UK Visa English Test for Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi Speakers: A1, A2 and B1 Habits and Fixes

What the examiner hears, in one paragraph

If Punjabi, Urdu or Hindi is your first language and you are sitting an A1, A2 or B1 SELT for a partner visa, an extension, settlement or citizenship, five habits decide most results, and none of them is "accent". They are: v and w pronounced the same ("wery", "vhere"), p and f swapped ("fass" for pass, "pamily"), articles dropped ("I work in shop"), present continuous used for habits and facts ("I am living here since two years", "I am having two children"), and one-word answers followed by a missed second question. The Home Office needs a pass at the level your route asks for, and the partner, parent, settlement and citizenship routes need speaking and listening only, per the GOV.UK SELT guidance, so you will not be asked to read or write. So the examiner is listening for two things: can they understand you, and did you understand them. Each habit below is written as a tendency, not a rule about you, with why it costs the pass, the fix, and a sixty-second drill you can do in the kitchen. The Home Office publishes no results by first language; the habits are our judgement, from how the sounds and grammar of these languages carry into English.

Habit 1: v and w, p and f, and the hard t and d

The tendency. Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi have one sound between English v and w (the व / و sound), so "vet" and "wet", "vine" and "wine", "west" and "vest" come out the same. Urdu speakers often have f, but some Punjabi speakers say p for f ("pone" for phone, "pamily") and some say f for p ("fass" for pass). The t and d are made with the tongue curled back (retroflex), which sounds heavy in English but is almost never misunderstood. An extra vowel sometimes lands in front of s-clusters: "iskool", "istation".

Why it costs the pass. The examiner does not mark accent. They mark whether the word they heard is the word you meant. At A1 the questions are about your life, and "I live in Vest Bromwich with my vife" is understood from context. But "My husband is a wet" is not, and when an A1 candidate is asked "Do you have a pet?" and answers "Yes, a fish", the examiner is checking whether they heard "pet" or "fet". Two or three of these in a six-minute Grade 2 conversation leave the examiner unsure what you understood, and that is a fail on listening, not speaking.

The fix. Two mouth positions, learned once. For w, round the lips as if to whistle and do not let the teeth touch the lip: "we", "work", "wife", "week", "weather", "water". For v, top teeth on the bottom lip, and feel it buzz: "very", "visa", "village", "vegetables", "seven", "eleven". For f, the same teeth-on-lip position without the buzz: "family", "food", "friend", "four", "five", "phone". For p, lips closed, then a small puff of air: hold a tissue in front of your mouth and it should move on "pen", "pass", "parents". Retroflex t and d: leave them alone; they are not failing anyone.

Habit 2: dropped articles, "na" and "isn't it"

The tendency. Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi have no words for "a" and "the", so they disappear in English: "I work in shop", "My husband is driver", "We live in house near station". The Punjabi and Hindi tag na and the Urdu na / hai na become "isn't it?" or "no?" at the end of every statement: "It is cold today, isn't it?", "You are from Pakistan, no?" The word "only" gets used as an emphasis particle, as hi is: "I am living in Bradford only." And "too much" stands in for "very much": "I like it too much."

Why it costs the pass. At A1 and A2 a dropped article almost never fails you; the examiner understands "I work in shop". The tags are the problem. "You are from Pakistan, no?" is a question in form, and an examiner who is asking you questions may answer it, or wait for you to finish, and the rhythm of the test breaks. At B1, where the examiner is weighing whether you can hold a conversation on a subject you did not choose, repeated "isn't it?" after statements that are not questions reads as not controlling the grammar. "Only" and "too much" are understood but mark the speech as stuck at A2.

The fix. Three rules cover most A1 and A2 answers. One: a job or a single countable thing gets a or an ("My husband is a driver", "I live in a house", "I have an uncle"). Two: a place you have already named, and the only one of something, gets the ("the station", "the kitchen", "the UK"). Three: names, meals and languages get nothing ("I live in Bradford", "I eat breakfast", "I speak Punjabi"). Replace "isn't it?" with a plain full stop, and if you want the examiner to agree, say "I think it is cold today." Replace "only" with nothing, and "too much" with "very much" or "a lot". Our articles guide goes deeper if you want the full rules.

