybe most) through exposure and subconscious processing of the language. But we also need to check ourselves, to see if we're really understanding how a certain rule or structure works, or if we're just carrying over a habit or a rule from another language we know. Then, once we understand how something really does work in the new language, we need to internalize it (through lots of exposure and pratice) so that it becomes automatic or natural for us.

Basically, when an adult learns a language:

  • They know some things just "feel" right, they can say it correctly but have no idea know why.
    • That's fine 👍
  • Some things they feel very uncertain about, and they need a clear explanation of how the words fit together.
    • A grammar can help! 🙂
  • Some things they think they know "feel" right, but really they've just understood or gotten used to using something completely wrong.
    • They need to check themselves with a grammar to try to get rid of these mistakes/understandings.

Having a reference where the learner can look up different aspects of the grammar and check the make sure they're understanding the patterns correctly can be a big help.

This grammar aims to help in this process of learning and getting used to the beautiful but often misunderstood language of Pashto. If you really want you can read through it front to back, but probably most will use it as a reference, looking at different sections as needed.

This grammar is mostly complete but is still a work in progress. Stay tuned for more content and revisions. Of course feedback and corrections are appreciated.

Note: This grammar is paired with the LingDocs Pashto Dictionary. 📚

"Part of the task of the grammarian is ... to unravel the complexities of languages, and, as far as possible, simplify them." Frank Palmer - Grammar

I hope this grammar helps to show that Pashto isn't difficult... it's rich and beautiful.

Was this chapter helpful?
😭
😕
🙂
🤩