Arabic Letter E

In Pashto, ې writes the e vowel.

It belongs to Pashto's set of ye letters, which mark different sounds or word endings.

It usually appears inside or at the end of a word; initial e is written اې. In تېل (“oil”), ې marks the e in the middle.

Where did ې come from?

It developed as Pashto adapted Perso-Arabic writing to its sounds.

Older Pashto writing used one yeh for several sounds, including /j/, long /i:/, and /e/; later conventions marked the e vowel with ې. The sixteenth-century written tradition includes Bayazid Ansari's Khair-ul-Bayan, described as the first Pashto book.

The same character is also used in Uyghur and is called bbeh in Sindhi; the language determines its reading. Arabic does not use a separate letter for Pashto's e vowel.

Is ې the same as ی or ے?

No: Pashto's related ye letters mark different sounds or endings.

ي marks /i/ or /y/; ی has other uses, including /ay/ or /y/ in masculine word-final forms. ۍ marks a feminine word-final form, while ئ is a verbal ye used in another word-final pattern, often /əy/. Urdu ے is a separate letter.

Informal Pashto writing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as of 2026, may use Urdu ے for several Pashto yeys. Usage varies, so it is not a safe spelling swap when the exact letter matters.