Persian print version wikibooks, open books for an open world

9/7/2014 Persian/Print version - Wikibooks, open books for an open world
II This is a Category II Language.
Persian/Print version
Contents
Cover
Introduction — Background to learning Persian
Lessons
The Alphabet:
Lesson 1 ( ١ ) — Introduction to the Persian alphabet ( (ا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح خ
Lesson 2 ( ٢ ) — The alphabet (continued) ( (د ذ ر ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ
Lesson 3 ( ٣ ) — The alphabet (continued) ( (ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن
Lesson 4 ( ۴ ) — The alphabet (continued), ligatures, diacritics ( (و ه ی
Level 1 grammar:
Lesson 5 ( ۵ ) — Introduction to verbs ( (... ،ھستم ،ھست، ...، است
Lesson 6 ( ۶ ) — Noun phrases, ezâfe, demonstrative adjectives
Lesson 7 ( ٧ ) — Simple past tense, plurality and formality/deference
Lesson 8 ( ٨ ) — Negation, negative copula ( (... ،بیستم، بیست
Lesson 9 ( ٩ ) — Plural nouns, Arabic plurals, singular verbs with plural inanimate nouns
Lesson 10 ( ١٠ ) — Indefinite clitic ی, homographs
Lesson 11 ( ١١ ) — Direct objects, prepositions ،بودن ، داشتن
Lesson 12 ( ١٢ ) — Present tense, negative present, literary present imperfective
Lesson 13 ( ١٣ ) — Personal enclitics for possession or direct object
Lesson 14 ( ١۴ ) — Light verbs, causative with کردن vs. suffix انیدن or اندن . Passive with شدن
Lesson 15 ( ١۵ ) — Questions: Formal and informal, interrogative adverbs and pronouns
Level 2 grammar:
Lesson 16 ( ١۶ ) — Perfective aspect
Lesson 17 ( ١٧ ) — Comparative and superlative adjectives
Lesson 18 ( ١٨ ) — Imperative, subjunctive, conditional
Future in colloquial and literary Persian
Appendices
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Persian/Print_version 1/71

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Contribute to this book to make it a good way for new learners to learn Farsi!
II This is a Category II Language.
Alphabet — The alphabet and transcription
Grammar
Glossary
Further Reading
Selected Websites
Persian Computing
Persian Handwriting
Persian Phrases Wikibook
Resources
Persian - English Wiktionary
How to Contribute
Planning
Next: Introduction to the Persian language course
Continue to Introduction to the Persian language course >>
Contents

Contents
Cover
Introduction — Background to learning Persian
Lessons
The Alphabet:
Lesson 1 ( ١ ) — Introduction to the Persian alphabet ( (ا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح خ
Lesson 2 ( ٢ ) — The alphabet (continued) ( (د ذ ر ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ
Lesson 3 ( ٣ ) — The alphabet (continued) ( (ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن
Lesson 4 ( ۴ ) — The alphabet (continued), ligatures, diacritics ( (و ه ی
Level 1 grammar:
Lesson 5 ( ۵ ) — Introduction to verbs ( (... ،ھستم ،ھست، ...، است
Lesson 6 ( ۶ ) — Noun phrases, ezâfe, demonstrative adjectives
Lesson 7 ( ٧ ) — Simple past tense, plurality and formality/deference
Lesson 8 ( ٨ ) — Negation, negative copula ( (... ،بیستم، بیست
Lesson 9 ( ٩ ) — Plural nouns, Arabic plurals, singular verbs with plural inanimate nouns
Lesson 10 ( ١٠ ) — Indefinite clitic ی, homographs
Lesson 11 ( ١١ ) — Direct objects, prepositions ،بودن ، داشتن
Lesson 12 ( ١٢ ) — Present tense, negative present, literary present imperfective
Lesson 13 ( ١٣ ) — Personal enclitics for possession or direct object
Lesson 14 ( ١۴ ) — Light verbs, causative with کردن vs. suffix انیدن or اندن . Passive with شدن
Lesson 15 ( ١۵ ) — Questions: Formal and informal, interrogative adverbs and pronouns
Level 2 grammar:
Lesson 16 ( ١۶ ) — Perfective aspect
Lesson 17 ( ١٧ ) — Comparative and superlative adjectives
Lesson 18 ( ١٨ ) — Imperative, subjunctive, conditional
Future in colloquial and literary Persian
Appendices
Alphabet — The alphabet and transcription
Grammar
Glossary
Further Reading
Selected Websites
Persian Computing
Persian Handwriting
Persian Phrases Wikibook
Resources
Contribute to this Wikibook
This is a Wikibook. Feel free to edit, enhance, correct, and add to it, in any way that will make it a better learning resource.
Contribute to this book to make it a good way for new learners to learn Farsi!
How to Contribute
Planning
Next: Introduction to the Persian language course
Continue to Introduction to the Persian language course >>

