~40+ million native speakers worldwide. Most speakers live in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with communities in the wider diaspora.
South-Central AsiaDiasporaHeritage Language
Status and Use
Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. It is widely used in education, media, and public life in Pashto-speaking regions and is also used across Pakistan’s northwestern areas.
Modified Perso-Arabic script written right-to-left. The Pashto alphabet is commonly described as having 44 letters, including several letters created to represent Pashto sounds.
Right-to-Left44 LettersDiacritics
Word Order
SOV (Subject–Object–Verb) is the most common sentence order. Pashto also uses prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions depending on meaning.
SOVHead-FinalFlexible Phrases
ISO Codes
ISO 639-1: ps • ISO 639-2: pus • ISO 639-3 (macrolanguage): pus Widely referenced varieties include pbu (Northern) and pbt (Southern).
pspuspbu / pbt
What Makes Pashto Distinct
Pashto stands out for its strong Iranian core vocabulary, a detailed verb system, and a grammar that can shift alignment by tense and aspect.
Many learners notice its clear consonant contrasts and letter shapes designed for Pashto sounds.
In everyday life, Pashto carries cultural value as well as practical use in regional communication.
Dialects and Major Varieties
Pashto is spoken in a range of regional forms. A common broad division is between Western varieties (often associated with Kandahar)
and Eastern varieties (often associated with Nangarhar–Peshawar regions). These varieties can differ in pronunciation and some everyday words,
while staying mutually understandable for most speakers.
Sound System Notes
Rich consonant set: Pashto includes several sounds not found in many neighboring languages.
Aspirated vs non-aspirated: Some consonants can be pronounced with a stronger burst of air.
Stress matters: Word stress can affect clarity and rhythm.
Non-tonal: Meaning does not depend on pitch patterns the way tonal languages do.
Grammar Snapshot
Typical order: Subject + Object + Verb.
Gender: Nouns are commonly masculine or feminine.
Cases: Nouns and adjectives can show case distinctions used for grammatical roles.
Split ergativity: In many past-tense transitive clauses, agreement patterns can shift compared with present tense.
Writing and Reading Tips
Right-to-left flow: Read from right to left; numbers often appear left-to-right.
Letter forms: Many letters change shape depending on position (initial, medial, final, isolated).
Extra letters: Pashto adds letters to represent native sounds clearly.
Short vowels: Often not fully written in everyday text, so context helps.
