мо: us

Ҳеҷ кас ба мо аҳамият намедод.
Nobody paid attention to us.
Мо ӯро дӯст медорем, чунки аввал ӯ моро дӯст дошт.
We love him, because first he loved us.

See also –
мо: we
мо: our

When мо is the subject of the sentence, it is translated “we”.
Мо рафтем. We went.
Мо шуморо дидем. We saw you.

As a possessive, мо is translated “our”.
хонаи мо: our house
виҷдони мо: our conscience

Мо is translated “us” when it is the object of the sentence, as in today’s second sentence.
Онҳо моро диданд. They saw us.
Ӯ моро ба хонаи худ овард. He brought us to his house.

Мо is also translated “us” when it is used after a preposition, as in today’s first sentence.
барои мо: for us
катӣ мо, бо мо: with us
ба мо: to us
аз мо: from us


мо: we

Мо ба хонаи шумо омадем.
We came to your house.
Мо ба дунё чизе наовардаем, ва чизе аз он бурдан ҳам наметавонем.
We didn’t bring anything into the world, and we also can’t take anything out of it.

In Tajik the verb ending corresponds to the subject of the sentence. If мо is the subject, then the verb ending is -ем. Because of this, it is also acceptable to leave off the subject of the sentence. In the example below, we know that the subject is мо (we) because of the verb ending -ем.
Ба хонаи шумо омадем. We came to your house.

Note that мо can also mean our.
Шумо ба хонаи мо омадед. You came to our house.
You can see more examples of that here – мо:our

For other posts about pronouns on Talk Tajik Today click here – tag:pronoun.


мо: our

Падарони мо дар болои ин кӯҳ парастиш мекарданд.
Our fathers worshipped on top of this mountain.
Набототи сайёраи мо хеле гуногун аст.
The plant life on our planet is very diverse.

In our two sentences мо is a possessive adjective, our. But мо can also be used as a pronoun. No need to learn lots of different words like in English!
мо: we, us, our, ours

Мо рафтем. We went. (personal pronoun, subject of the sentence)
Онҳо моро диданд. They saw us. (personal pronoun, object of the sentence)
Ин аз они мо нест. This is not ours. (possessive pronoun)


ту: you

Ту аз дӯкон ягон чиз харидӣ?
Did you buy something from the shop?
Туро пайравӣ мекунам.
I will follow you.

In Tajik the personal pronoun for the subject of the sentence can be omitted because it can be determined from the verb ending. In the second sentence, for example, the word “I”, “ман” has been left off. We know that “ту” is the direct object of the sentence because it has the direct object marker -ро.

The direct object marker is not used when ту is preceded by a preposition. For example:
Ман ба ту гуфтам. I told you.
Ман аз ту пурсидам. I asked you.

Ту can also mean “your”.
хонаи ту: your house

ҷонишини шахсӣ: personal pronoun

Ту is the singular personal pronoun for you. In Tajik the plural form of you, шумо, is often used instead of ту to show respect. Whether ту or шумо is used varies from family to family.

ту-ту гуфтан: to talk with ту (to somebody)
Example: Онҳо ҳамдигарро «ту-ту» мегӯянд. (They speak to each other with “ту”.)


вай: him, her

Вайро ин ҷо назди ман биёред.
Bring her to me.
Кадом одамест аз шумо, ки агар писараш аз ӯ нон хоҳиш кунад, санге ба вай диҳад?
Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, gives to him a stone?

Вай is a personal pronoun that when it is the object of the sentence means “him” or “her”. It is only from context that you can tell whether the person is male or female. In the first sentence we don’t know, so we could translate it as “him” or “her”. If we had the context we would know, but just given this one sentence we don’t. The second sentence is clearly “him” because we see from the context that it refers to a son.

In English we use different words when the personal pronoun is the subject of the sentence, “he” or “she”. In Tajik it is the same word – вай. You can tell whether it is the object or the subject by looking at the whole sentence.

In the first sentence, even though “вай” is the first word, it has the attached object marker -ро that lets us know that the personal pronoun is an object, so “him” not “he”. The subject of the sentence is only known from the verb ending -ед, which lets us know that the subject is шумо (you). Notice that in the English translation the subject, you, is also not needed in the sentence.

In the second sentence we know that “вай” is the object because it is preceded by the word “ба” (to). In the English translation we could leave out the word “to”. Notice also, in the second sentence, that there is another “him”, but this time the Tajik word “ӯ” is used. “Вай” and “ӯ” are synonyms and both can be either male or female. In speech it is more common to use “вай”, but in written texts it is common to see “ӯ”. We know that “ӯ” in this sentence is the object because it is preceded by “аз” (from), but we don’t know if it refers to a man or a woman; we only know that it is a parent of the son.


кӣ: who

Ин хабарро аз кӣ шунидӣ?
Who did you hear this news from?
Шумо киро бештар эҳтиром мекунед?
Who do you respect more?

In the second sentence кӣ is the object, so takes the object marker ро. The letter ӣ is changed to и because ӣ can’t occur in the middle of a word.

ҳар кӣ: all who, whoever


шумо: you

Шумо нарафтед, ман ҳам нарафтам.
You didn’t go, I also didn’t go.
Шумо рӯзи дароз кор мекунед.
You work all day long.

Шумо is the plural “you” and ту is the singular “you”. Generally, in Tajik the plural you (шумо) is used when you want to be polite and when you are speaking to somebody older than yourself. Ту is generally used when speaking to somebody younger than you and when speaking to your peers. When to use шумо and when to use ту can be confusing, and it also differs from family to family. When in doubt, use “шумо”.

Note, that шумо can also mean “your”. Example:
Мо ба хонаи шумо омадем. We came to your house.