Notes · PanjabiUK · A-Levels

ਵਿਆਕਰਨ ਤੇ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

This topic is section 3.3 of AQA 7682 in full, plus the two translation tasks, which live in two different papers and make two different demands: Panjabi into English in Paper 1 for 10 marks, and English into Panjabi in Paper 3 for 10 marks. The platform's topic id is grammar-and-translation. Section 3.3 is set out in eleven headed lists - articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, numbers, quantity and expressions of time, and syntax - with examples the specification itself calls indicative rather than exhaustive. Three things about that list have to be said plainly before you use it. First, it contains NO section on the script and NO section on spelling variation, unlike some sister specifications; the script is therefore assumed rather than taught, and these notes declare their own policy openly. Second, it lists the genders of the noun as masculine, feminine and neutral, whereas standard descriptions of Panjabi recognise two genders and there is no third agreement class; write two-gender agreement, because that is what a mark scheme can reward. Third, it heads its postposition list Prepositions, though every example under that heading FOLLOWS its noun. Two further things the list never mentions are taught here anyway, because the exam tests accuracy and Panjabi cannot be written accurately without them: the ergative postposition and the object agreement that comes with it, and TONE, which is unusual among the languages in this A-Level run and inseparable from spelling.

5 sections~37 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·0777 / 13

Exam profile

AO3 · Manipulate Panjabi accurately in written form, using a range of the lexis and structures set out in section 3.3AO2 · Understand written Panjabi closely enough to translate an unseen passage of at least 100 words into EnglishAO1 · Understand spoken Panjabi accurately at the level of morphology, where tone and unwritten sound differences carry meaningAO4 · Use register, honorific level and vocabulary layer appropriately to the subject and the community written about

Operators:ਅਨੁਵਾਦ ਕਰੋਸਹੀ ਰੂਪ ਲਿਖੋਵਾਕ ਬਣਾਓਸਮਝਾਓਤੁਲਨਾ ਕਰੋਸੁਧਾਰ ਕਰੋ

basic level

In the first year, get the script exactly right and get the copula and the oblique forms exactly right, in that order. Almost every persistent error later traces back to one of those three. Write by hand as well as by keyboard: the nasalisation marks and the adhak are easy to skip on a screen and impossible to skip with a pen. Then drill the noun table until the oblique before a postposition is automatic.

higher level

The full A-Level rewards deliberate range and punishes invisible slips. Two habits carry it. First, audit your own writing against section 3.3 and count how many distinct structures you used; if the answer is two, the range mark is capped whatever the accuracy. Second, build a personal error list from your own marked work - most candidates make the same four errors for two years - and check for those four specifically in the last five minutes of every paper.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

ਵਿਆਕਰਨ ਤੇ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

ਲਿਪੀ ਤੇ ਸੁਰ: the script, the marks that are silent on the page, and tone#

FoundationAQA 7682 - 3.3 Grammar (the script is assumed throughout section 3.3, which prints its examples in Gurmukhi)AQA 7682 - 3.3.11 Syntax

The two scripts of one language

Fig. 1The specification names no script and these notes print only Gurmukhi, so this table is where the other half of the language gets named. The row in heavier ink is the deepest difference and the one that matters most to a researcher: Gurmukhi writes every vowel with a sign, while a Perso-Arabic script leaves most short vowels to the reader, which changes what a beginner can read and what a search engine can find.

Declare the script policy before anything else, because the specification does not. AQA 7682 never names a script: the words Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi do not appear in it, and neither does India, Pakistan or Sikh. What it does do is print every one of its own Panjabi grammar examples in Gurmukhi, and that is the evidence these notes follow - Gurmukhi throughout, stated as a policy rather than assumed as a fact. The structure of the script: 35 base letters, the ਪੈਂਤੀ, of which the first three, ੳ ਅ ੲ, are vowel bearers rather than consonants; ten vowels, the ਲਗਾਂ, written with signs whose names you should know because teachers use them - ਕੰਨਾ, ਸਿਹਾਰੀ, ਬਿਹਾਰੀ, ਔਂਕੜ, ਦੁਲੈਂਕੜ, ਲਾਂ, ਦੁਲਾਵਾਂ, ਹੋੜਾ, ਕਨੌੜਾ, plus the vowelless ਮੁਕਤਾ; six letters formed with a ਬਿੰਦੀ beneath, ਸ਼ ਖ਼ ਗ਼ ਜ਼ ਫ਼ ਲ਼; the ਅੱਧਕ for doubling; and the subjoined letters ਪੈਰੀਂ ਹਾਹਾ, ਪੈਰੀਂ ਰਾਰਾ and ਪੈਰੀਂ ਵਾਵਾ. One trap for readers: ਸਿਹਾਰੀ is WRITTEN before its consonant and PRONOUNCED after it, so ਕਿ is read ki and not ik.

Three small marks decide whether a word is right, and all three are invisible to a learner who works by ear. ਅੱਧਕ ੱ doubles the FOLLOWING consonant and is written before it: ਪੱਕਾ, ਚੱਲਣਾ, ਵਿੱਚ. ਟਿੱਪੀ ੰ and ਬਿੰਦੀ ਂ both mark nasalisation but are not interchangeable, and the distribution is learnable: TIPPI goes with the vowelless ਮੁਕਤਾ and with ਸਿਹਾਰੀ, ਔਂਕੜ and ਦੁਲੈਂਕੜ - ਪੰਜਾਬ, ਸਿੰਘ, ਮੁੰਡਾ, ਪੂੰਜੀ - while BINDI goes with ਕੰਨਾ, ਬਿਹਾਰੀ, ਲਾਂ, ਦੁਲਾਵਾਂ, ਹੋੜਾ and ਕਨੌੜਾ, and with the independent vowel letters - ਹਾਂ, ਨੀਂਦ, ਮੈਂ, ਕਿਉਂ, ਕੁੜੀਆਂ. Writing the wrong one is silent on the page in the sense that nothing looks broken, and it is exactly the kind of error a mark scheme records.

