Very Basic Uzbek Vocabulary

This list was inspired by Mark Dickens' Introduction to the Uzbek Language, an excellent presentation of the minimum grammar and vocabulary needed to communicate in Uzbek. This smaller list gives you just enough vocabulary to start making your own sentences while you learn the basics of the grammar.

Visit my Uzbek Lesson Homepage as well as Mark's page, to learn more about combining these words into sentences, the true foundational element of language.

Very Basic Uzbek Vocabulary

1. Pronouns
English / Pronoun / Possessive
I / men / mening –im
you / sen / sening –ing
he/she/it / u / uning –si
we / biz / bizning –imiz
you (pl) / siz / sizning –ingiz
they / ular / ularning –si

2. Adjectives
Contrasting Adjectives
good : bad :: yaxshi : yomon
big : small :: katta : kichkina
new : old :: yangi : eski
young : old :: yosh : qari
healthy : sick :: yog’ : kasal
hot : cold :: issiq : sovuq
fast : slow :: tez : sekin
near : far :: yaqin : uzoq
right : left :: o’ng : chap

Other Adjectives
correct: to’g’ri
rich: boy
happy: xursand
beautiful: chiroyli
ready: tayyor

Contrasting Adjectives of Quantity
a little : a lot :: ozgina : ko’p
none : all :: hech : hamma

3. Numbers
1: bir
2: ikki
3: uch
4: to’rt
5: besh
6: olti
7: yetti
8: sekkiz
9: to’qqiz
10: o’n

4. Adverbs
Adverbs of Place
here : there :: bu yerda : u yerda

Adverbs of Time
early : late :: erta : kech
yesterday: kecha
today: bugun
tomororrow: ertaga

5. Question Words
who: kim
what: nima
why: nimaga
at/to where : qayer-da/-ga
when: qachon
how: qanday

6. Conjunctions
and: va
or: yoki
but: lekin

7. Postpositions
with: bilan
beside: yonida
inside: ichida
after: keyin
before: oldin
for: uchun
about: haqida

8. Verb stems
say: ayt- / understand: tushun-
know: bil- / believe: ishon-
go: bor- / come: kel-
take (to): olib bor- / bring (to): olib kel-
give: ber- / take: ol-
sell: sot- / buy: sotib ol-
lie down: yot- / sit down: o’tir-
stay/stand: tur- / move/walk: yur-
eat: ye- / drink: ich-
close: yop- / open: och-
see: ko’r- / listen: eshit-
do/make: qil- / put: qo’y-

9. Nouns
People
person: kishi
man : erkak :: woman : ayol
husband : er :: wife : xotin
father: ota :: mother : ona
son : o’g’il :: daugher : qiz
child: bola
friend: do’st
student : talaba :: teacher : o’qituvchi
worker: ishchi

Places
market: bozor
shop: do’kon
school: maktab
mehmonxona: hotel
oshxona: restaurant
kasalxona: hospital

House
house: uy
door: eshik
window: deraza
table: stol
chair: stul
toilet: tualet

Food and Drink
meat: go’sht
bread: non
food/rice: osh
tea: choy
sugar: shakar
milk: sut
water: suv

Other
thing: narsa
key: kalit
book: kitob
name: ism

Building Up Your Uzbek III

Here are your last seven sentences for mastering some basic grammar structures.

1. Joyi-dan siljit-mang.

joy(i): place; -dan: from; siljit: move; -mang: negative command

Joyidan siljitmang!
Do not remove!
(Place-from move-not!)

2. Qo'l-ingiz-ni ko'tar-ing.

qo'l: hand; -ingiz: your; -ni: direct object; ko'tar: lift; -ing: imperative

Qo'lingizni ko'taring!
Put your hands up!
(Hand-your-d.o. lift!)

3. Qo'l-ingiz-ni tush-ir-ing.

tush: go down; -ir: cause

Qo'lingizni tushiring!
Lower your hands!
(Hand-your-d.o. go down-make!)

4. Siz-ga yordam kerak-mi?

siz: you; -ga: to; yordam: help; kerak: need; -mi: question marker

Sizga yordam kerakmi?
Do you need help?
(You-to help [is] need?)

5. Siz-da ___ bor-mi?
-da: at; bor: exists

Sizda ___ bormi?
Do you have ___?
(You-at ___ exists?)

6. Men ista-y-man.

ista: want; -man: 1st person ending; istayman: ista+(y)+man

Men istayman.
I want.

7. Men ista-ma-y-man.

-ma: not; istamayman: ista (want) + ma (not) + (y) + man

Men istamayman.
I don't want.