Introduction
Welcome to the English Wikibook for learning the Persian Language.
This course requires no prior knowledge of Persian. It aims to teach grammar, vocabulary, common phrases, conversational
language, and formal/literary Persian. By the end, you should be able to read and write Persian but will probably need a
human teacher to help with listening and speaking. The book is meant to be read starting with lesson 1 and moving forward.
It will move slowly.
The Persian Language
Persian (local names: Parsi, Farsi or Dari) is an Indo-European language, the dominant language of the Indo-Iranian
language family and is a major language of antiquity. After the 7th century Persian absorbed a great deal of Arabic
vocabulary. Persian is the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Persian is also a popular language in
academia and business. Related languages include Pashto, Kurdish, Ossetian, and Balochi. Urdu and Turkish also have a
sizable vocabulary from Persian.
Persian or Farsi?
Farsi is an Arabized form of the word Parsi, one of the
original names in Persian for the Persian language. Since
there is no [p] sound in Arabic, Parsi became Farsi after
the Arab conquest of Persia. Farsi then became the local
name of Persian, but English speakers still call the
language “Persian”, just as they say “German”, “Spanish”,
and “Chinese” for languages locally called Deutsch,
español, and Hanyu. There is considerable opposition to
calling Persian Farsi in English and other languages, as is
summarized by the following pronouncement on the
English name of Persian language by the Academy of
Persian language and literature:
1. “Persian” has been used in a variety of publications
including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it carries a very significant
historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing “Persian” to “Farsi” would negate this established important
precedent.
2. Changing the usage from “Persian” to “Farsi” may give the impression that “Farsi” is a new language, although this
may well be the intention of some users of “Farsi”.
3. Changing the usage may also give the impression that “Farsi” is a dialect used in some parts of Iran rather than the
predominant (and official) language of the country.
4. The word “Farsi” has never been used in any research paper or university document in any Western language, and the
proposal to begin using it would create doubt and ambiguity about the name of the official language of Iran.
Persian and English
Since Persian and English are both Indo-European languages, many basic Persian words are familiar to English speakers.
For example مادر ‹mâdar› (“mother”), پدر ‹pedar› (“father”), and برادر ‹barâdar› (“brother”).
Pronunciation

Although Persian was influenced by Arabic, English speakers should not find it too difficult to pronounce Persian letters
fairly well. Fortunately for English speakers, the glottal stop ء [ʔ] from Arabic is barely pronounced in Persian, and the
“emphatic” consonants in Arabic ( ع ح ط ض ص ظ ) are pronounced without the pharyngealization, making them much
easier for most native English speakers.
It is important to listen to Persian often and to try to use the language. Pronunciation guides can only closely convey the
sounds of Persian but are never totally exact, so pronunciation benefits greatly from listening to native speakers.
Transcription
There are several systems of transcription to represent the sounds of Persian in the Latin alphabet. This book uses the
UniPers (also called Pârsiye Jahâni, "Universal Persian") transcription system, which uses the basic Latin alphabet plus a
few modified letters (‹â›, ‹š›, ‹ž›, and an apostrophe ‹’›) as a standard phonemic script that is clear, simple, and consistent.
Each transcription is enclosed in angle brackets, e.g., ‹fârsi›:
Vowels Diphthongs
UniPers ‹a› ‹â› ‹e› ‹i› ‹o› ‹u› ‹ow› ‹ey› ‹ay› ‹ây› ‹oy› ‹uy›
IPA /
æ/ /ɒː/ /e/ /iː/ /o/ /uː/ /ow/ /ej/ /aj/ /ɒj/ /oj/ /uj/
Persian آ، ا ا
ای، ا، ه (خوا)
وی ای ی و او ا، و ی
Consonants
UniPers ‹b› ‹c› ‹d› ‹f› ‹g› ‹h› ‹j› ‹k› ‹l› ‹m› ‹n› ‹p› ‹q› ‹r› ‹s› ‹š› ‹t› ‹v› ‹x› ‹z› ‹ž› ‹’›
IPA /b/ /tʃ/ /d/ /f/ /ɡ/ /h/ /dʒ/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /ɣ/ /ɾ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /t/ /v/ /χ/ /z/ /ʒ/ /ʔ/
Persian ه، گ ف د چ ب
غ، پ ن م ل ک ج ح
ر ق
ث،
س،
ص
ت، ش
خ و ط
ذ، ز،
ض،
ظ
ع، ژ
ء
Vocabulary and grammar
In learning to read or speak any language, the two aspects to be mastered are vocabulary and grammar. Acquiring
vocabulary is a matter of memorization. Children learn thousands of words of their native language by the time they are
conscious of the learning process, so it is easy to underestimate importance of having a large vocabulary. This process can
be reactivated by immersion: moving to where the language is spoken and one’s native tongue cannot be used for daily
communication.
Without the opportunity to move to a Persian-speaking area, a student must make a substantial effort to learn the meaning,
pronunciation, and proper use of words. Be sure to learn all of the vocabulary words in each lesson. Early lessons have
simple sentences because the student’s vocabulary is presumably limited, but more complex sentences in later lessons
demonstrate more typical Persian. It may be helpful to translate these using a Persian-English dictionary. Access to a print
dictionary is very helpful. Other sources of Persian, such as newspapers, magazines, and web sites can help to build
vocabulary and to develop a sense of how Persian sentences are put together.
Resources
The Internet has a wide variety of study resources. You can refer to the appendix of this book for a selection of some of the
best sources:
Websites
Also, each new vocabulary term introduced in this course can be looked up easily in the English Wiktionary wherever the
dictionary image appears. Click on the image to look up a Persian word wherever you see a link like the following:
خوب ‹xub› /ˈxuːb/ (“fine/well/good”)