PANJABI IS A TONE LANGUAGE, and no other language in this A-Level run works this way, so nothing you know from French or Spanish will prepare you for it. The standard description gives three tones - level, low and high - and the crucial point for a WRITTEN exam is that the tone is carried by the SPELLING. The letters ਘ ਝ ਢ ਧ ਭ no longer represent breathy voiced sounds in modern Panjabi: word-initially they are pronounced as plain voiceless stops and put a LOW tone on the following vowel, so ਘੋੜਾ, a horse, begins with a sound like k; after the vowel, the same letters give a HIGH tone, as in ਦੁੱਧ, milk. The letter ਹ behaves the same way: between vowels it is often barely audible and is realised as HIGH tone, which is why ਸ਼ਹਿਰ, a city, and ਪਹਿਲਾਂ, before, sound nothing like their spellings. The classic illustration is the trio ਕੋੜਾ a whip, ਘੋੜਾ a horse and ਕੋੜ੍ਹਾ a leper - three words that differ in tone, and in writing differ only in which tone letter is present and where. The labels low and high vary between descriptions; what does not vary is that the letter tells you which.

The consequences of the last paragraph are practical and they matter most to heritage speakers. If you learnt Panjabi at home and by ear, you have the tones perfectly and you may have no idea which letters produce them, so you will write ਕਰ for ਘਰ, drop the ਹ from ਸ਼ਹਿਰ and put ੍ਹ in the wrong place - errors that a fluent speaker makes and a poor speaker who learnt from a book does not. The cure is spelling drill on exactly this class of word. Two further conventions to settle now. NUMERALS: one system per string, so a Panjabi sentence uses ੦-੯ and English prose uses Western digits, and the two are never welded together. PUNCTUATION: a Panjabi sentence ends with the ਡੰਡੀ । rather than a full stop, and the ਡੰਡੀ shares a Unicode position with the equivalent mark in other Indian scripts, which is a technical fact worth knowing if you ever have to search or sort Panjabi text.

Where the tone letters stand and what they do

Fig. 2Panjabi is a tone language and this is the only figure in this subject that a student of French, Spanish or German would find completely unfamiliar. Read it as a SPELLING table rather than a pronunciation table: in a written examination what is tested is which letter you put where, and the row in heavier ink is the one that catches heritage speakers, who hear the tone correctly and therefore never learnt that a subjoined letter was producing it.

Worked example

Two spelling decisions, walked through as the exam makes them

You are writing an essay and you need the words for city, before, boy, girls, straight and to read. Each contains a decision that a fluent speaker can get wrong. Work them.

City
You say something like shair, with no audible h. The spelling is ਸ਼ਹਿਰ: sha, then ਹ carrying ਸਿਹਾਰੀ. The ਹ is not silent decoration - it is the tone. If you write ਸ਼ੈਰ because that is what you hear, you have spelt a different word, and this is the single most common heritage-speaker error in the whole subject.
Before
ਪਹਿਲਾਂ. Same pattern: an intervocalic ਹ you can barely hear, then ਕੰਨਾ with a BINDI because bindi is what follows kanna. Two decisions in one short word, both invisible to the ear.
Boy
ਮੁੰਡਾ. The nasal is written with TIPPI because it follows ਔਂਕੜ. Writing ਮੁਂਡਾ with a bindi would be wrong and would look almost identical. Fix the rule by memorising the four vowels that take tippi rather than the six that take bindi - four is a shorter list.
Girls
ਕੁੜੀਆਂ. Tippi on the ਮੁ- syllable? No: the nasal here sits on the plural ending after ਕੰਨਾ, so it is a BINDI. The word contains ੜ, the retroflex flap, which is a single code point and not a letter with a dot; do not confuse it with the nukta letters.
Straight, and to read
ਸਿੱਧਾ carries an ਅੱਧਕ before the ਧ, and the ਧ after a vowel is a tone letter. ਪੜ੍ਹਨਾ carries a SUBJOINED ਹ under the ੜ - written ੜ੍ਹ, not ੜਹ. If you write ਪੜਨਾ you have written a word without its tone and the examiner sees a spelling error, not an accent.
Build your own list
Every candidate has about thirty words in this class and they are personal: the ones you learnt by ear before you learnt to read. Write out fifty words you use constantly, check each spelling once against a dictionary, and mark the ones you had wrong. That list, revised weekly, is worth more than any amount of general grammar revision.

Result: ਸ਼ਹਿਰ, ਪਹਿਲਾਂ, ਮੁੰਡਾ, ਕੁੜੀਆਂ, ਸਿੱਧਾ, ਪੜ੍ਹਨਾ. Six words, six decisions, none of them audible. Accuracy in this subject is largely a matter of knowing which of your own certainties came from the ear.

Typical mistakes

Writing tippi where bindi belongs or the reverse; nothing looks wrong and the word is wrong.
Omitting the adhak, which turns ਪੱਕਾ into a different word.
Spelling by ear: ਕਰ for ਘਰ, ਸੈਰ for ਸ਼ਹਿਰ, or a subjoined ਹ in the wrong place.
Reading ਸਿਹਾਰੀ as though it were pronounced where it is written.
Mixing Gurmukhi and Western digits inside one Panjabi sentence.

Active revision

ਵੀਹ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਲਿਖੋ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਟਿੱਪੀ ਹੋਵੇ ਅਤੇ ਵੀਹ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਬਿੰਦੀ, ਅਤੇ ਹਰ ਇੱਕ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਦੱਸੋ ਕਿ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਪਿੱਛੇ ਕਿਹੜੀ ਲਗ ਹੈ। ਫਿਰ ਦਸ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਲਿਖੋ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਸੁਰ ਵਾਲਾ ਅੱਖਰ ਹੋਵੇ ਅਤੇ ਹਰ ਇੱਕ ਲਈ ਦੱਸੋ ਕਿ ਉਹ ਅੱਖਰ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਦੇ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੈ ਜਾਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਵਿੱਚ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਨਾਂਵ, ਪੜਨਾਂਵ ਤੇ ਵਿਸ਼ੇਸ਼ਣ: nouns, pronouns and adjectives#

StandardAQA 7682 - 3.3.1 ArticlesAQA 7682 - 3.3.2 NounsAQA 7682 - 3.3.3 PronounsAQA 7682 - 3.3.4 AdjectivesAQA 7682 - 3.3.5 Adverbs

The person system and the copula

Fig. 3This is the table to learn first, because everything conjugated in Panjabi ends by agreeing with something in it, and because the register column decides how an examiner reads your whole answer. The row in heavier ink is the default for every piece of writing you will do for this qualification: the polite plural is what you use for a stranger, for an older person and for anyone whose standing you are not certain of, which in an exam is everybody.

