Pashto Names for Boys

Pashto Alphabets & Transliteration


Pashtuns living in Pakistan and Afghanistan have many different dialects about they use a unified script. Pashto has been written in a variant of the Persian script (which in turn is a variant of Arabic script) since the late sixteenth century. Pashto borrowed many words from Arabic and Persian. Due to its close geographic proximity to languages of the Indian sub-continent, Pashto has borrowed words from Indian languages too.

Pashto employs the Pashto alphabet, a modified form of the Persian alphabet, which in part is derived from the Arabic alphabet. It has extra letters for Pashto-specific sounds. Since the 17th century, Pashto has been primarily written in the Naskh script, rather than the Nasta'liq script used for neighboring Persian and Urdu. The Pashto alphabet consists of 44 letters and 4 diacritic marks.


Pashto English Phonetic Example Pashto English Phonetic Example
آ Aa Alif mad Bazaar ح H He hen
ا A Alif hand خ Kh Khe Bukhara
ب B Be bear د D Dal disk
پ P Pe pin ډ Dh Dhal adhesive
ت Th The thrill ذ Z Zal zoo
ټ T Te target ر R Re risk
ث S Se sorrow ړ Rh Rre rhythm
ج J Gim job ز Z Ze zip
چ Ch Che chin ژ Zh Zhe zhos
ځ Z Ze zebra ږ G Ge golf
څ S Sche sign س S Sin section
ش Sh Shin share ګ G Gaf good
ښ Kh Khin Bukhara ل L Lam land
ص S Sad sea م M Mim mark
ض Dh Zad adherence ن N Nun nest
ط Th Tha thin ڼ Nr Nnun sunrise
ظ Z Za zigzag و W Waw wings
ع A Ayn ambient ه H He hang
غ Gh Ghayn Baghdad ي E Sakhta ye  peel
ف F Fe firm ې Y Pasta ye  yellow
ق Q Qaf queue ی Ay Ye ray
ک K Kaf king ۍ Ey Khazina ye keys