Next: Lesson 1 ( ١ ), Introduction to the Persian alphabet
Continue to Lesson 1 ( ١ ), Introduction to the Persian alphabet >>
The Alphabet
The Persian Alphabet: الفبا ‹alefbâ›
The six vowels and 23 consonants of Persian are written using a modified version of the Arabic alphabet with four extra
Persian letters to represent sounds which do not exist in Arabic. Its Persian name is الفبا ‹alefbâ› , which is the equivalent
of the English “ABCs”.
Name Pronunciation, ‹UniPers›, [IPA] End Middle Initial Isolated
ا — ا
‹â› [ɒː] as in North American English caught, Received Pronunciation father,
South African English park,
‹a› [æ] as in cat, ‹o› [o] as in soap or ‹e› [e] as in well
‹alef›
‹be› ‹b› [b] as in big ب ب ب ب
‹pe› ‹p› [p] as in park پ پ پ پ
‹te› ‹t› [t] as in tea ت ت ت ت
‹se› ‹s› [s] as in salad ث ث ث ث
‹jim› ‹j› [dʒ͡] as in jade ج ج ج ج
‹ce› ‹c› [t͡ʃ] as in cheese چ چ چ چ
‹he› ‹h› [h] as in house ح ح ح ح
‹xe› ‹x› [x] as in Bach or Loch خ خ خ خ
‹dâl› ‹d› [d] as in dog د — د
‹zâl› ‹z› [z] as in zoo ذ — ذ
‹re› ‹r› [ɾ] as in rain ر — ر
‹ze› ‹z› [z] as in zoo ز — ز
‹že› ‹ž› [ʒ] as in mirage or French je ژ — ژ
‹sin› ‹s› [s] as in sand س س س س
‹šin› ‹š› [ʃ] as in sugar ش ش ش ش
‹sâd› ‹s› [s] as in sand ص ص ص ص
‹zâd› ‹z› [z] as in zoo ض ض ض ض
‹t› [t] as in tiger ط ط ط ط
‹tâ›
‹zâ› ‹z› [z] as in zoo ظ ظ ظ ظ