Panjabi has no articles in the English sense, which is why section 3.3.1 of the specification, headed Articles, is really about number and about the diminutive. Definiteness is carried by word order, by the object marker ਨੂੰ and by demonstratives: ਮੁੰਡਾ ਆਇਆ can be a boy came or the boy came, and ਮੁੰਡੇ ਨੂੰ ਬੁਲਾਓ is unambiguously call the boy. This matters enormously in translation in both directions: translating into English you must SUPPLY an article and choose between a and the from context, and translating into Panjabi you must DROP them and find another way to be definite. Candidates lose marks in both directions for the same reason - treating the article as a word rather than as a piece of information.

Gender and the direct-oblique system are the machinery everything else runs on. Every noun is masculine or feminine; the specification's list adds neutral, but standard descriptions of the language recognise two genders and there is no third agreement class, so write two-gender agreement. Most masculines end in -ਾ and most feminines in -ੀ, with many exceptions that simply have to be learnt. The crucial fact is the OBLIQUE: a noun changes form before a postposition. ਮੁੰਡਾ becomes ਮੁੰਡੇ before any postposition and ਮੁੰਡਿਆਂ in the oblique plural; ਕੁੜੀ does not change in the singular but has ਕੁੜੀਆਂ in both direct and oblique plural. Getting this wrong - writing ਮੁੰਡਾ ਨੂੰ instead of ਮੁੰਡੇ ਨੂੰ - is the most frequent single error in written Panjabi and it is entirely mechanical, which means it is entirely fixable.

Pronouns carry the honorific system and section 3.3.3 names it as polite and familiar. ਮੈਂ I, ਅਸੀਂ we, ਤੂੰ you intimate, ਤੁਸੀਂ you plural and polite, ਉਹ he, she, it and they, with ਇਹ for what is near. ਆਪ is the formal address of speeches and letters. The possessives are ਮੇਰਾ, ਸਾਡਾ, ਤੇਰਾ, ਤੁਹਾਡਾ, ਉਸ ਦਾ, ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ, and they AGREE with the thing possessed rather than the possessor: ਮੇਰਾ ਭਰਾ my brother, ਮੇਰੀ ਭੈਣ my sister, ਮੇਰੇ ਭਰਾ my brothers. The reflexive ਆਪਣਾ is a separate word and is obligatory when the possessor is the subject of its own clause: ਉਹ ਆਪਣੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹੈ means he reads HIS OWN book, while ਉਹ ਉਸ ਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹੈ means he reads SOMEONE ELSE'S. English cannot make that distinction in one word and translators constantly miss it.

Adjectives divide into two classes and only one of them does any work. The -ਾ class agrees in gender, number and case exactly like a masculine noun: ਚੰਗਾ ਮੁੰਡਾ, ਚੰਗੀ ਕੁੜੀ, ਚੰਗੇ ਮੁੰਡੇ, ਚੰਗੇ ਮੁੰਡੇ ਨੂੰ. Everything else - ਸਾਫ਼, ਖ਼ੁਸ਼, ਲਾਲ, ਮੁਸ਼ਕਿਲ - is invariable. Comparison has no separate form: the comparative is made with ਨਾਲੋਂ or ਤੋਂ - ਇਹ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਉਸ ਨਾਲੋਂ ਚੰਗੀ ਹੈ - and the superlative with ਸਭ ਤੋਂ - ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਚੰਗੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ. ਜ਼ਿਆਦਾ, more, may be added but is not required and adding it where the ਨਾਲੋਂ already does the work reads as translationese. Adverbs, section 3.3.5, are largely made with ਨਾਲ - ਖ਼ੁਸ਼ੀ ਨਾਲ happily, ਧਿਆਨ ਨਾਲ carefully - or by the bare adjective, and the reduplicated forms ਹੌਲੀ-ਹੌਲੀ and ਛੇਤੀ-ਛੇਤੀ are ordinary rather than colloquial.

Direct, oblique and what follows

Fig. 4Section 3.3.2 of the specification names direct and oblique forms in four words and says nothing more, yet this is where most written Panjabi goes wrong. Read every row as a single rule: a noun standing before a postposition is never in its dictionary form. The row in heavier ink is the one to make automatic, because once the oblique singular is reflexive the rest of the table follows by pattern.

Worked example

Choosing the oblique and the postposition, decision by decision

Put into Panjabi: I gave the girl's book to my brother's friends yesterday. Every noun in it touches a postposition, so every noun has a decision attached.

Find the postpositions first, not the words
English has of, to and a possessive. Panjabi will need ਦੀ for the girl's book, ਦੇ for my brother's friends, and ਨੂੰ for the recipient. Three postpositions, so three nouns must go oblique before anything else is decided.
The girl's book
ਕੁੜੀ ਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ. ਕੁੜੀ is feminine and does not change in the oblique singular, which is why feminine nouns feel easy and lull you into forgetting the rule. ਦਾ agrees with the POSSESSED thing, and ਕਿਤਾਬ is feminine, so it is ਦੀ, not ਦਾ.
My brother's friends
ਮੇਰੇ ਭਰਾ ਦੇ ਦੋਸਤ. Three agreements in four words: ਮੇਰਾ becomes ਮੇਰੇ because ਭਰਾ is oblique before ਦਾ; ਦਾ becomes ਦੇ because ਦੋਸਤ is masculine plural; and ਭਰਾ happens not to change form, which is a lexical fact you have to know.
To the friends
ਦੋਸਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ. Now ਦੋਸਤ must go into the OBLIQUE PLURAL because ਨੂੰ follows it, and the earlier ਦੇ has to be rechecked: since ਦੋਸਤਾਂ is oblique plural, the possessive is ਦੇ. The final phrase is ਮੇਰੇ ਭਰਾ ਦੇ ਦੋਸਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ.
Yesterday, and the verb
ਕੱਲ੍ਹ is both yesterday and tomorrow, disambiguated only by the tense of the verb - one of the most useful facts in the language and a listening trap in its own right. The verb is ਦਿੱਤੀ, feminine singular, because this is a perfective transitive clause and the verb agrees with ਕਿਤਾਬ. The subject takes no written ਨੇ because it is ਮੈਂ.
Assemble in Panjabi order
ਮੈਂ ਕੱਲ੍ਹ ਕੁੜੀ ਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਮੇਰੇ ਭਰਾ ਦੇ ਦੋਸਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਦਿੱਤੀ। Subject, time, object, recipient, verb. Then reconsider one thing: since the possessor of ਭਰਾ is the subject of this very clause, the reflexive is better - ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਦੇ ਦੋਸਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ.
The finished sentence and the audit
ਮੈਂ ਕੱਲ੍ਹ ਕੁੜੀ ਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਦੇ ਦੋਸਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਦਿੱਤੀ। Audit it: every noun before a postposition is oblique; every ਦਾ agrees with what follows it; the reflexive is used because the possessor is the subject; the verb agrees with the object because the clause is perfective and transitive. Four rules, one sentence.

