Basic Details
Word: Pakistan
Part of Speech: Proper noun
Meaning: A country in South Asia that shares a long border with India to the west and north-west. Its capital is Islamabad.
Word origin: The name was put forward in 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali. The ending stan is a Persian word meaning land or place.
How to Spell Pakistan
Syllables: Pak - i - stan
Tricky part: It is spelt with k and a single plain stan at the end. Indian students often add an h and write Pakisthan, the way the name is said in Hindi.
Watch out for: Pakisthan, Pakistaan, Pakiston
Memory tip: Three short beats, Pak - i - stan. The last beat is the stan found in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, with no h.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Lahore is one of the largest cities in Pakistan.
Example 2: The Wagah border lies between Amritsar and Lahore.
Example 3: Cricket matches between India and Pakistan draw huge crowds.
Fun Fact
Karachi was Pakistan's first capital. The government later moved north, and the planned city of Islamabad became the capital in the 1960s.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the meaning of the only misspelt word:
1. Afghanistan 2. Pakisthan 3. Uzbekistan 4. Bangladesh
a) a Central Asian country on the old Silk Road
b) a landlocked country crossed by the Hindu Kush mountains
c) a country that borders India to the west
d) a country almost surrounded by India in the east
Show answer
c) a country that borders India to the west. Pakistan has no h; it ends in stan, like Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
Pakistaan
a) k
b) a
c) s
d) t
Show answer
b) a. The last syllable is stan, with one a.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters to find the word that fits the sentence:
The Indus flows from the mountains through aptsnaik to the Arabian Sea.
a) Kazakhstan
b) Afghanistan
c) Tajikistan
d) Pakistan
Show answer
d) Pakistan. The Indus runs through Pakistan, and its eight letters, two of them a's, are the ones given.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which is the capital of Pakistan?
a) Islamabad
b) Lahore
c) Karachi
d) Kabul
Show answer
a) Islamabad
2. The national language of Pakistan is ____.
a) Arabic
b) Persian
c) Urdu
d) Pashto
Show answer
c) Urdu