Building Up Your Uzbek II

Here are seven more sentences to illustrate the workings of Uzbek. In learning them, you can assimilate the grammar more naturally.

1. Uy-ingiz-ga bor-ing.

uy: home; -ingiz: your; -ga: to; bor: go; -ing: imperative

Uyingizga boring!
Go home!
(Home-your-to go!)

2. Men-i ___-ga olib bor-ing.

men: I; -ni: direct object; meni: me; olib: causative

Meni ___-ga olib boring!
Take me to ___!
(Me ___-to make go!)

3. Men-ga ___-ni ber-ing.

ber: give

Menga ___ bering!
Give me!
(Me-to give!)

4. Men-ga olib kel-ing.

kel: come

Menga olib keling!
Bring me!
(Me-to make come!)

5. Qimirla-mang.

qimirla: to move; -mang: negative command (-ma: not + -ing: imperative)

Qimirlamang!
Don't move!
(Move-not!)

6. Ot-mang!

ot: to throw or shoot

Otmang!
Don't shoot!
(Shoot-don't)

7. Teg-mang!

teg: touch

Tegmang!
Don't touch!
(Touch-don't!)

Once you've read through the items, try reading just the boldface entries a few times to get the sentences better anchored in your memory.

Building Up Your Uzbek - by tearing it down - I

Once you've got a stock of Uzbek phrases in mind, you can learn more using the self-talk method, the Iverson method or any number of other techniques. To get the most from your learning, though, you'll want to gradually improve your knowledge of Uzbek structures so that you can break down and fully understand the phrases you're learning.

The next three lessons give twenty-one phrases extracted from the DLI Uzbek Basic Survival Language Guide (found here). Their content is military, which may be useful or may just be memorable. The true value of these phrases is that they illustrate a handful of common components of slightly more complex sentences. By keeping them in mind, you'll always have a sort of miniature grammar with you.

1. Buyruq-lar-imiz-ni bajar-ing.

buyruq: command; -lar: plural; -imiz: our; -ni: direct object; bajar: execute or carry out; -ing: imperative

Buyruqlarimizni bajaring!
Carry out our orders!
(Order-s-our-d.o. carry out!)

2. Qurol-ingiz-ni past-ga qo'y-ing.

qurol: weapon; -ingiz: your; past: below; -ga: to; qo'y: put

Qurolingizni pastga qo'ying!
Put down your weapon!
(Weapon-your-d.o. down-to put!)

3. Bu yer-ga kel-ing.

bu: this; yer: place; kel: come

Bu yerga keling!
Come here!
(This place-to come!)

4. Shu yer-da tur-ing.

shu: this; -da: at; tur: stand

Shu yerda turing!
Stay here!
(This place-at stand!)

5. Joy-ingiz-da tur-ing.

joy: place; note that yer (place) means land; joy is from a Persian word for place.

Joyingizda turing!
Stay where your are!
(Place-your-at stay!)

6. Ket-im-da yur-ing.

ket: back; -im: my; yur: move, walk

Ketimda yuring!
Follow me!
(Back-my-at walk!)

7. Men bilan yur-ing.

men: I; bilan: together

Men bilan yuring!
Come with me!
(I together walk!)

Now let's take our seven phrases again, this time absorbing them instead of analyzing them. I have used hyphens to separate the elements.

1. Buyruq-lar-imiz-ni bajar-ing.
Follow our orders.
2. Qurol-ingiz-ni past-ga qo'y-ing.
Put down your weapon.
3. Bu yer-ga kel-ing.
Come here.
4. Shu yer-da tur-ing.
Stay here.
5. Joy-ingiz-da tur-ing.
Stay where you are.
6. Ket-im-da yur-ing.
Follow me.
7. Men bilan yur-ing.
Come with me.

Uzbek Home at Multilingua

The following pages introduce and reinforce the Uzbek language using several different approaches.

Language Pages Intro to Uzbek
A short presentation of some greetings, some vocabulary and some grammar, focused on introductions and very basic social interactions.
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3

Uzbek Itty Bitty Course
Use the itty-bitty course to learn a small chunk of Uzbek every day for a week and get a handle on greetings, polite requests and a little bit of small talk.
Introduction
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5

Uzbek Self-Talk Course
The self-talk course gives you pointers and practice with some basic structures and tips for remembering vocabulary.
Uzbek Self-Talk Home

Building Up Your Uzbek
Build up your learning by tearing down words and sentences to their component pieces.
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3

Very Basic Uzbek Vocabulary
A short word list in different grammatical categories for practicing sentence building.
Uzbek Vocabulary

Introduction to Uzbek

Before beginning the Itty Bitty Course for Uzbek, there are a few things you should know.