Result: ਮੈਂ ਕੱਲ੍ਹ ਕੁੜੀ ਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਦੇ ਦੋਸਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਦਿੱਤੀ। Run the same four-point audit over every sentence of a translation into Panjabi and most of the ten marks look after themselves.

Typical mistakes

Failing to put a noun in the oblique before a postposition.
Using ਉਸ ਦਾ where ਆਪਣਾ is required, which changes who owns the thing.
Agreeing an invariable adjective, or failing to agree an -ਾ one.
Adding ਜ਼ਿਆਦਾ to a comparative that already has ਨਾਲੋਂ.
Translating an English article as a word rather than as information.

Active revision

ਦਸ ਵਾਕ ਲਿਖੋ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਹਰ ਵਾਰ ਨਾਂਵ ਕਿਸੇ ਸੰਬੰਧਕ ਤੋਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਆਵੇ, ਅਤੇ ਹਰ ਵਾਕ ਵਿੱਚ ਤਿਰਛਾ ਰੂਪ ਸਹੀ ਵਰਤੋ। ਪੰਜ ਵਾਕਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਪਣਾ ਅਤੇ ਪੰਜ ਵਿੱਚ ਉਸ ਦਾ ਵਰਤੋ, ਅਤੇ ਹਰ ਵਾਰ ਹੇਠਾਂ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਲਿਖੋ ਕਿ ਚੀਜ਼ ਕਿਸ ਦੀ ਹੈ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਕਿਰਿਆ, ਕਾਲ ਤੇ ਪੱਖ: the verb system#

StandardAQA 7682 - 3.3.6 Verbs

One verb across the system

Fig. 5The specification lists tenses, aspects, non-personal forms, the potential, the subjunctive and the auxiliaries in separate places, which makes the verb look larger than it is. Set out against a single verb, the machinery is visibly repetitive: a participle plus a copula, or a stem plus an auxiliary. The row in heavier ink is the one that changes the whole clause around it, because a perfective transitive verb triggers the ergative construction shown in the next figure.

Section 3.3.6 is the longest list in the specification and it is organised confusingly, so reorganise it in your head. Panjabi builds almost everything from three participles and a copula. The IMPERFECTIVE participle, ending in -ਦਾ, plus a copula gives habitual meaning: ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ he does, ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ he used to do. The PERFECTIVE participle plus a copula gives completed meaning: ਕੀਤਾ ਹੈ he has done, ਕੀਤਾ ਸੀ he had done, and the bare participle ਕੀਤਾ is the simple past. The CONTINUOUS is built with ਰਿਹਾ: ਕਰ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ he is doing. The future has its own ending: ਕਰੇਗਾ. Everything else is a variation on those four patterns, and every participle agrees in gender and number, which is where the accuracy marks are. Note that ਕਰਨਾ has an irregular perfective, ਕੀਤਾ, and that a handful of very common verbs behave similarly.

The auxiliaries the specification lists by name - ਹੈ, ਜਾ, ਲੈ, ਚੁੱਕ, ਸਕ, ਲੱਗ, ਪੈ - are the most efficient route to the AO3 range mark, because each adds a meaning English needs a whole phrase for and each is unmistakable to a marker. ਸਕਣਾ after a bare stem gives ability: ਮੈਂ ਜਾ ਸਕਦਾ ਹਾਂ I can go - and note that it follows the STEM, never the infinitive. ਚੁੱਕਣਾ gives already-done experience: ਮੈਂ ਇਹ ਫ਼ਿਲਮ ਦੇਖ ਚੁੱਕਾ ਹਾਂ I have already seen this film. ਲੱਗਣਾ after an oblique infinitive gives inception: ਉਹ ਰੋਣ ਲੱਗ ਪਿਆ he began to cry. ਪੈਣਾ gives compulsion by circumstance: ਮੈਨੂੰ ਜਾਣਾ ਪਿਆ I had to go. ਜਾਣਾ and ਲੈਣਾ after a stem give completion and self-benefit: ਖਾ ਗਿਆ ate it up, ਖਾ ਲਿਆ ate it for himself. Using two of these deliberately in an essay is worth more than any adjective.

Three constructions the specification names explicitly deserve separate drilling. The PASSIVE is the perfective participle plus ਜਾਣਾ: ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ is done, ਲਿਖਿਆ ਗਿਆ was written; it is the natural register for describing custom, procedure and institution, so it belongs in almost every thematic essay. ਚਾਹੀਦਾ expresses need or obligation and its agreement catches everybody: it agrees with the thing needed, not the person needing it, so ਮੈਨੂੰ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਚਾਹੀਦੀ ਹੈ I need a book, ਮੈਨੂੰ ਪੈਸੇ ਚਾਹੀਦੇ ਹਨ I need money, ਮੈਨੂੰ ਜਾਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ I ought to go. And CAUSATIVES come in two degrees: ਕਰਨਾ to do, ਕਰਾਉਣਾ to make someone do, ਕਰਵਾਉਣਾ to have it done through someone; ਪੜ੍ਹਨਾ to read, ਪੜ੍ਹਾਉਣਾ to teach, ਪੜ੍ਹਵਾਉਣਾ to have someone taught. The second causative is a delight in a translation because English needs four words for it.

