ਓਥੇ

What does othe mean in Punjabi?

Othe (ਓਥੇ) means 'there' in Punjabi. It points to a place away from the speaker, the opposite of ethe, 'here'. 'Othe jao' means 'go there', 'othe ki hai?' means 'what is there?', and 'oh othe rehnda hai' means 'he lives there'. It is a small word that does a lot of work in directions, stories and everyday talk.

Othe and its family of place words

Othe belongs to a set of four Punjabi place words that rhyme and work together. Kithe asks 'where?', as in 'tusi kithe ho?', where are you? Jithe means 'where' in a relative clause, as in 'jithe main rehna haan', where I live. Ethe means 'here', close to the speaker. And othe means 'there', away from the speaker. Learning the four together is easier than learning othe on its own, because they answer the same question from four directions.

How do Punjabis use othe?

In directions, othe points the listener somewhere else: 'othe, khabbe passe', there, on the left side, or 'othe ja ke puchho', go there and ask. In stories it sets the scene far away: 'othe ik raja rehnda si', there lived a king. In everyday talk it marks distance without measuring it: 'oh othe hai', he is over there, is enough when everyone can see the place. Wiktionary gives the example 'saanu othe jaana chahida!', we should go there, which shows othe doing the same job in a sentence about a plan.

Is othe the same as utthe?

Yes. Utthe (ਉੱਥੇ) is an alternative spelling of the same word, listed by Wiktionary as a variant form. Both spellings are pronounced the same way and mean the same thing, 'there'. Othe is the spelling Wiktionary gives as the headword and the one most commonly seen in print, so this page uses othe, but a reader who meets utthe in a book or a message is looking at the same word.