VII. Translation (Urdu → English) — Tense Map, Idioms & Practice Sentences (10 marks)

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Syllabus: Ten short Urdu sentences involving structural composition, significant terms and figurative/idiomatic expressions, to be accurately translated into English. 10 × 1 mark. The examiner is checking three things in each sentence: correct tense/structure, the right term, and a natural idiomatic equivalent — never a word-for-word rendering.

Five Rules

1. Translate the sense, not the words. وہ میری آنکھ کا تارا ہے is "She is the apple of my eye", not "the star of my eye".
2. Fix the tense first (table below) — Urdu سے + رہا ہے is almost always English present perfect continuous.
3. English word order is S–V–O. Urdu puts the verb last; don't carry that over.
4. Use the English idiom when one exists; if none exists, give the plain meaning in good English.
5. Punctuate and capitalise — each translation is a full English sentence.

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Urdu → English Tense Map

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40 Idioms & Proverbs — Urdu → English Equivalent

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30 Practice Sentences (translate first, then open the key)

1. وہ صبح سے بارش میں انتظار کر رہا ہے۔
2. جب میں اسٹیشن پہنچا تو گاڑی جا چکی تھی۔
3. اگر تم محنت کرتے تو ضرور کامیاب ہوتے۔
4. مہنگائی نے غریب کی کمر توڑ دی ہے۔
5. قانون کی حکمرانی کے بغیر جمہوریت ادھوری ہے۔
6. اس نے اپنے منہ میاں مٹھو بننے کی عادت نہیں چھوڑی۔
7. ہمیں اپنی چادر دیکھ کر پاؤں پھیلانے چاہئیں۔
8. وہ میری آنکھ کا تارا ہے۔
9. چور پولیس کو دیکھتے ہی نو دو گیارہ ہو گیا۔
10. کیا آپ نے کبھی سوچا ہے کہ ہم ترقی کیوں نہیں کر رہے؟
11. مجھے یہ کام کل تک ختم کرنا ہے۔
12. یہ مکان میرے دادا نے بنوایا تھا۔
13. اسے امتحان میں ناکامی کا ڈر کھائے جا رہا ہے۔
14. کاش میں وقت کی قدر کرتا۔
15. وہ اتنا کمزور ہے کہ چل نہیں سکتا۔
16. سیلاب زدگان کے لیے اعلان کردہ امداد اونٹ کے منہ میں زیرہ ہے۔
17. اس معاملے میں ضرور دال میں کچھ کالا ہے۔
18. وہ ہر کام میں ٹانگ اڑاتا ہے۔
19. ایک اسامی کے لیے ہزاروں امیدوار ہیں، یہ تو ایک انار سو بیمار والی بات ہے۔
20. جوں ہی گھنٹی بجی، طلبہ کمرے سے باہر نکل آئے۔
21. وہ بیمار ہونے کے باوجود دفتر آیا۔
22. حکومت نے تعلیم کا بجٹ بڑھانے کا فیصلہ کیا ہے۔
23. محنت کامیابی کی کنجی ہے۔
24. اس کی باتوں پر یقین نہ کرو، وہ رنگ بدلتا رہتا ہے۔
25. ہمیں ایک دوسرے کی رائے کا احترام کرنا چاہیے۔
26. میں کل سے آپ کا فون ملا رہا ہوں۔
27. وہ دن گئے جب لوگ ایک دوسرے کے دکھ درد میں شریک ہوتے تھے۔
28. اب پانی سر سے گزر چکا ہے۔
29. جلدی کا کام شیطان کا ہوتا ہے۔
30. جب تک ہم دیانتداری اختیار نہیں کریں گے، ترقی نہیں کر سکیں گے۔

• ✅ Model translations
  1. He has been waiting in the rain since morning.
  2. When I reached the station, the train had already left.
  3. If you had worked hard, you would certainly have succeeded.
  4. Inflation has broken the back of the poor.
  5. Without the rule of law, democracy is incomplete.
  6. He has not given up his habit of blowing his own trumpet.
  7. We should cut our coat according to our cloth.
  8. She is the apple of my eye.
  9. The thief took to his heels the moment he saw the police.
  10. Have you ever wondered why we are not progressing?
  11. I have to finish this work by tomorrow.
  12. My grandfather had this house built.
  13. The fear of failing the examination is eating him up.
  14. I wish I had valued time.
  15. He is so weak that he cannot walk. / He is too weak to walk.
  16. The aid announced for the flood victims is a mere drop in the ocean.
  17. There is certainly something fishy about this matter.
  18. He pokes his nose into everything.
  19. Thousands of candidates are competing for a single vacancy; it is a case of one post and a hundred claimants.
  20. No sooner had the bell rung than the students came out of the room.
  21. Despite being ill, he came to the office.
  22. The government has decided to increase the education budget.
  23. Hard work is the key to success.
  24. Don't believe what he says; he keeps changing colours like a chameleon.
  25. We should respect one another's opinions.
  26. I have been trying to call you since yesterday.
  27. Gone are the days when people used to share one another's joys and sorrows.
  28. Matters have now gone too far.
  29. Haste makes waste.
  30. Unless we adopt honesty, we cannot progress. (note: جب تک … نہیں → unless/until, with no second "not" in the clause)

