Pashto is the native language of the Pashtun people. It is one of the official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari. Additional Pashto-speaking communities can also found in the northeastern parts of Iran and the southwestern parts of India. Pashto is a member of the East Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.
If your Pashto lessons require you to type Pashto characters, follow the instructions immediately below to do so. If your lessons use transliterated Pashto, see the Using Transliterated Pashto Lessons section further down.
Pashto uses a version of the Arabic alphabet. This alphabet is written in a flowing script that runs from right to left, the opposite of English. Most Pashto letters connect to the letters preceding and following them, just as in English cursive writing. Therefore, letters often change shape depending on their placement within a word. Pashto is usually written using only consonants and long vowels, although there are small marks which can be used above or below letters to indicate short vowels.
Note that certain characters are only appear on the Pashto virtual keyboard when you press the Shift key. These characters include a number of letters, as well as some punctuation marks, such as the question mark and the exclamation point. A few additional characters are also available by holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time.
Some Pashto lessons in this application may be transliterated - written with the letters of the Latin alphabet, from left to right. Transliterated lessons can help you master vocabulary and pronunciation before tackling a new writing system.
You do not have to type actual Pashto characters in transliterated Pashto lessons. You can type the transliterations in any activity or assessment that requires typed answers.
This transliterated Pashto content uses the special characters á, é, í, ó, and ú. See Typing accents or special characters for instructions on typing these characters.