r/Urdu • • Sep 08 '26

💡 Learning Resources After a year we FINALLY finished Karak: Learn & Read Urdu

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64 Upvotes

Karak: Read and Learn Urdu is LIVE!

Assalamo alaikum!

Last year, some of you tried our beta with five stories and gave us a lot of helpful feedback. We're back with a much bigger library, a rebuilt reading experience, and apps for Android and the web. iOS is coming soon, Inshallah.

Karak is built to help you read, listen to, and speak more Urdu through stories and conversations. You can listen to native-speaker audio, follow along with the text, see sentence-by-sentence translations, tap words you don't know, save flashcards, and practice your pronunciation and speaking.

If you’ve already been on the revamped website, web app or the Android app, you may have seen the new version already. But here it is with some commentary

  • Stories: Our jam. There is some really fun stuff, ranging from the super short (a 77-word story about a thief who meows) to the medium (a 1,100-word story about a long day in the life of a single mother sparrow) to the longest so far (our 5,500-word translation of a classic Chinese horror story).
  • Scenarios: Short conversations, from quick hellos to a 750-word narrative following a bus ride through Karachi.
  • Conversations: Native-speaker chats at native-speaker speed. A fun one: a mamoo tells his trembling nieces the story of the rooftop room haunted by a djinn). More to come and help you decode native speed (or those pesky TV trackers on GEO / ARY / Other that move too fast...).

We also have some new stuff to help:

  • FLASHCARDS. Save the words you want to remember and review them whenever.
  • New grammar dialogues in the ‘Learn’ tab to help you understand and practice specific tenses. These are real conversations that naturally use more of one tense than another. For example, two friends talking about their bad habits that may or may not still be in the past...
  • New reading and speaking tools
    • You want to take it sentence by sentence, and pause so you can absorb what you just heard? Use Pause to stop at each line or a paragraph, and restart whenever.
    • You want to listen and repeat it at native speed? Use Listen & Repeat.
    • You want to just nail your pronunciation of the perfect putdown in Bad habits or any other line? Use Loop and repeat it till you have it down pat.
  • Upgraded website with a bunch of cool articles like an updated how to learn Urdu guide and how heritage speaker.

Overall

Everything in Karak is written, translated, illustrated, and recorded by native speakers.

We have content free to read, under ‘Try Karak Free’. All the longer stories have free chapters too, so you can get a taste of them.

If you’d like the full library and unlimited flashcards, we have monthly and annual plans, with founder pricing. See our plans and launch pricing.

Notes

We decided to include a beta dictionary in launch. Our dictionary is still growing, so not every word is covered yet. The entries we do have are human-reviewed, so they take some time to finish. Also, readers in Devanagari will find no dictionary at all (for now). Of course, you have Urdu stories with audio and translations for each sentence to tide you over and make sure you never, ever, get stuck.

Thank you & Try Karak

Thank you to everyone who tested the beta, sent feedback, or encouraged us while we built this. And thank you to the professors who gave us feedback and are planning to use Karak in their classes this semester, and the authors who trusted us with their work.

We hope you have fun with it!

Try it on web: Karak Web Or on Android

iOS coming soon Inshallah.

Honestly, there's a lot more to it all. Have fun reading! And let us know what you think or if you have any questions!


r/Urdu • • 2h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Dair - delay

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10 Upvotes

zindagī se yahī gila hai mujhe

tū bahut der se milā hai mujhe


r/Urdu • • 9h ago

💬 General Discussion So I saw a reddit thread and got depressed at the pathetic state of Urdu

15 Upvotes

https://www.reddit.com/r/language/s/6l0zpKvUKh

No one noticed the spelling mistake literally everyone except one thinks this is normal, one of the top comments has it mispronounced (zaalma instead of zalima)


r/Urdu • • 5h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry A Sher A Day

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7 Upvotes

the cycle time scraped that too from my lips, took it from me

the smile that I had donned for the world to see


r/Urdu • • 1h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Waqt-Waqt Ki Baat ✨

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• Upvotes

r/Urdu • • 7h ago

🎨 Nasta'liq / Script Can anyone decipher this.

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3 Upvotes

OP : u/IDGAF_XO


r/Urdu • • 1h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Hijr Ki Raakh Aur Wisaal Ke Phool — Faiz Ahmed Faiz | ہجر کی راکھ اور وصال کے پھول — فیض احمد فیض

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• Upvotes

A tender offering of memories shaped by both separation and togetherness. The poem brings the pain of absence and the beauty of shared moments into a single emotional landscape, where even the ashes of longing become part of an enduring tribute to love.