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Common Terms Worth Knowing

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Daily drill (5 sentences, 10 minutes): pick 3 from this page and 2 from an Urdu newspaper headline (Jang/Express). Translate, then check tense against the map above before checking meaning.

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📜 CSS Past Papers 2020–2026 — Translation Solved (Q7, 10 marks)

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Pattern: a single Urdu paragraph (not sentences) every year since 2020. Themes: education (2020), Sir Syed / colonial history (2021), progress and its waste (2022), allegory (2023), Palestine (2024), Al-Ghazali (2025), Muslim unity (2026) — all seven solved below. Marks go to (1) correct tense, (2) English equivalents of Urdu idioms, (3) natural English — never word-for-word. Each answer below lists the idioms that earn the marks.

CSS 2020 — Education system

• Translation

  The education system of every nation in the world is in harmony with its national temperament; it shapes and fulfils national and communal aims, and the nation remains actively engaged in pursuing them. A nation's education system is thus an all-embracing system of training that nurtures the intellectual faculties of its people and builds their character. It trains individuals in such a way that they change the destiny of the nation.

  Idioms: مزاج سے ہم آہنگ → in harmony with its temperament · سرگرمِ عمل → actively engaged · پروان چڑھانا → nurture · تقدیر بدل دینا → change/transform the destiny

CSS 2021 — Sir Syed and the Agra Durbar

• Translation

  Contrary to the sycophantic and servile attitude towards imperialist British values, which the British rulers had promoted and the people of India had adopted in that era, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his illustrious, enlightened son Syed Mahmood tried to conduct themselves as the equals and peers of the English. The incident of the Agra Durbar of 1867 was well known not only to the Muslims but to the entire Indian nation. Sir Syed walked out of that Durbar because Indians had been given seats of a lower rank than the English. A medal was to be conferred on him at the Durbar. Later, Williams, the Commissioner of Meerut, was entrusted with the task of going to Aligarh railway station to present the medal to Sir Syed.

  Idioms: خوش آمدانہ اور فرمانبردارانہ → sycophantic and servile · روشن دماغ → enlightened · ہم مرتبہ → peers · علیحدگی اختیار کرنا → walk out/withdraw · خدمت تفویض کرنا → entrust with the task

CSS 2022 — Every age brings change (progress and its waste)

• Urdu text (as printed in the paper)

  ہر دور اپنے ساتھ بہت سے ایسے معاملات بھی لے کر آتا ہے جو کسی کی پسند کے نہیں ہوتے مگر انہیں قبول کرنا ہی پڑتا ہے۔ بعض اوقات ایسا بھی ہوتا ہے کہ قدرت شاید ہمیں آزمانے کی خاطر ایسا بہت کچھ ہمارے سامنے رکھتی ہے جو ہمارے مطلب کا نہیں ہوتا بلکہ اس سے ہمارا کوئی تعلق ہی نہیں ہوتا، مگر پھر بھی اسے زندگی کا حصہ بناتے ہوئے چلنا پڑتا ہے۔ آج بھی ایسا ہی چل رہا ہے۔ ہر صدی اپنے ساتھ ایسی تبدیلیاں لاتی رہی ہے جو گزشتہ صدیوں کے مقابلے میں بالکل نئی تھیں۔ فطری علوم و فنون کی ترقی نے انسان کو ایسا بہت کچھ دیا ہے جسے علمی و معاشی عمل کا کچرا قرار دیا جا سکتا ہے۔ قدرت ہمیں پھل دیتی ہے تو ساتھ ہی ساتھ اس بات کا بھی پابند کرتی ہے کہ اس کے چھلکوں کو ڈھنگ سے ٹھکانے لگائیں۔ اگر ایسا نہ کیا جائے تو ماحول کی غلاظت بڑھتی ہے۔

• Translation

  Every age brings with it many matters that are not to anyone's liking, yet they simply have to be accepted. At times it so happens that nature, perhaps to test us, places before us a great deal that serves no purpose of ours — indeed, that has nothing to do with us at all — and yet we must make it a part of life and carry on. The same is happening today. Every century has brought with it changes that were altogether new compared with the centuries before it. The advancement of the natural sciences and arts has given man much that may well be called the refuse of intellectual and economic activity. When nature gives us fruit, it binds us at the same time to dispose of the peel properly; if that is not done, the pollution of the environment increases.