The CONJUNCTIVE PARTICIPLE, formed with ਕੇ, is the single most Panjabi thing in the verb system and the fastest route to a sentence that reads as written by a speaker rather than assembled by a learner. ਘਰ ਜਾ ਕੇ ਮੈਂ ਚਾਹ ਬਣਾਈ - having gone home, I made tea. It chains: ਉਹ ਉੱਠ ਕੇ, ਮੂੰਹ ਧੋ ਕੇ, ਕੰਮ ਉੱਤੇ ਚਲਾ ਗਿਆ। English would need three finite verbs and two conjunctions. There is also the participle in -ਦਿਆਂ for simultaneous action: ਪੜ੍ਹਦਿਆਂ ਹੀ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਸਮਝ ਆ ਗਈ - as soon as she read it she understood. And the subjunctive, ਕਰਾਂ, ਕਰੇਂ, ਕਰੇ, ਕਰੀਏ, ਕਰੋ, ਕਰਨ, is used after ਜੇ, after ਸ਼ਾਇਦ and in polite suggestions, and the specification notes that it doubles as a future in some contexts.

Worked example

Choosing a tense and aspect for a translation into Panjabi

Put into Panjabi: When I was a child we used to go to the village every summer, but I have not been back since my grandfather died. Four verbs, four separate decisions.

When I was a child
ਜਦੋਂ ਮੈਂ ਬੱਚਾ ਸੀ. The past copula, not a past tense of a verb; English hides the copula inside was and Panjabi does not. Note also that ਬੱਚਾ takes the adhak and that if the writer is female the sentence is ਜਦੋਂ ਮੈਂ ਬੱਚੀ ਸੀ.
We used to go
ਅਸੀਂ ਪਿੰਡ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਸੀ. The PAST HABITUAL - imperfective participle plus past copula - and not ਗਏ, which would say we went once. English used to signals the habitual explicitly; where it does not, you have to infer from every summer, which is the real clue.
Every summer
ਹਰ ਗਰਮੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ, or more idiomatically ਹਰ ਸਾਲ ਗਰਮੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ. ਗਰਮੀਆਂ is plural in Panjabi as a season name, so the postposition takes the oblique plural, which happens here to look the same.
I have not been back
ਮੈਂ ਵਾਪਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਿਆ. A present perfect in English, and Panjabi can use the bare perfective for it; ਮੈਂ ਵਾਪਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਿਆ ਹਾਂ is possible but heavier. Note that ਜਾਣਾ is intransitive, so there is no ਨੇ and the verb agrees with the subject - which means a female writer writes ਗਈ.
Since my grandfather died
ਜਦੋਂ ਤੋਂ ਮੇਰੇ ਦਾਦਾ ਜੀ ਦੀ ਮੌਤ ਹੋਈ. Two decisions. First, the honorific: ਜੀ after a senior relative is not optional in careful writing, and its omission reads as coldness rather than as brevity. Second, the idiom: Panjabi normally says ਮੌਤ ਹੋਈ or ਚੜ੍ਹਾਈ ਕਰ ਗਏ rather than using a bare verb for died, and choosing the register is part of the translation.
Assemble and check the aspect chain
ਜਦੋਂ ਮੈਂ ਬੱਚਾ ਸੀ, ਅਸੀਂ ਹਰ ਸਾਲ ਗਰਮੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਿੰਡ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਸੀ, ਪਰ ਜਦੋਂ ਤੋਂ ਮੇਰੇ ਦਾਦਾ ਜੀ ਦੀ ਮੌਤ ਹੋਈ ਹੈ, ਮੈਂ ਵਾਪਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਿਆ। Read the aspects in order: state, habitual, event, negated perfective. If that sequence makes sense as a story, the tenses are right.
The general rule this illustrates
Translate the ASPECT before the tense. English marks tense heavily and aspect lightly; Panjabi does the reverse. A candidate who asks was this a habit, a single event or a state before asking was this past will get the verb right far more often than one who works from the English tense name.

Result: ਜਦੋਂ ਮੈਂ ਬੱਚਾ ਸੀ, ਅਸੀਂ ਹਰ ਸਾਲ ਗਰਮੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਿੰਡ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਸੀ, ਪਰ ਜਦੋਂ ਤੋਂ ਮੇਰੇ ਦਾਦਾ ਜੀ ਦੀ ਮੌਤ ਹੋਈ ਹੈ, ਮੈਂ ਵਾਪਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਿਆ। Aspect first, tense second, honorific third.

Typical mistakes

Putting the infinitive before ਸਕਣਾ.
Agreeing ਚਾਹੀਦਾ with the person who needs.
Forgetting that participles agree in gender and number with something.
Using ਕੀਤਾ ਸੀ where ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ is meant - had done rather than used to do.
Writing chains of short finite clauses where a ਕੇ participle would join them.

Active revision

ਇੱਕ ਹੀ ਕਿਰਿਆ ਲਵੋ ਅਤੇ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਪੰਦਰਾਂ ਰੂਪ ਲਿਖੋ ਜੋ ਹੇਠਲੀ ਸਾਰਣੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਹਨ, ਹਰ ਇੱਕ ਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਪੂਰੇ ਵਾਕ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਾ ਕੇ। ਫਿਰ ਪੰਜ ਵਾਕ ਲਿਖੋ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੇ ਵਾਲਾ ਪੂਰਬ-ਕਾਲਿਕ ਕ੍ਰਿਦੰਤ ਦੋ ਜਾਂ ਵੱਧ ਕੰਮਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਜੋੜੇ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਵਾਕ ਬਣਤਰ: postpositions, the ergative, particles, numbers and word order#

AdvancedAQA 7682 - 3.3.7 PrepositionsAQA 7682 - 3.3.8 ConjunctionsAQA 7682 - 3.3.9 NumbersAQA 7682 - 3.3.10 Quantity and expressions of timeAQA 7682 - 3.3.11 Syntax

What the verb agrees with, and when

Fig. 6The specification never uses the word ergative and never describes this pattern, yet it governs every past-tense sentence a candidate writes and is the commonest source of agreement errors in the whole language. The row in heavier ink is the one that reverses the ordinary expectation: in a completed transitive clause the subject is marked and the verb agrees with the OBJECT, which is the opposite of what a speaker of English, French or Spanish will assume.