1. Over the years, Uzbek has been written with the Arabic, Cyrillic and Roman scripts. While efforts have been made to standardize the writing of Uzbek with a Roman script, it’s not clear which if any will take. This guide follows the system used in Awde’s Uzbek Dictionary and Phrasebook, but individual words, spellings and pronunciations may differ from Awde where a) outside sources indicated a better or easier-to-learn variant or b) a particular variant seemed to harmonize more readily with other Turkic languages, making polyglottism across Central Asia an easier aspiration.

2. Uzbek is from the same source as Turkish. Like Turkish, a fair amount of Arabic and Persian vocabulary have crept in. As a result, knowing polite phrases in Uzbek will, strangely enough, give you a headstart on exchanging pleasantries in the completely unrelated Iranian languages and in Urdu. There is also a Russian influence though that may fade now that Uzbekistan is independent of the Soviet Union.

3. The Turkic languages have vowel harmony, a phenomenon whereby word endings change to harmonize with the vowel of the last syllable of the root. This system is quite carefully elaborated in other Turkic languages, eg Turkish. But, as this UCLA Uzbek language profile notes:

…whereas the system is active in colloquial forms of the spoken language, it is poorly reflected in the written langauge.

In other words, you’re not going to have to learn vowel harmony necessarily. But you are going to have to keep your ears open for endings that you don’t quite recognize. With time, you should develop an Uzbek ear for things, aided by the fact that the system actually facilitates pronunciation.

4. In Uzbek, the present tense of to be, negation, possessives and a whole lot more are marked by endings, not separate words. Pay particular attention to the “Are you happy?…” sections of the lessons to get a feel for how this works.

Uzbek Lesson Five - Nouns

Water - Suv
Meat - Go'sht
Bread - Non

Coffee - Kofe
Tea - Choy
Milk - Sut

Room - Xona
Bed - Karavat
Bathroom - Hojatxona

Table - Stol
Chair - Stul
Desk - Stol

Person - Kishi
Place - Yer
Thing - Narsa

House - Uy
Car - Mashina
City - Shahan

Cat - Mushuk
Dog - Kuchuk
Friend - O'rtoq

Uzbek Lesson Four - A Few More Basics

Hello - Assalomu alaykum
Goodbye - Xayr
Excuse me - Kechirasiz

(I am) American - (Men) amerikalik(man)
(I am) British - (Men) britaniyalik(man)
How much is it? - Necha pul?

Please write it - Yozib berolasizmi
Thank you - Rahmat
Credit card - Kredit kartochka

I like it - Menga yoqdi
I don't like it - Menga yoqmadi
Good - Yaxshi

Come - Keling
Look - Qarang
Stop - To'xtang

I don't understand - Tushunmayman
I'm sorry - Uzr
Where is the hotel? - Mehmonxona qayerda?

I want... - Menga... kerak
Just a minute - Ozgina sabr qiling
Check, please - Iltimos, hisobni bering

Uzbek Lesson Three - Still More Basics

Hello - Assalomu alaykum
Goodbye - Xayr
Excuse me - Kechirasiz

Are you happy? - Xursandmisiz?
I am happy - Xursandman
I am not happy - Xursand emasman

Are you sad? - Xafamisiz?
I am sad - Xafaman
I am not sad - Xafa emasman

Are you tired? - Charchaganmisiz?
I am tired - Charchaganman
I am not tired - Charchagan emasman

One, two, three - Bir, ikki, uch
Four, five, six - To'rt, besh, olti
Seven, eight, nine - Yetti, sakkiz, to'qqiz

Zero - nul
Ten, eleven, twelve - O'n, o'n bir, o'n ikki
(To the) left, right - Chap(ga), o'ng(ga)

(Go) straight ahead - To'griga (yuravering)
Fast, slow - Tez, sekin
(Stop) here - Shu yerda (to'xtang)

Uzbek Lesson Two - More Basics

Hello - Assalomu alaykum
Goodbye - Xayr
Excuse me - Kechirasiz

Please - Marhamat
Thanks (to you) - Rahmat (sizga)
You're welcome - Arzimaydi

Do you understand? - Tushunasizmi?
I understand - Tushunaman
I don't understand - Tushunmayman

What's this? - Nima bu?
What's your name? - Ismingiz nima?
My name is... - Ismim...

Are you happy? - Xursandmisiz?
I am happy - Xursandman
You are happy - Xursandsiz

Are you sad? - Xafamisiz?
I am sad - Xafaman
You are sad - Xafasiz

Are you tired? - Charchaganmisiz?
I am tired - Charchaganman
You are tired - Charchagansiz