Habit 3: "I am working here since five years"

The tendency. Hindi and Urdu use one form (kar raha hoon / کر رہا ہوں) for "I am doing now" and a similar feel for "I have been doing", and Punjabi does the same, so English speakers from these languages reach for the -ing form for everything: "I am having two children", "I am living in Lahore since 2019", "My husband is working in a factory" (for a permanent job), "I am knowing a little English". Along with it comes "since" for "for": "since five years".

Why it costs the pass. At A1 the examiner understands "I am having two children" and will not fail you for it. At A2 and especially at B1 the examiner is listening for whether you control present simple for habits and facts and past simple for finished events, because the B1 conversation asks for exactly those: what you usually do, what you did last weekend, what you plan to do. A candidate who says "I am going to the market every Saturday" and "Yesterday I am going to the doctor" leaves the examiner unable to tell whether they understood "usually" and "yesterday", which again becomes a listening doubt.

The fix. Match the time word to the form. Every day, usually, always, on Sundays: present simple, "I cook", "I work", "I take the bus". Now, at the moment, today: present continuous, "I am learning English", "My son is sleeping". Yesterday, last week, in 2019: past simple, "I went", "I cooked", "I came to the UK in 2019". For plus a length of time ("for five years"), since plus a start point ("since 2019"), both with "I have lived" or "I have been living". And four verbs that never take -ing in these answers: have (for family and things), know, like, want. "I have two children. I know a little English. I like Bradford. I want to work."

Habit 4: one-word answers to open questions

The tendency. In a Punjabi or Urdu-speaking home, answering an elder briefly is politeness, and many candidates have never sat an oral exam, so "Do you work?" gets "Yes." "Tell me about your family." gets "Four people." "What do you like about your town?" gets "Good." The candidate is being respectful and brief. The examiner hears nothing to assess.

Why it costs the pass. The speaking and listening SELTs are short. Trinity Grade 2 is 6 minutes and Grade 3 is 7 minutes, per Trinity's pages; PTE Home is 30 minutes on a computer, per Pearson, with no human to coax a longer answer out of you. If you give one word, the examiner, or the recording, has only that one word to judge you on. At B1, Trinity Grade 5 gives you a prepared Topic to talk about in a 10-minute exam, and a candidate who says four sentences and stops has not shown B1. One-word answers also hide listening: "Yes" to "Do you work or do you stay at home?" shows the question was not understood.

The fix. The rule of three: every answer has the answer, one detail, one more sentence. "Do you work?" "Yes, I work in a shop. It is a small grocery shop near my house. I work there with my husband in the mornings." That is three sentences, about twenty words, and it gives the examiner a follow-up question ("What do you sell?") which is exactly what you want, because a follow-up you can predict is a listening check you will pass. For "Tell me about ..." questions, use who, where, what, when in order: "My family is my husband, my two sons and me. We live in Birmingham. My husband works as a taxi driver. My sons go to school near our house."

Habit 5: missing the second question

The tendency. Candidates prepare answers, and the answers are good. Then the examiner asks a second question that depends on the first answer, and the candidate gives the next prepared answer instead. "Where do you live?" "I live in Bradford with my husband." "How long have you lived there?" "My husband is a taxi driver." That exchange fails on listening, and the English in it was fine. The traps we hear most: question tags ("You live with your husband, don't you?"), polite forms ("Could you tell me about ...", "Would you say ..."), frequency ("How often ...?" answered with a yes), either/or ("Do you prefer tea or coffee?" answered with "yes"), and "why" answered with a repeat of the fact.

Why it costs the pass. Every speaking and listening SELT tests listening through the conversation itself. Trinity describes GESE as "a one-to-one speaking and listening test"; ielts.org describes Life Skills as "a single test covering speaking and listening skills" designed to assess "whether you can listen and respond"; Pearson says speaking and listening are assessed in every PTE Home test. In the two examiner tests, listening is heard through the conversation itself. The second question is the listening paper.

The fix. Learn the five question shapes above by their first words, and learn one safe repair line: "Sorry, could you say that again, please?" Asking once is normal. Then, for each shape, the answer form: tag question, answer the statement ("Yes, I do. We have lived together since 2022."); "could you tell me", start talking; "how often", give a frequency ("every day", "twice a week", "on Sundays"); "either/or", pick one and say why; "why", start with "because". In practice, record ten questions with their follow-ups and play them in a random order, so your ear learns to wait for the question before your mouth starts the answer.

