There’s an old saw that if you know three languages, you’re trilingual, if you know two, you’re bilingual, and if you know one, you’re American. Most Afghans know a BUNCH…everyone knows Dari and Pashto, and many also know Tajik, Uzbek, Russian, and English.
As a Coalition advisor in Kabul, I’ve found even a little Dari goes a LONG way. Here’s my take on the absolute least you need to know…
- Kumak! Help! Because you just never know when you might need it…
- Salaam aalaikum – Peace be upon you, the standard greeting in most Islamic countries.
Wa’alaikum salaam – And peace be upon you, the standard response. - Soub baKhayr – Good morning.
- Lutfan – Please.
- Tashakur – Thank you.
- Chitur hasten? How are you? There’s a casual version, but this is the formal one, best for the first time you meet someone and to show respect for older or senior-ranking Afghans. They’ll let you know when they’re comfortable shifting to more informal language…
Man Khub hastam – I’m good.
Chuma chitur hasten? And you? - Me baKhshi – Excuse me (to an individual).
- Tabrik basha! Congratulations! The perfect phrase for a graduation ceremony…
- Khoda hafiz – May God protect you, my favorite way to say “farewell”.
- Shohna ba Shohna – Shoulder to Shoulder…this is the NTM-A motto and it really speaks to our relationship with the Afghan National Security Forces. There’s a wide range of ANA and ANP capabilities: Some have to lean on us like a person with an injured leg; some can walk with us, side by side; and some are sprinting alongside us. But in all cases, we’re at close ranks, shoulder to shoulder…moving forward against the insurgency and towards Afghanistan’s future.
Bottom line: Learning some Dari won’t magically fix everything that’s messed up in Afghanistan. But it will help.
* Photo by Cpl Artur Shvartsberg, USMC, from Defense Imagery.
** Photo by LCpl Jeremy Harris, USMC, from Defense Imagery.
9. Khoda hafiz – May God protect you, my favorite way to say “farewell”.
Which part of the phrase is the word for God? The reason I’m asking is that Hafiz is the name of my favorite Sufi poet. Much better sense of humor than Rumi. I think he was Persian which would tie into what you had explained about Dari being essentially ancient Persian
The fact you *have* a favorite Sufi poet is pretty dang cool!
Khoda = the Persian word for God (swallow the ‘a’ a little bit and you’ll see where English got the word God).
Hafiz = protector.
I’m not sure about Hafiz, but having a name with meaning is pretty common. For example, I know a couple guys named Omid, which means hope.
One other thing: There are deep overtones to the use of Khoda’fiz (Persian) vs. Allah’afiz (Arabic)…
Hafiz e Shirazi yes indeed he is an amazing poet/artist. I love the fact where he talks of wine and to the ones who don’t understand his poetry would think of him as a drunk however in his poetry wine = God.
Hafiz means keeper. Khuda Hafiz is more of may God keep you safe in other words.
In the last line of Phrase 6, I believe it should be “Shuma” rather than “Chuma.”
[…] is the language barrier. I was looking up Dari phrases just now and came across a soldier’s blog that had a list of top 10 Dari phrases. But he started off the post saying, “There’s an old […]
I’m off to Afghanistan for 3 weeks – big big Adventure. This site makes more sense of Dari than the books, so I’m working on it.
Had hoped for “where is the toilet?” but gather that there aren’t that many!
Thanks much for the kind comments!
The Dari word for bathroom is tashnob…I think the official phrase is
“Tashnab kojast?” but I was always able to get by by just asking
“tashnob?” with a rising inflection. In Kabul or MeS, you’ll probably
end up with a western-style toilet about half the time, and a
squat-hole about half, with fewer western amenities further out. In
general, they’re pretty nasty either way…mostly because hardly any
of the plumbing can handle toilet paper, so there’s these little
trashcans. Or not. Either way: Eeeuch! I always carried around a
small pack of toilet paper and small bottle of hand sanitizer.
As an aside, a “tashkil” is the list of authorized equipment and
personnel for a unit of the Afghan National Army or Police force…one
of the guys I worked with kept calling it a tashnob. NOT something
you want to get confused!
Noshe-e-Jaan! Dari pharase, It means good food or good appetite during eating meal,1- Example: if a person asking hey!!! come drink Tea or eat food with me the answer is thanks i am full Noshe-e-Jaan!. 2-Example: if a person saying to you ohh i am hungry i need to eat something, you say Noshe-e-Jaan! to him., and it has many other meanings like prais,2-Example if a person passed the exams or did a good Job you say to him Noshe-e-Jaan!
Regards:Nadirshah
hope i can learn more dari phrases from you, thanks clay perce!
I walked by a few Afghans and their interpretor yesterday and said a few Dari greetings and responses. The interpreter later told me the Afghans thought I was a fellow Afghan because of the pronouncation of my words. 5 more months left! Leaving a legacy.
great blog post :-) as an afghan I think the enthusiasm for the language showed on this blog is sweet, and pretty accurate too. :)
To the Khoda Hafez (iz) and Hafiz the poet…. Both words have the same root : tp keep, to remember. Khafiz (Hafiz, Hafez) is a man who has such a good memory that he knows the Quran by heart, its a honorary “nick”, like “Haji” for someone who went to Mecca. So the poet Khafiz was given that honorary nick because he learned the Quran by heart very early. In the “Khoda Hafiz” expression it means “God keeps you (remembers you)”, so this is where the identicality comes from. My favorite “Good bye” in Dari/Farsi is “KHoda negahdar”, which means “God watches you”, in the sense “May the Lord never take his eyes off you”. BTW “Khoda” literally means “Himself”, which for those of you who knows Russian has an identical word in Russian “Сам”.
Cool! I very much appreciate the background and info!
I found these Dari Phrases to be interesting. I also found this blog recently: http://blogs.transparent.com/dari/ that has a lot of information about the Dari language.
From reading the above, and I hear this with many returning from Afghanistan, it seems that there is a genuine mutual respect – even friendship – between our Forces and the Afghan people. This is not surprising, when you really get to know them. They want what we want: freedom, independence, and the chance to raise their families in their proud tradition. A little prosperity wouldn’t hurt, either. I think best way to honor our fallen over there is to hope & pray that Afghanistan becomes the great and peaceful land it could be someday.