ہجر کی کسک اور وصال کی خوشبو سے بنی یادوں کی ایک سحر انگیز نظم جس میں جدائی کا دکھ اور قربت کے حسین لمحات ایک ساتھ سمٹ آتے ہیں، جیسے محبت کی دہلیز پر یادوں کے پھول اور محرومی کی راکھ کا نذرانہ خاموشی سے رکھ دیا گیا ہو۔

ہجر کی راکھ اور وصال کے پھول (فیض احمد فیض)

آج پھر درد و غم کے دھاگے میں

ہم پرو کر ترے خیال کے پھول

ترک الفت کے دشت سے چن کر

آشنائی کے ماہ و سال کے پھول

تیری دہلیز پر سجا آئے

پھر تری یاد پر چڑھا آئے

باندھ کر آرزو کے پلے میں

ہجر کی راکھ اور وصال کے پھول


r/Urdu • • 14h ago

🎨 Nasta'liq / Script New to writing in Nastaliq (and Perso-Arabic script generally). What should I improve?

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7 Upvotes

I’m an American heritage Urdu speaker who’s been trying to improve my Urdu. A big part of that is learning Nastaliq. I’ve been working through this book and using a G2 pen (hence why I can’t erase and squeezed the ایک in the first sentence and why there’s little calligraphic flair). Any tips would be much appreciated shukriya


r/Urdu • • 4h ago

💬 General Discussion Sabar aur yakeen

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0 Upvotes

Allah tala per yakin


r/Urdu • • 17h ago

💬 General Discussion Urdu Calligraphy Anyone

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9 Upvotes

Started again practising my fav hobby.

Anyone interested or having background in this art. Lets connect. I can share resiurces. Can guide as well.


r/Urdu • • 20h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Open the full photo to read the full quote

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10 Upvotes

جب سے محبتوں پہ وارا ہے خود کو

نقصان ہی نقصان ہے گھر میں 🫠♥️


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Tamanna - wish

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16 Upvotes

un kā zikr un kī tamannā un kī yaad

vaqt kitnā qīmtī hai aaj kal


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

🎨 Nasta'liq / Script اُردو ادب کے شائقین ملاحظہ فرمائیں۔

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13 Upvotes

تمام احباب اپنی قیمتی رائے کا اظہار فرمائیں۔۔۔

اور اپنے قیمتی اپ ووٹ کے ذریعے اپنی پسندیدگی کا اظہار فرمائیں۔۔۔


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry A Sher A Day

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24 Upvotes

Silent homes, hushed up roads, time that is weary

this city needs a someone with a touch of frenzy


r/Urdu • • 16h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Jab muskuraakar tum saamne aate ho... ✨

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2 Upvotes

Wrote a few lines today:

"Dhadkano ko kuch aise tum choo jaate ho,

Jaise koi ankahi ghazal gungunaate ho.

Zindagi khoobsurat lagne lagti hai us pal,

Jab muskuraakar tum saamne aate ho."

Let me know how it feels! Thoughts and feedback are always welcome.


r/Urdu • • 22h ago

🙋‍♂️ Question How hard is Urdu as someone who speak pashto?

4 Upvotes

​

so i wanna learn urdu while i'm still learning russian cuz next may there's a 6 months arabic course at an islamic school i wanna go to. i love arabic sm and apparently u have to speak urdu 24/7 there so u actually end up learning it. my cousin learned arabic in only 6 months btw...

i also need to learn urdu cuz literally everything here is in urdu and i can't understand or read shit. i feel so illiterate sometimes cuz there's zero english here.


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry how is my urdu handwriting?

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32 Upvotes

I haven't written anything in urdu in more than an yr so, mind the mistakes.


r/Urdu • • 20h ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Shabbir Hasan

1 Upvotes

Aawazo ke khalipan ko,
Khamosi se bhar jate hai,

Aadhi baat chupane wale,
Aadhi umr me mar jate hai 🤌🏻


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry أن کو بھی ہم سے محبت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

6 Upvotes

أن کو بھی ہم سے محبت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

ایک سی دونوں کی حالت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

بدلی بدلی سی نظر آتی ہے دنیا ہم کو

اس میں ان کی بھی عنایت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

ایک سی دونوں کی حالت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

جس کو کہتے ہیں محبت ہے خدا کی نعمت

سب کی قسمت میں یہ دولت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

ایک سی دونوں کی حالت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

چاند چھونے کی تمنا تو ہے ہم کو بھی مگر

دور کا چاند حقیقت ہو ضروری تو نہیں

ایک سی دونوں کی حالت ہو ضروری تو نہیں


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Lafz of the Day Duas are things that always needed

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8 Upvotes

r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Featuring me again today haha

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12 Upvotes

یہ الفاظ میرے قلم کے لکھے ہوئے نہیں ہیں، بلکہ ٹک ٹاک کی ایک ویڈیو پر دیکھے تھے۔ میں نے صرف نقل کیے ہیں، یہ میری اپنی تخلیق نہیں ہیں۔


r/Urdu • • 1d ago

📜 Lafz of the Day Beautiful but deep words

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5 Upvotes

r/Urdu • • 2d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry A Sher A Day

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24 Upvotes

even the moon and stars in the sky were available freely

but every toy available on earth was far too costly


r/Urdu • • 2d ago

📜 Shayari / Poetry Kanpna - tremble

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8 Upvotes

aate aate mirā naam sā rah gayā

us ke hoñToñ pe kuchh kāñptā rah gayā


r/Urdu • • 2d ago

💡 Learning Resources Self -reformation

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7 Upvotes