  Idioms — this is where the marks are:

  • کسی کی پسند کے نہیں ہوتے — not to anyone's liking
  • قبول کرنا ہی پڑتا ہے — simply have to be accepted (carry the emphatic ہی with "simply" or "have no choice but to")
  • آزمانے کی خاطر — in order to test us
  • ہمارے مطلب کا نہیں — serves no purpose of ours (never "not of our meaning")
  • زندگی کا حصہ بناتے ہوئے چلنا — make it a part of life and carry on
  • کچرا قرار دینا — to term/call it the refuse
  • ٹھکانے لگانا — to dispose of ← the trap on this paper: the same idiom also means "to do away with / kill". Here it is rubbish disposal.
  • ڈھنگ سے — properly
  • غلاظت بڑھتی ہے — pollution increases

  Structure note: keep the fruit-and-peel metaphor literal — it is the passage's whole point (progress yields benefits and waste together). Use the present tense throughout for these general truths; only گزشتہ صدیوں کے مقابلے میں نئی تھیں takes the past.

CSS 2023 — The flower beyond the mountain (allegory)

• Translation

  An old man said that beyond the forest there is a mountain where a flower grows whose fragrance restores lost eyesight. But the mountain is very high, strewn with countless rocks, thorny bushes and huge boulders that block the way. Many people came to climb it and went back, but no one ever came who reached the flower. Perhaps that is why there is sorrow and suffering in the world, and man is still in search of light.

  Idioms: کھوئی ہوئی روشنی لوٹ آتی ہے → restores lost eyesight (keep the double meaning of "light") · راستہ روک لیتے ہیں → block the way · Keep the present tense for the legend's timeless facts.

CSS 2024 — Palestine

• Translation

  When the fabricated dispute over Palestine was brought before the United Nations for settlement, that representative world body, recognising the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, itself devised a formula for resolving it. A two-state solution was proposed, but the UN resolutions passed for it have never been allowed to see the light of implementation in seven decades. Instead, with America's blessing, Israeli forces are to this day spilling the blood of unarmed, innocent Palestinians with impunity, and Gaza has been reduced to rubble in the war raging for the past two and a half months. Backed by American reinforcements, Israeli forces have ruthlessly killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, including women and children, and have left no refuge safe for the survivors, who are now losing their lives to shortages of food and medicine as well.

  Idioms: خون سے ہولی کھیلنا → spill blood with impunity / carry out a bloodbath (never "play Holi with blood") · عملدرآمد کی نوبت ہی نہیں آنے دی → never allowed to see the light of implementation · کی ایماء پر → at the behest of · برباد ہو چکا ہے → reduced to rubble · زندگی سے ہاتھ دھونا → lose their lives · شہید کرنا → kill/martyr (use "martyr" only in a clearly Islamic register)

CSS 2025 — Al-Ghazali

• Translation

  Al-Ghazali, the twelfth-century Muslim theologian and philosopher, is among the most misunderstood of thinkers. He argued that the Qur'an is open to as many interpretations as there are drops of water in the sea. In his words, "Do you not know that the Qur'an is like an ocean?" — and you have the right to voyage across its boundless ocean of meanings. By diving into its depths, you can gather rubies and pearls and become rich. He goes on to ask, "Why do you lie on the shore, content with the surface?" — meaning that it is permissible for Muslims to reject, to move forward and to disagree. Al-Ghazali represents the finest blend of innovation and tradition.

  Idioms: غلط فہمی کا شکار → misunderstood · غوطہ زن ہونا → dive into · ظاہر پر مطمئن → content with the surface · جدت اور روایت کا امتزاج → a blend of innovation and tradition

CSS 2026 — Muslim unity

• Translation

  It is a fact that the Muslim world is richly endowed with natural resources and is fully capable of meeting every requirement of its defence against hostile, irreligious forces. If all Muslim countries were to pool their capabilities and resources collectively for one another's interests and defence, no power on earth could stand up to them. United and in solidarity, the Muslim world can emerge as a major force among the nations. The irreligious forces hostile to Islam are fully aware of this reality; hence they are constantly busy hatching conspiracies to break the unity of the Muslim world and plunge it into disarray. Owing to various petty differences, Muslim countries themselves remain entangled and at loggerheads with one another.

  Idioms: مالا مال → richly endowed · بروئے کار لانا → bring into play / pool · آگے ٹھہر نہیں سکتی → stand up to · انتشار کا شکار کرنا → plunge into disarray · فروعی اختلافات → petty/peripheral differences · برسرِ پیکار → at loggerheads