3 most important "phrases" in Urdu

As you can probably tell from the timestamp on this blog post, I'm still currently suffering from jet lag (ugh, I RARELY get up before 6am!). However, since sleep seems unrealistic at this point, I thought I might as well make myself useful and publish one of the blog posts that I wrote while travelling.

As I mentioned before in my So...what do I speak and where have I been...? blog post, I speak Urdu. I took a few classes several years ago, but the majority of the Urdu I've retained comes from using it on my trips to south Asia.

Since I just returned from another trip to south Asia, it seems only fitting to talk about what I feel are the 3 most important "phrases" in Urdu, which can each mean several things:

1. bas (pronounced like "bus" in English) -- This can mean "enough" as in, "that's enough" or "I'm full" when eating or "that's all" or "no more" when talking about things. It can also mean "stop" as in "stop bothering me."
2. theek hai (pronounced like "teak hay" in English) -- This literally means "it's fine" or "ok" but it's used in much more instances than just "how are you doing?". It's sometimes used in similar cases of when bas might otherwise be used.
3. This last one isn't so much a phrase as it is a gesture. It's literally a sideways or cocked head nod and its meaning varies by context.
   
   • When everyone is standing around preparing to leave and someone does the head nod, it means "let's go."
   • When someone asks how something went and the response is the head nod, it means something like "I took care of it" or "it's done."
   • When you ask someone how he or she is doing and his or her response is the head nod, it means something along the lines of "I'm ok" or "I'm fine."
     In some instances, depending upon how the head is cocked, it can also mean the opposite. If someone isn't feeling well (for example, has a headache) and the question is whether that person is feeling better or if his or her headache went away, and the response is a slightly different head nod, then it means something like "Nope, still not feeling that great but managing."

As you can probably tell, just as in English, there are subtleties in Urdu, some of which are can only be picked up over time and through use.