‹'eyn› ‹'› [ʔ] as in uh-oh ع ع ع ع
‹qeyn› ‹q› [ɣ] Voiced velar fricative.ogg or [ɢ], Voiced uvular stop.oga غ غ غ غ
‹fe› ‹f› [f] as in France ف ف ف ف
‹qâf› ‹q› [ɣ] Voiced velar fricative.ogg or [ɢ], Voiced uvular stop.oga ق ق ق ق
‹kâf› ‹k› [k] as in kid ک ك ك ک
‹gâf› ‹g› [g] as in golf گ گ گ گ
‹lâm› ‹l› [l] as in love ل ل ل ل
‹mim› ‹m› [m] as in music م م م م
‹nun› ‹n› [n] as in new ن ن ن ن
‹vâv› ‹w›, ‹u›, ‹o› and ‹v› as in و — و
‹he› ‹h› [h] as in horse ه ھ ھ ھ
‹ye› ‹y› [j] as in year or ‹i› [iː] as in free ى ی ی ى
Transcription
UniPers is used as a guide to pronunciation in this book:
Vowels Diphthongs
UniPers ‹a› ‹â› ‹e› ‹i› ‹o› ‹u› ‹ow› ‹ey› ‹ay› ‹ây› ‹oy› ‹uy›
IPA /
æ/ /ɒː/ /e/ /iː/ /o/ /uː/ /ow/ /ej/ /aj/ /ɒj/ /oj/ /uj/
Persian آ، ا ا
ای، ا، ه (خوا)
وی ای ی و او ا، و ی
Consonants
UniPers ‹b› ‹c› ‹d› ‹f› ‹g› ‹h› ‹j› ‹k› ‹l› ‹m› ‹n› ‹p› ‹q› ‹r› ‹s› ‹š› ‹t› ‹v› ‹x› ‹z› ‹ž› ‹’›
IPA /b/ /tʃ/ /d/ /f/ /ɡ/ /h/ /dʒ/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /ɣ/ /ɾ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /t/ /v/ /χ/ /z/ /ʒ/ /ʔ/
Persian ه، گ ف د چ ب
غ، پ ن م ل ک ج ح
ر ق
ث،
س،
ص
ت، ش
خ و ط
ذ، ز،
ض،
ظ
ع، ژ
ء
Pronunciation
Most letters in this system of transcription can be pronounced like their English equivalents, but some deserve special
attention:
Persian letter Pronunciation
آ ا
ژ
خ
ر
Differing Systems of Transcription

There are several different systems of transcription in use for Persian, and no one official system. This can cause difficulties
when more than one textbook is consulted, and may lead an absolute beginner to confuse the different letters. There are too
many differences to be listed here, but it is useful to be familiar with the most significant examples:
Some common differences include:
آ ‹â› listen may be transcribed as ā, á, A, aa, or a. For example, بابا ‹bâbâ› may be written elsewhere as bābā, bábá,
bAbA, baabaa, or baba. In texts where ‹â› is transcribed as a, the short ‹a› sound may be written as æ or there may be
no written distinction between the long and short sounds.
Short ‹a› listen may be transcribed as æ, especially in texts where a represents long ‹â›. For example, ابر ‹abr› may
be written elsewhere as æbr and بابا ‹bâbâ› as baba.
چ ‹c› may be transcribed as ch or č. For example, چطور ‹cetor› may be written elsewhere as chetor or četor.
خ ‹x› may be transcribed as kh. For example, خوب ‹xub› may be written elsewhere as khub.
ش ‹š› may be transcribed as sh or s. For example, شما ‹šomâ› may be written elsewhere as shoma or soma.
Long ‹u›, may be transcribed as oo. For example, دوست ‹dust› may be written elsewhere as doost.
Duplicate Letters
Diacritical Markings
Name Pronunciation Symbol
Hamze ء
Alef hamze أ
Vâv hamze ؤ
Alef Tanvinً ا
Tashdidً
Short "a" ـَ
Short "o" ـُ
Short "e" ـِ
This section of the Persian Language Wikibook is a stub.
You can help Wikibooks by expanding it (https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?
title=Persian/Print_version&action=edit). (See the Persian course Planning page.)
Lesson One
In this lesson, you will learn basic greetings, the first nine Persian letters, connecting letters, and unwritten vowels.
Dialogue: ‹salâm!›
Shirin sees her friend Arash in passing and greets him:
The dialogues in lessons 1 through 3 are shown in UniPers, a system of writing the Persian language in the Latin alphabet. In later lessons, the
native Persian script is shown along with a transcription.

