Urdu learners can now heave a sigh of relief as the Union government has decided to replace difficult words in the language with simplified terms.

Just ahead of the annual review of National Monitoring Committee on Minority Education, the government on Monday asked National Council of Education Research and Technology  to revise its Urdu Syllabus for schools.

“The words like ‘thermometer’ in Urdu is ‘Ala-e-paimaieshe-hararat’ even difficult for a Urdu speaker to decipher. Therefore the ministry has decided to revise the course with more simplified version. The words will be replaced with some commonly used English and Hindi words,” said a highly placed official in the ministry.

Similarly, the ministry identified words like Surgeon which is ‘Mahir-e-Zarahat’ and military science or ‘Ilim-e-Zarab’. These words are difficult for a common urdu speaker and needs to be replaced with commonly used words, the official said.

The Ministry has gone through the entire syllabus and reached to a conclusion that there are some words that are not in use by the regular urdu speakers.

“Languages do get influenced by the culture and environment. Urdu has many Persian words and similarly Hindi speaking people use certain Urdu words frequently during their conversation. So, if we will incorporate the simplified and commonly used words that will further popularise the language,” a senior official in the ministry said.