Urdu is natively spoken by about 89 million people, primarily in Pakistan and India, where it is one of the official languages. It is integral to Urdu cultural identity, known for its poetry (ghazals and nazms), Mughal architecture, and classical music like Qawwali. Written in the Perso-Arabic script, Urdu grammar features a subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, extensive use of Persian and Arabic loanwords, and a system of verb conjugations that indicate tense, aspect, and mood.