Their Meaning In Urdu | Plain Meanings With Examples

If you’ve ever written a sentence like “Their car is outside” and then frozen at ان کا vs ان کی vs ان کے, you’re not alone. Urdu doesn’t treat “their” as one fixed word. It bends with the noun that comes after it, the same way many adjectives do.

This guide keeps it practical. You’ll learn which form to choose, how to spot the noun cues fast, and how to avoid the two mistakes that make “their” sound off in Urdu: matching it to the owners instead of the thing owned, and mixing “their” with “theirs.”

Their Meaning In Urdu

In daily Urdu, English “their” maps to these three written forms:

Urdu Form	Use When The Owned Noun Is	Quick Example
اِن کا / اُن کا	Masculine singular (direct case)	اُن کا گھر (their house)
اِن کی / اُن کی	Feminine singular (direct case)	اُن کی گاڑی (their car)
اِن کے / اُن کے	Masculine plural (direct case)	اُن کے دوست (their friends)
اِن کی / اُن کی	Feminine plural (direct case)	اُن کی کتابیں (their books)
اِن کے / اُن کے	Any gender in indirect/oblique slots	اُن کے پاس (with them / in their possession)
اُن کا	“Their” for distant “they” (those)	اُن کا فیصلہ (their decision)
اِن کا	“Their” for near “they” (these)	اِن کا کمرہ (their room)
اُن کے لیے / اِن کے لیے	When a postposition follows the noun phrase	اُن کے لیے وقت (time for them)

Two tiny words matter here: اِن (these) and اُن (those). They point to “these people” vs “those people.” In speech, you’ll hear them a lot. In writing, both are fine, and your choice depends on the distance you mean, not on grammar difficulty.

The bigger trick is the ending: کا / کی / کے. It’s the same ka/ki/ke pattern you see with possessive “my” (میرا/میری/میرے) or “your” (تمہارا/تمہاری/تمہارے). The ending agrees with the owned noun, not with the owners.

Meaning Of Their In Urdu With Gender And Number Rules

Urdu asks one question before you write “their”: what is the thing being owned, and what gender/number is it in Urdu?

Match “their” to the owned noun

In “their car,” the owned noun is “car.” In Urdu, گاڑی is feminine singular, so you pick اُن کی: اُن کی گاڑی.

In “their house,” گھر is masculine singular, so you pick اُن کا: اُن کا گھر.

In “their friends,” دوست is commonly treated as masculine plural in this slot, so you pick اُن کے: اُن کے دوست.

Use “کے” more often than you expect

Once a postposition shows up (like کو, سے, میں, پر, کے پاس, کے لیے), Urdu often shifts the noun phrase into an oblique shape. In that shape, you’ll see کے a lot, even with nouns that are feminine in direct form. That’s why you’ll read phrases like اُن کے پاس and اُن کے لیے all the time.

Pick اِن vs اُن by meaning, not by “formality”

اِن points to “these,” close to the speaker. اُن points to “those,” farther away or already mentioned. If you’re telling a story about a group across town, اُن feels natural. If you’re pointing at people in front of you, اِن fits.

Two Common Mix-Ups That Change The Meaning

Most errors with their meaning in urdu come from mixing grammar roles. Fix these two and your sentences start sounding clean fast.

Mix-up 1: Matching “their” to the owners

English lets you think “their” belongs to “they.” Urdu doesn’t care who owns it at this step; it cares what is owned.

• Wrong idea: “They are men, so use کا.”
• Right idea: “The owned noun is feminine, so use کی.”

Try this quick check: underline the noun after “their.” That noun controls ka/ki/ke.

Mix-up 2: Confusing “their” with “theirs”

English “their” sits before a noun: their book, their plan, their ticket. English “theirs” replaces the noun: “This book is theirs.”

In Urdu, that second idea often uses a structure like یہ اُن کی ہے / یہ اُن کا ہے, depending on the thing. So “This book is theirs” becomes یہ اُن کی ہے because کتاب is feminine.

Fast Selection Steps You Can Use While Writing

When you’re translating on the fly, you don’t want a grammar lecture. You want a quick path that works.

Step 1: Find the owned noun

Ask: “Their what?” The answer is the owned noun.

Step 2: Decide noun gender and number in Urdu

If you already know common nouns, you’ll feel it. If you don’t, check a dictionary entry for the noun’s gender. A reliable option is the Cambridge English-Urdu entry for “their”, then cross-check the noun you’re using.

Step 3: Choose the ending

• Masculine singular noun → کا
• Feminine singular noun → کی
• Plural noun (often) → کے for masculine plural, کی for feminine plural

Step 4: Choose near vs far (اِن vs اُن)

If it’s “these people,” use اِن. If it’s “those people” or “they” in a general sense, use اُن.

Step 5: Check for a postposition

If your phrase ends with something like کو, سے, میں, پر, کے پاس, یا کے لیے, read it once again. Many natural Urdu phrases in that slot take کے even when the direct form feels like کی.