Section 3.3.7 is headed Prepositions and every example under it is a POSTposition, following its noun: ਤੋਂ from, ਥੱਲੇ under, ਉੱਤੇ on, ਨਾਲ with. Panjabi has no prepositions at all, and putting a postposition before its noun is one of the most visible errors an English speaker can make. There are two kinds. SIMPLE postpositions attach directly to the oblique noun: ਨੇ, ਨੂੰ, ਤੋਂ, ਨਾਲ, ਵਿੱਚ, ਉੱਤੇ, ਤੱਕ, ਲਈ, ਦਾ. COMPOUND postpositions are built on the genitive ਦੇ plus a second word: ਦੇ ਨਾਲ with, ਦੇ ਬਾਰੇ about, ਦੇ ਵਿਚਕਾਰ between, ਦੇ ਬਿਨਾਂ without, ਦੇ ਸਾਹਮਣੇ opposite, ਦੇ ਕਾਰਨ because of. When a pronoun precedes a compound postposition it takes its own possessive form: ਮੇਰੇ ਨਾਲ with me, ਉਸ ਦੇ ਬਾਰੇ about him, never ਮੈਂ ਨਾਲ.

The ERGATIVE is the hardest thing in Panjabi syntax and the specification never mentions it, so it has to be learnt here. The rule has three parts. In an IMPERFECTIVE clause the subject is unmarked and the verb agrees with it: ਮੁੰਡਾ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹੈ. In an INTRANSITIVE perfective clause the subject is unmarked and the verb agrees with it: ਕੁੜੀ ਆਈ. But in a TRANSITIVE PERFECTIVE clause the subject takes the postposition ਨੇ and goes oblique, and the verb agrees with the OBJECT: ਮੁੰਡੇ ਨੇ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਪੜ੍ਹੀ - the verb is feminine because ਕਿਤਾਬ is. If the object is itself marked with ਨੂੰ, the verb can agree with nothing and falls back to the default masculine singular: ਮੁੰਡੇ ਨੇ ਕੁੜੀ ਨੂੰ ਵੇਖਿਆ. One convention to know: in standard written Panjabi the first- and second-person pronouns appear WITHOUT ਨੇ - ਮੈਂ ਰੋਟੀ ਖਾਧੀ - though the object agreement still applies, and ਮੈਂ ਨੇ is heard in some varieties and is not the written standard.

Section 3.3.8 is headed Conjunctions but contains, oddly, the possession constructions as well, and both halves matter. The conjunctions are ਅਤੇ and, shortened to ਤੇ in speech and in most writing, ਪਰ but, ਜਾਂ or, ਕਿਉਂਕਿ because, ਜੇ if, ਜਦੋਂ when, ਤਾਂ then; the relative-correlative pairs ਜਿਹੜਾ ਉਹ, ਜਿੱਥੇ ਉੱਥੇ, ਜਦੋਂ ਤਦੋਂ, ਜਿੰਨਾ ਓਨਾ are the standard way to build a complex sentence and are worth using deliberately. The PARTICLES ਵੀ also, ਹੀ only or precisely, and ਤਾਂ as for, are small and load-bearing: ਮੈਂ ਵੀ ਜਾਵਾਂਗਾ I too will go, ਮੈਂ ਹੀ ਜਾਵਾਂਗਾ I and no one else will go, ਮੈਂ ਤਾਂ ਜਾਵਾਂਗਾ as for me, I will go. The two POSSESSIONS are distinct: SEPARABLE, for things you could give away, uses ਕੋਲ - ਮੇਰੇ ਕੋਲ ਤਿੰਨ ਕਾਰਾਂ ਹਨ; INSEPARABLE, for kin and body parts, uses the bare possessive - ਮੇਰੇ ਤਿੰਨ ਭਰਾ ਹਨ. Both examples are the specification's own.

Numbers, quantity, time and word order finish the section. Cardinals are irregular through the first hundred and simply have to be learnt; ordinals are ਪਹਿਲਾ, ਦੂਜਾ, ਤੀਜਾ, ਚੌਥਾ and then -ਵਾਂ on the cardinal; the fractions the specification names are ਅੱਧਾ a half, ਸਵਾ a quarter more, ਪੌਣਾ a quarter less, to which add ਡੇਢ one and a half and ਢਾਈ two and a half. Collectives are formed by juxtaposition: ਦੋ-ਤਿੰਨ two or three. Time expressions use ਵਜੇ for the clock, ਵੇਲੇ for the occasion and the postposition ਨੂੰ for a point in time; and ਕੱਲ੍ਹ means BOTH yesterday and tomorrow, resolved only by the tense of the verb, as does ਪਰਸੋਂ for the day before or after that. On word order, section 3.3.11 says exactly one thing - that it is flexible according to semantic emphasis - and the practical rule is that Panjabi is verb-final and that the element placed immediately BEFORE the verb carries the focus. Moving a phrase there is the ordinary way to emphasise it, and doing it deliberately is a range mark.

Worked example

The ergative decision, made four times in one paragraph

Put into Panjabi: The girl wrote a letter. She sent it to her brother. He read it and he telephoned her. Four clauses, four different agreement outcomes.

Clause one: transitive, perfective
ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖੀ। Transitive and completed, so ਨੇ on the subject; ਕੁੜੀ is feminine and does not change form in the oblique singular, which conceals the fact that it IS oblique. The verb ਲਿਖੀ is feminine singular, agreeing with ਚਿੱਠੀ, not with the girl - the two happen to coincide here, which is why this clause teaches badly on its own.
Clause two: object marked, so default agreement
ਉਸ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਨੂੰ ਭੇਜੀ। Careful: the direct object ਇਹ stands for the letter, which is feminine, and it is NOT marked with ਨੂੰ - the ਨੂੰ here marks the RECIPIENT. So the verb still agrees with the letter and is ਭੇਜੀ. Distinguishing a marked object from a marked recipient is the subtlest part of the rule.
Clause three: transitive, perfective, masculine subject
ਉਸ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਪੜ੍ਹੀ। The brother is masculine, but the verb is FEMININE because it agrees with the letter. A learner who writes ਪੜ੍ਹਿਆ has made the single commonest ergative error, and it is not a slip of the pen: it is the English intuition that the verb belongs to the doer.
Clause four: object marked with ਨੂੰ
ਉਸ ਨੇ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਫ਼ੋਨ ਕੀਤਾ। Now the person telephoned is marked with ਨੂੰ, so the verb agrees with nothing available and takes the default masculine singular ਕੀਤਾ, regardless of the gender of either participant. Note also that ਫ਼ੋਨ ਕਰਨਾ is a conjunct verb and that ਫ਼ੋਨ carries a nukta.
Fix the ambiguity English left behind
The Panjabi so far uses ਉਸ for both siblings and is unreadable. This is a translation problem, not a grammar one: name them. ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ … ਉਸ ਨੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਨੂੰ … ਭਰਾ ਨੇ … A good translation replaces pronouns with nouns wherever the target language would otherwise be ambiguous, and that is a decision an examiner rewards.
The finished paragraph and the check
ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖੀ। ਉਸ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਨੂੰ ਭੇਜੀ। ਭਰਾ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਪੜ੍ਹੀ ਅਤੇ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਫ਼ੋਨ ਕੀਤਾ। Run the check on each clause in turn: is it perfective? is it transitive? is the object marked? Those three questions, asked in that order, determine the whole agreement.

