Rang Royale

Family & Culture

Card Words in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi: Suits, Ranks and the Language of the Rang Table

The everyday card vocabulary heard at South Asian tables: hukum, paan, eent and chidi, ekka to dukki, badshah, begum and ghulam, and where the words come from.

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Sit at a Rang table in Lahore, Delhi, Amritsar or a family living room in Southall, Brampton or Parramatta, and you will hear a vocabulary that English rulebooks never mention. The suits and ranks have their own names in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi, many of them borrowed from Persian and shaped by centuries of court culture. For players who grew up abroad, learning these words is a small way to connect with how parents and grandparents talk about the game. This article collects the most common terms, with notes on where they come from. Pronunciation and spelling vary between regions and families, so treat these as the most widely used forms rather than the only correct ones.

The suits

The four suits have names that describe their shapes.

  • Hukum (also hukam or hukm): spades. The word comes from Arabic and Persian and means command or order. It is the same root as hokm, the name of the Persian game that is a close relative of Rang. The spade is the commanding suit in many Indian games, which may explain the name.
  • Paan: hearts. The heart symbol resembles the betel leaf, paan, that is folded around areca nut and spices after meals. Some players simply say dil, the word for heart.
  • Eent or int: diamonds. The word means brick, a fair description of the diamond shape. In Punjabi it is often itt.
  • Chidi or chiri: clubs. The word means a small bird, and the three-lobed club is said to resemble a bird or its foot. In Punjabi it is often chiddi.

You will also hear people refer to suits by colour, with the red suits and black suits sometimes called laal and kaala.

The court cards

The picture cards carry the titles of a royal court, which fits the story that Court Piece is named after them.

  • Badshah: king. A Persian word meaning emperor or king.
  • Begum: queen. A title for a noblewoman or queen. Some families say bibi, meaning lady, or rani, the Hindi word for queen.
  • Ghulam: jack. The word means servant or attendant, the lowest of the three court cards.

The number cards

The number cards take their names from the numbers themselves, usually with a familiar ending.

  • Ekka: ace, from ek, one.
  • Dukki: two, from do.
  • Tikki or teeggi: three, from teen.
  • Chauka: four, from chaar.
  • Panja: five, from paanch. The word also means the palm of a hand with fingers spread.
  • Chhakka: six, from chhe. Cricket fans will recognise it.
  • Satta: seven, from saat.
  • Attha: eight, from aath.
  • Nehla: nine, from nau.
  • Dehla: ten, from das.

Put together, a card is named by its rank and its suit, as in "hukum ka ekka", the ace of spades, or "paan ki begum", the queen of hearts.

Words for the game itself

  • Rang: colour, and in the game the trump suit. Choosing the trump is choosing the rang, and the whole game takes its name from that moment.
  • Court piece or coat piece: the other common name for the game, usually said in English even by players speaking Urdu or Hindi.
  • Kot or court: winning all thirteen tricks in a round.
  • Haath: hand, used both for the cards you hold and, at many tables, for a trick.
  • Patta: a card, and taash for a deck of cards or card games in general. "Taash khelna" means to play cards.

Words you will hear in other games

The same vocabulary carries across South Asian card games, and some games add their own words.

  • Dehla pakad, "catch the ten", is the name of a game in which the tens are the cards that matter most.
  • Thulla is the move in the shedding game Bhabhi, also called Get Away, when a player who cannot follow suit plays a different suit and the player with the highest card of the led suit must pick up the pile.
  • Patta phenkna, to throw a card, is a common way to describe discarding.

Where the words come from

Many of these words arrived with Persian, which was the language of courts and administration across much of South Asia for centuries. Badshah, begum, ghulam and hukum all have Persian or Arabic roots, and they appear in Urdu and Hindi as everyday vocabulary. The number words come from the shared Hindustani counting words, and the suit names are homely descriptions of shapes: a leaf, a brick, a bird.

That mix tells a story about the game itself. Rang belongs to a family of trump games played from Persia to the Bay of Bengal, and the words at the table carry traces of the empires, trade routes and languages that shaped the region.

Using the words at your own table

If you grew up abroad and want to use these words with your family, start small. Learn the four suit names first, since they come up in almost every trick, and the three court cards. The number names will follow naturally once you hear them in play. Grandparents in particular often light up when a grandchild calls "hukum" for the trump.

For the English terms used in Rang Royale and our guides, such as cut, void and master card, see the glossary. For the background of the game, see our history page.

More on family and culture

New to the rules? See How to Play and the glossary. For strategy, browse the rules and strategy guides.