When you’re unsure, swap the noun and check the ending.

Examples That Show The Pattern In Real Sentences

Seeing the pattern in full sentences makes it stick. Here are clean, daily pairs you can copy safely.

Masculine singular nouns

• Their house is clean → اُن کا گھر صاف ہے۔
• Their father is here → اُن کے والد یہاں ہیں۔
• Their phone is ringing → اُن کا فون بج رہا ہے۔

Feminine singular nouns

• Their car is outside → اُن کی گاڑی باہر ہے۔
• Their sister studies → اُن کی بہن پڑھتی ہے۔
• Their card is lost → اُن کا کارڈ گم ہے۔

Plural nouns

• Their friends are coming → اُن کے دوست آ رہے ہیں۔
• Their books are new → اُن کی کتابیں نئی ہیں۔
• Their children are at school → اُن کے بچے اسکول میں ہیں۔

Phrases with “pas” and “liye”

• Their money is with them → پیسے اُن کے پاس ہیں۔
• Time for them → اُن کے لیے وقت۔
• A gift for their mother → اُن کی ماں کے لیے تحفہ۔

If you want a deeper, rule-based view of how کا works as the Urdu genitive marker, Michigan State University’s open Urdu textbook has a clear lesson on apostrophe “s” in Urdu.

When “their” Refers To Things, Not People

English uses “their” for groups of things too: “The companies changed their policies.” Urdu still follows the same agreement rule: match to the owned noun.

Companies (کمپنیاں) is feminine plural in many contexts, so “their policies” becomes اُن کی پالیسیاں. If you swap the owned noun to a masculine plural like فیصلے, you switch to اُن کے فیصلے.

Near And Far Forms That Learners Miss

Urdu gives you two sets: اِن for near, اُن for far. Many learners default to اُن and never touch اِن. That works in lots of sentences, but you lose a neat piece of meaning.

Use اِن when you can point to them

These students and their books → اِن طلبہ کی کتابیں۔

Use اُن for groups you’re talking about, not pointing at

Those students and their books → اُن طلبہ کی کتابیں۔

Notice what stayed the same: the ending still follows کتابیں (feminine plural), so you still get کی.

Spellings You’ll See In Roman Urdu And In Nastaliq

On phones and chats, people often write unka, unki, unke, inka, inki, inke. That’s normal for quick typing, but it can hide the real parts of the Urdu phrase. In proper script, you are writing two pieces: اِن/اُن + کا/کی/کے.

You may spot two spellings in the wild: اِن کا and انکا. The spaced form (اِن کا) keeps the pronoun and the ending clear, which helps learners and makes editing easier. The joined form (انکا) shows up in informal notes and some learning materials. Both get understood easily, yet spacing is safer for clean, readable text.

One more small detail: when you add “not,” the possessive stays the same. “Not their car” is اُن کی گاڑی نہیں, not a new possessive form. The “no” idea sits in نہیں, not inside کا/کی/کے.

Table That Fixes Errors In Seconds

Use this as a quick edit pass after you translate a paragraph.

If You Wrote	Check This	Rewrite Like This
اُن کا گاڑی	گاڑی is feminine	اُن کی گاڑی
اُن کی گھر	گھر is masculine	اُن کا گھر
اُن کا کتابیں	کتابیں is feminine plural	اُن کی کتابیں
اُن کی دوست	دوست is plural here	اُن کے دوست
یہ کتاب اُن کا ہے	کتاب is feminine	یہ کتاب اُن کی ہے
اُن کی پاس	Use the fixed phrase	اُن کے پاس
اِن کا لیے	Use the fixed phrase	اِن کے لیے
اُن کا والد	Looks fine, but check respect level	اُن کے والد (often preferred)

Mini Practice You Can Do In Five Minutes

Pick five English sentences you already use at work or school. Translate only the “their + noun” part first, then build the full sentence.

1. Write “their” and leave a blank: their ___.
2. Write the Urdu noun with its gender in mind: گھر / گاڑی / کتابیں.
3. Snap in the matching form: اُن کا / اُن کی / اُن کے.
4. Read it out loud once. If it feels clunky, check whether a postposition is pulling you toward کے.

Do that for a week and you’ll stop guessing. You’ll start hearing the match in your head before you write it.

Quick Checklist Before You Hit Publish Or Submit

• Did you match ka/ki/ke to the owned noun, not to the owners?
• Did you use “their” (before a noun) vs “theirs” (noun replaced) correctly?
• Did any postposition nudge the phrase into a natural “کے” pattern?
• Did you pick اِن vs اُن based on what you mean: these vs those?

If you run that checklist, your Urdu “their” lines won’t just be correct on paper. They’ll read like something a native speaker would write. And yes, the phrase their meaning in urdu will stop feeling like a guessing game.