Result: ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖੀ। ਉਸ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਭਰਾ ਨੂੰ ਭੇਜੀ। ਭਰਾ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਪੜ੍ਹੀ ਅਤੇ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਫ਼ੋਨ ਕੀਤਾ। Perfective? Transitive? Object marked? Three questions, asked in that order, in every past-tense clause you write.

Typical mistakes

Placing a postposition before its noun, under the influence of English.
Forgetting ਨੇ in a transitive perfective clause, or adding it in an intransitive one.
Making the perfective verb agree with the subject when the clause is transitive.
Using ਕੋਲ for kin, or the bare possessive for property.
Leaving the emphasised element in a neutral position and then wondering why the sentence reads flat.

Active revision

ਦਸ ਜੋੜੇ ਵਾਕ ਲਿਖੋ: ਹਰ ਜੋੜੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਹਿਲਾ ਵਾਕ ਅਪੂਰਨ ਪੱਖ ਵਿੱਚ ਅਤੇ ਦੂਜਾ ਉਸੇ ਗੱਲ ਦਾ ਪੂਰਨ ਪੱਖ ਵਿੱਚ, ਤਾਂ ਜੋ ਦੂਜੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਨੇ ਆਵੇ ਅਤੇ ਕਿਰਿਆ ਕਰਮ ਨਾਲ ਮੇਲ ਖਾਵੇ। ਫਿਰ ਪੰਜ ਵਾਕਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੀ, ਹੀ ਅਤੇ ਤਾਂ ਵਰਤ ਕੇ ਦਿਖਾਓ ਕਿ ਅਰਥ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਬਦਲਦਾ ਹੈ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

ਦੋ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ: the two translation tasks and their two different demands#

AdvancedAQA 7682 - 4.4.3 Translation from the target language (Paper 1, 10 marks)AQA 7682 - 4.6 Paper 3: Translation into Panjabi (10 marks)AQA 7682 - 3.3 Grammar

The two translations are worth 10 marks each, sit in different papers and test different things, and preparing for them as though they were one task is the commonest strategic error in this subject. PAPER 1, Panjabi into English, is a comprehension task with an English-writing component: a passage of at least 100 words whose content is drawn from the specification's themes. What is being tested is whether you UNDERSTOOD - the aspect of a verb, the reference of a pronoun, the force of a particle - and whether you can produce natural English. PAPER 3, English into Panjabi, is a production task: a passage of at least 100 words, again on the themes. What is being tested is accuracy under construction - agreement, oblique forms, postposition choice, the ergative, tone-letter spelling. Note one thing precisely, because a sister specification differs: AQA 7682 does NOT provide a supporting Panjabi text for the translation into Panjabi. Do not prepare for a support that will not be there.

For Panjabi into English, work in this order. First read the whole passage and identify every finite verb, because Panjabi is verb-final and a long sentence's meaning is decided at its end. Second, resolve the pronouns: ਉਹ is he, she, it and they, and Panjabi tolerates far more pronoun ambiguity than English does, so you will often have to supply a name. Third, identify the aspect of each verb before its tense - habitual, perfective, continuous - since English tense names will mislead you. Fourth, decide what to do with the things English has no equivalent for: honorific plural agreement, ਵੀ and ਹੀ, the conjunctive participle, the second causative. Fifth, write the English and then read it with the Panjabi covered. If it does not read as English, redistribute the clauses rather than the words.

For English into Panjabi, work in a different order. First, decide the REGISTER of the whole passage before translating a word: is it a newspaper report, a letter, a conversation? That decision fixes the honorific level and the vocabulary layer, and changing your mind halfway produces a passage that reads as two people wrote it. Second, work clause by clause, and for each clause ask the three ergative questions - is it perfective, is it transitive, is the object marked - before writing the verb. Third, put every noun into the oblique before its postposition. Fourth, check every ਦਾ, ਦੀ, ਦੇ against what it precedes. Fifth, in the last two minutes, run a spelling sweep for the marks you cannot hear: adhak, tippi against bindi, and the tone letters. That sweep alone recovers marks in almost every script.

Two general disciplines apply in both directions. DO NOT PARAPHRASE: a translation that conveys the gist while dropping a clause loses the marks attached to that clause, and the ten marks are distributed across the passage rather than awarded for a general impression. DO NOT OVER-TRANSLATE: adding an explanation the source does not contain is as costly as omitting one. And remember the constraint the specification places on the whole qualification - across AO1 and AO2 together, no more than 10 per cent of the total marks may be earned by responses in English, including translation into English - which is why the Panjabi-into-English task is only 10 of Paper 1's 85 marks. It is a small, dense, highly checkable component, and it is one of the few places in the paper where a methodical candidate can score close to full marks.

Worked example

English into Panjabi, with every decision justified

Translate for Paper 3: Many young people from the Punjab go abroad every year. Their families often have to sell land in order to pay the agents. Some of them return after a few years, but most settle there and send money home. Older people say that the villages have changed because of this.

