The Punjabi words to learn first are the small, high-frequency ones: ਹਾਂ (haan, yes), ਨਹੀਂ (nahi, no), ਇਹ (eh, this), ਚੰਗਾ (changa, good) and ਹੈ (hai, is). Below are 60 of them in Gurmukhi with pronunciation, grouped into essentials, pronouns, verbs, question words, glue words and everyday nouns, so you can learn them a chunk at a time.
When I finally got serious about speaking Punjabi as an adult, I made the same mistake almost everyone makes: I tried to learn everything. Long themed wordlists, animals, fruits, professions, all memorised and almost all useless in an actual conversation. What actually moved the needle was a much smaller, much grubbier set of words. The connective tissue. The yes, the no, the this, the that, the "good," the "come," the "I want." The words you use a hundred times a day without noticing.
This is that list. Sixty words, chosen not because they are pretty but because they are frequent. If you learn these before anything else, you will understand more of what you hear immediately, because these are the words that show up in every sentence regardless of topic. I have grouped them so they are easier to chunk.
The absolute essentials
Start here. These ten do more work than any other words in the language.
| English | Gurmukhi | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| yes | ਹਾਂ | haan |
| no | ਨਹੀਂ | nahi |
| okay / fine | ਠੀਕ | theek |
| good | ਚੰਗਾ | changa |
| bad | ਮਾੜਾ | maaṛa |
| this | ਇਹ | eh |
| that | ਉਹ | oh |
| here | ਇੱਥੇ | itthe |
| there | ਉੱਥੇ | utthe |
| now | ਹੁਣ | huṇ |
People and pointing
The words for who is doing what. These pronouns are the spine of every sentence.
| English | Gurmukhi | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| I / me | ਮੈਂ | main |
| you (informal) | ਤੂੰ | tu |
| you (polite) | ਤੁਸੀਂ | tusi |
| he / she | ਉਹ | oh |
| we | ਅਸੀਂ | asi |
| name | ਨਾਮ | naam |
| man | ਆਦਮੀ | aadmi |
| woman | ਔਰਤ | aurat |
| child | ਬੱਚਾ | bachcha |
| friend | ਦੋਸਤ | dost |
The tu versus tusi split matters more than any vocabulary, it is the difference between casual and respectful, and getting it right with elders is half of sounding like you belong. The pronouns guide digs into exactly when to use which.
Doing things
Verbs are where a wordlist becomes a sentence. These are the highest-mileage ones.
| English | Gurmukhi | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| to be (is) | ਹੈ | hai |
| to do | ਕਰਨਾ | karna |
| to go | ਜਾਣਾ | jaana |
| to come | ਆਉਣਾ | aauṇa |
| to eat | ਖਾਣਾ | khaaṇa |
| to drink | ਪੀਣਾ | peeṇa |
| to want | ਚਾਹੁਣਾ | chaahuṇa |
| to see | ਵੇਖਣਾ | vekhṇa |
| to know | ਜਾਣਨਾ | jaaṇna |
| to give | ਦੇਣਾ | deṇa |
That little word hai ("is") deserves a special mention. It ends a huge share of Punjabi sentences, and once you have it, basic statements like eh changa hai ("this is good") fall out almost for free. I wrote a whole walkthrough on building sentences with it in the verbs and "to be" post.
What are the Punjabi question words?
Questions unlock conversation, because they hand the talking back to the other person and you just have to understand the reply.
| English | Gurmukhi | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| what | ਕੀ | ki |
| who | ਕੌਣ | kaun |
| where | ਕਿੱਥੇ | kithe |
| when | ਕਦੋਂ | kado |
| why | ਕਿਉਂ | kiu |
| how | ਕਿਵੇਂ | kiveN |
| how much | ਕਿੰਨਾ | kinna |
| how many | ਕਿੰਨੇ | kinne |
| which | ਕਿਹੜਾ | kihṛa |
| please | ਜੀ | ji |
That last one, ji, is worth its weight in gold. Tacked onto a name or a sentence it adds instant respect (haan ji, "yes" with warmth), and it is one of the most distinctly Punjabi habits of speech.
Small but constant
The glue words. Boring to learn, impossible to do without.
| English | Gurmukhi | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| and | ਅਤੇ | ate |
| but | ਪਰ | par |
| with | ਨਾਲ | naal |
| in | ਵਿੱਚ | vich |
| on | ਉੱਤੇ | utte |
| very | ਬਹੁਤ | bahut |
| a little | ਥੋੜ੍ਹਾ | thoṛa |
| more | ਹੋਰ | hor |
| again | ਫਿਰ | fer |
| today | ਅੱਜ | ajj |
Everyday nouns
Round it out with ten things you will actually name out loud most days. For the rooms and objects around you, there is a separate list of Punjabi words for the home.
| English | Gurmukhi | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| water | ਪਾਣੀ | paaṇi |
| food | ਖਾਣਾ | khaaṇa |
| house | ਘਰ | ghar |
| work | ਕੰਮ | kamm |
| day | ਦਿਨ | din |
| time | ਵੇਲਾ | vela |
| money | ਪੈਸੇ | paise |
| road / way | ਰਸਤਾ | rasta |
| thing | ਚੀਜ਼ | cheez |
| place | ਜਗ੍ਹਾ | jagah |
How should you learn these Punjabi words?
Do not sit and memorise all sixty in one go. That is the textbook trap, and it does not stick. Pick the first ten, use them out loud today, and add a row when the last one feels automatic. The grouping is there so you can take it a chunk at a time. If you want the structure around that, the complete beginner's guide lays out the order I would learn in, and the common Punjabi words and meanings post goes deeper on the everyday ones once these feel comfortable.
A wordlist gives you the words. It cannot tell you that paaṇi and paise sound closer than they look on paper, or train the low tone in ghar and the retroflex sounds your ear has to learn to hear. That auditory layer is the difference between recognising a word in a table and catching it in a sentence, and it is exactly what native-quality audio plus spaced repetition is for: hearing each of these words enough times, spaced right, that they surface on their own. Whichever way you practise, learn these sixty first, and the rest of Punjabi gets a lot less intimidating.