30 A1 questions with model answers, glossed in Hindi and Urdu

These thirty cover the personal topics every A1 speaking and listening test draws on: yourself, family, home, work, routine, food, travel, weather, free time and simple plans. The gloss gives the meaning of the question in Hindi and Urdu so that a candidate who does not yet read English can learn the questions by ear with a family member. The model answers are written by TalkDrill at A1 level with the rule of three, and each ends with something the examiner can ask about. Change every fact to your own; do not memorise ours. Questions 19 to 21 are A2 shapes (past and future) that A1 examiners sometimes reach for, so practise them too. Fifteen per level, with follow-ups, are in the practice bank.

Three notes on the table. First, question 29 is there because A1 on the CEFR scale means asking simple questions as well as answering them, and Trinity's A1 description includes communicating "with others in simple phrases"; have two questions ready. Second, say the numbers in questions 10 and 11 slowly: "eight", "five", "three" are where the v, f and th sounds live. Third, every answer ends with a fact the examiner can follow up ("She lives in Leeds." "My son plays football."). You chose that follow-up, so you will hear it coming.

The family-route timeline, and the worries nobody writes down

In plain language, with the rules from the GOV.UK family visa guide. Year 0: you apply for the first partner or parent visa from Pakistan or India; you need an A1 pass in speaking and listening from a SELT provider available outside the UK (IELTS Life Skills, PTE Home, LanguageCert ESOL SELT or Skills for English UKVI; Trinity is UK only). Year 2.5: you extend from inside the UK; you need A2 unless you passed A2 or higher the first time, in which case GOV.UK says you can use that result again. Now Trinity GESE Grade 3 is also open to you, and IELTS Life Skills A2, which ielts.org says is offered in the UK only. Year 5: settlement; B1, which a B1 pass from year 0 covers if the certificate has not been withdrawn. From 26 March 2027, per Trinity's SELT page and Appendix English Language, most settlement applicants will need B2 speaking and listening instead, and no official page we read says whether an earlier B1 pass will still be accepted after that date, so read GOV.UK on the day you apply. Citizenship: B1 on the pages we read, with no announced change. The which-test page has the whole matrix and the B1 to B2 page the dated decision box.

"I have never sat an exam"

Some candidates on the partner route left school early or never went, and for them the word "exam" is the frightening part, not the English. Three facts help. The test is a conversation, not a paper. Nobody will ask you to read or write anything on the partner route. And the examiner wants you to pass; Trinity's own description of A1 is being able to introduce yourself and answer questions about your life, which you do every day in Punjabi. The drill is to make the English conversation as ordinary as the Punjabi one, by having it every day for two weeks.

"I am over forty and my memory is not what it was"

Memorising thirty answers word for word is the wrong plan at any age, and it fails on the second question (habit 5). The right plan is to know your own thirty facts, which you already do, and to practise saying them in three sentences each. Facts do not need memorising. If you are 65 or over on the day you apply you are exempt from the English requirement altogether, per the GOV.UK exemptions page; the exemptions page explains the evidence.

"From a village to the test centre"

If you are nervous of computers, choose IELTS Life Skills, which ielts.org says you take in person "with an examiner, and with one other test taker". In the UK, Trinity GESE is also a live examiner, but by video conference on a tablet at the centre, per Trinity's Grade 2 and 3 pages. If you are nervous of strangers but fine with a phone, choose PTE Home (30 minutes on a computer, per Pearson) or, outside the UK, Skills for English (computer-based, no examiner present, per skillsforenglish.com). Visit the centre's street the day before so the building is not new on the day. Bring your original passport; Pearson says the ID must be "original (not a copy)", and every provider states its own ID rules at booking, so read them before the day.

Your two-week route on TalkDrill

The two-week roadmap gives every day as one task with minutes. For Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi speakers we weight it like this, in our judgement: week one is sounds and the rule of three, five minutes of v/w and p/f pairs in the read-aloud practice, then ten questions from the thirty above answered in three sentences each. Week two is the second question, ten questions a day in the AI mock interview set to simple personal questions, so that every answer is followed by a question you did not script; for B1 candidates add one topic talk a day from the Trinity GESE page. Two days before the test, one full mock in the format you booked. If you want the same ideas with Hindi explanations, the English for Hindi speakers guide and the Hindi pronunciation guide cover the sounds in more depth. The official rules behind this page are the GOV.UK family visa knowledge of English page, the GOV.UK SELT guidance and Trinity's Grade 2 page; every link is on the official resources page.