Fix the register first
This is a neutral expository passage of the kind a newspaper or a textbook would carry. So: third person throughout, polite plural agreement for older people, no ਤੂੰ anywhere, and standard rather than colloquial vocabulary - ਪਰਵਾਸ rather than a slang term, ਜ਼ਮੀਨ rather than a dialect word. Decide this once and hold it.
Sentence one
ਪੰਜਾਬ ਤੋਂ ਬਹੁਤ ਸਾਰੇ ਨੌਜਵਾਨ ਹਰ ਸਾਲ ਬਾਹਰ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ। Decisions: ਤੋਂ is the postposition of origin and follows ਪੰਜਾਬ; the verb is habitual, not simple present, so imperfective plus copula; ਜਾਣਾ is intransitive so there is no ਨੇ even when we reach the past; and ਹਰ ਸਾਲ needs no postposition, because time expressions with ਹਰ stand bare.
Sentence two: the obligation and the purpose clause
ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਅਕਸਰ ਏਜੰਟਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪੈਸੇ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ ਜ਼ਮੀਨ ਵੇਚਣੀ ਪੈਂਦੀ ਹੈ। Have to is ਪੈਣਾ, compulsion by circumstance, not ਚਾਹੀਦਾ. Note the agreement: ਵੇਚਣੀ ਪੈਂਦੀ ਹੈ is feminine because ਜ਼ਮੀਨ is feminine - the verbal noun agrees with the object. In order to is ਲਈ after the oblique infinitive ਦੇਣ. And both ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ and ਏਜੰਟਾਂ are oblique plurals before ਨੂੰ.
Sentence three: the contrast and the compound verbs
ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਕੁਝ ਕੁਝ ਸਾਲਾਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਵਾਪਸ ਆ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ, ਪਰ ਬਹੁਤੇ ਉੱਥੇ ਹੀ ਵੱਸ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ਘਰ ਪੈਸੇ ਭੇਜਦੇ ਹਨ। Some of them is ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਕੁਝ, with the partitive ਵਿੱਚੋਂ. ਆ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ and ਵੱਸ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ are compound verbs with ਜਾਣਾ giving completion - exactly the auxiliaries section 3.3.6 lists. And ਉੱਥੇ ਹੀ uses the particle ਹੀ to render there, and not here, which the English implies without saying.
Sentence four: the honorific and the causal postposition
ਬਜ਼ੁਰਗ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਇਸ ਕਰਕੇ ਪਿੰਡ ਬਦਲ ਗਏ ਹਨ। Older people take plural agreement out of respect, so ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ and not ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ. Because of this is ਇਸ ਕਰਕੇ or ਇਸ ਦੇ ਕਾਰਨ; ਇਸ is the oblique of ਇਹ before the postposition. ਬਦਲ ਗਏ ਹਨ is again a compound with ਜਾਣਾ, giving a change that has completed - which is exactly what the English present perfect means.
The spelling sweep
Now hunt only for the invisible marks. ਬਹੁਤ, ਕੁਝ, ਪਿੰਡ - is the tippi on ਪਿੰਡ there, and is it tippi rather than bindi? ਏਜੰਟਾਂ - tippi. ਜ਼ਮੀਨ and ਏਜੰਟ - is the nukta on the ਜ਼ present? ਹੀ, ਹਨ - correct. This sweep takes ninety seconds and it is the difference between eight marks and ten.
Read the whole thing back as Panjabi
ਪੰਜਾਬ ਤੋਂ ਬਹੁਤ ਸਾਰੇ ਨੌਜਵਾਨ ਹਰ ਸਾਲ ਬਾਹਰ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਅਕਸਰ ਏਜੰਟਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪੈਸੇ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ ਜ਼ਮੀਨ ਵੇਚਣੀ ਪੈਂਦੀ ਹੈ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਕੁਝ ਕੁਝ ਸਾਲਾਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਵਾਪਸ ਆ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ, ਪਰ ਬਹੁਤੇ ਉੱਥੇ ਹੀ ਵੱਸ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ਘਰ ਪੈਸੇ ਭੇਜਦੇ ਹਨ। ਬਜ਼ੁਰਗ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਇਸ ਕਰਕੇ ਪਿੰਡ ਬਦਲ ਗਏ ਹਨ। If it reads as though a Panjabi speaker wrote it rather than as though it were assembled from English, you have done the job.

Result: Four sentences, and in them: two obliques before ਨੂੰ, an obligation with ਪੈਣਾ agreeing with a feminine object, a purpose clause with the oblique infinitive plus ਲਈ, three compound verbs with ਜਾਣਾ, the particle ਹੀ carrying an implication the English left unsaid, honorific plural agreement, and a causal postposition on an oblique demonstrative. That is what ten marks of translation is made of - and none of it is vocabulary.

Typical mistakes

Preparing for a supporting text in Paper 3 that this specification does not provide.
Translating tense rather than aspect.
Leaving a Panjabi pronoun ambiguous in English where English requires a name.
Writing the verb before deciding whether the clause is transitive and perfective.
Skipping the final spelling sweep, which is the cheapest marks in the paper.

Active revision

ਇੱਕ ਹੀ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਪੈਰ੍ਹਾ (੧੦੦ ਸ਼ਬਦ) ਲਵੋ। ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਇਸ ਦਾ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ ਕਰੋ। ਇੱਕ ਹਫ਼ਤੇ ਬਾਅਦ, ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਆਪਣੇ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ ਨੂੰ ਵੇਖ ਕੇ, ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਵਾਪਸ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਕਰੋ। ਫਿਰ ਦੋਵੇਂ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਪਾਠ ਨਾਲ-ਨਾਲ ਰੱਖ ਕੇ ਹਰ ਫ਼ਰਕ ਦੀ ਸੂਚੀ ਬਣਾਓ। ਇਹ ਸੂਚੀ ਹੀ ਤੁਹਾਡੀ ਅਸਲ ਗ਼ਲਤੀਆਂ ਦੀ ਸੂਚੀ ਹੈ।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA A-level Panjabi (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7682 specification

ਵਿਆਕਰਨ ਤੇ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

5 sections~37 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

ਵਿਆਕਰਨ ਤੇ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

Key points

Two spelling decisions, walked through as the exam makes them

Key points

Choosing the oblique and the postposition, decision by decision

Key points

Choosing a tense and aspect for a translation into Panjabi

Key points

The ergative decision, made four times in one paragraph

Key points

English into Panjabi, with every decision justified

Sources

ਵਿਆਕਰਨ ਤੇ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

Key points

Two spelling decisions, walked through as the exam makes them

Key points

Choosing the oblique and the postposition, decision by decision

Key points

Choosing a tense and aspect for a translation into Panjabi

Key points

The ergative decision, made four times in one paragraph

Key points

English into Panjabi, with every decision justified

Sources