Arash and Shirin are using a casual style of speech typically among friends. Later lessons will use various styles of
speech, including some for more formal situations.
The Persian Alphabet
The Persian language has six vowel sounds and twenty-three consonant sounds. Old Persian was written using its own
cuneiform alphabet. Other scripts were used in later stages of the language, and eventually the Arabic alphabet was adopted.
The sounds of Persian are different from Arabic, though, so four letters were added for Persian sounds that do not exist in
Arabic ( پ ‹pe›, چ ‹ce›, ژ ‹že›, and گ ‹gâf›), and letters for several foreign Arabic sounds are
pronounced like their closest Persian approximation.
Thus, the twenty-nine sounds of Persian are written in the Perso-Arabic script, which has thirty-two letters and is called الفبا
‹alefbâ›, named after its first two letters (similar to "ABCs" in English). It is a cursive script, written from right to left
like Arabic, opposite of the English direction. The letters are presented in the first four lessons of this book, followed by a
summary of the whole alphabet in the "Alphabet summary" section of Lesson 4.
The Coat of Arms of
Tajikistan
The two forms of ‹alef›:
Shirin : ‹salâm, âraš!›
“Hello Arash!”
Arash : ‹salâm, širin! cetori?›
“Hello, Shirin! How are you?”
Shirin : ‹mersi, xubam. tow cetori?›
“Thank you, I’m fine. How are you?”
Arash : ‹man xubam.›
“I'm fine.”
Explanation
Vocabulary
‹salâm› IPA: /sæˈlɒːm/ — “peace” a common greeting like “hello” in English
‹cetori› /t͡ʃeˈtoɾiː/ — “how are (you)” (informal, used among friends)
‹tow› /tow/ — “you” (informal)
‹mersi› /'meɾsiː/ — “thanks”
‹man› /mæn — “I, me”
‹xubam› /ˈxuːbæm/ — “(I) am fine/well/good”
Culture Point: The Tajik (тоҷикӣ) language
Not all dialects of Persian are written using the Perso-Arabic alphabet taught here. The Tajik
(тоҷикӣ) language, spoken mainly in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is a variety of Persian written
in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The language diverged from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran as a result of political
borders, geographical isolation, and the influence of Russian and neighboring languages. The
standard language is based on the north-western dialects of Tajik, which were influenced by
the neighboring Uzbek language. Tajik also retains numerous archaic elements in its
vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar that have been lost elsewhere in the Persian world.
ا ‹alef›
The first letter in Persian is ا ‹alef›.

آ At the ا
beginning of a word (on the right side), alef has two forms. The form on the far right here
with the madde (the small "hat" on top: ) is written as a tall, vertical stroke from top to bottom
آ followed by the madde on top written from right to left as a straight ( - ) or curved ( ~ ) line. This
‹â›
form represents a doubled اا alef ( ). It is pronounced with the long vowel sound /ɒː/ (IPA),
transcribed here as ‹â›. That is, it has a long duration and is produced with rounded lips and the tongue low and far back in
the mouth, like a slow version of the vowel in the Queen's English pronunciation of hot, American English caught, or South
African ا English park. When the first letter of a word is alef without a "hat" ( ), it is read as a short vowel: ‹a› (IPA: /æ/) as
in at, ‹e› (/e/) as in end or ‹o› (/o/) as in open, as will be seen in later examples.
When alef ا appears later in a word (after the first letter), it is always written without the "hat" ( ) and it always represents
long ‹â›.
Distinguishing a and â:
Decide whether the ‹alef› in the following words stands for (short) ‹a› or (long) ‹â›. You do not need to be able to read the
whole word at this stage. To see the correct answer, click “[show ▼]”.
آب
(long) ‹â›
اتو
(short) ‹a›
اسب
(short) ‹a›
آن
(long) ‹â›
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing آ ‹alef madde› and ا ‹alef›. Remember to write from right to
left and to keep the base lines even.
آ آآآ ا ااا
ااا ا آآآ آ

← (read from right to left) ←
ب پ ت ث
‹se› ‹te› ‹pe› ‹be›
ب
‹be›
ب ‹be›, پ ‹pe›, ت ‹te›, ث ‹se›
After alef ( ا ), the next four Persian letters, shown on the right, are all written similarly but with
varying dots.
Persian letters have names that begin with the sound they make, so these four letters make the
sounds ‹b›, ‹p›, ‹t›, and ‹s›.
The second Persian letter is ب ‹be›. It represents the /b/ sound. Its name sounds like a quick pronunciation of
the English word “bay”.
آب ←آ ب ←آب
‹b› ‹â› ‹âb›
The Persian word آب ‹âb› (“water”) is shown on the right. In this word, the initial alef
is written with a “hat” ( آ ), so it is read as long ‹â›. Persian is written from right to left and
positioned on and around a horizontal baseline that is typically not visible on the page. The
swooping stroke of ب is written from right to left and sits on that baseline, as does آ . The
dot is below the baseline and, like the dot in the English cursive letter i, it is written after the
connected strokes in the word.
Like English cursive, most Persian letters in a word connect with each other, but separate Persian words never connect. For
example, ب connects with the letter that follows it. Notice, though, that the letters in آب above do not connect with each
other. That's because ا never connects with the letter that follows it.
Connecting letters may be written one way alone (in the “isolated” form) or with slightly different forms when connected
with letters before or after them:
The line above shows ب in its “isolated” form on the far right, then in its “initial” form used when another letter follows,
then its “medial” form used to connect it with letters on both sides, and then its “final” form used to connect it only to the
previous letter. Notice that the upward-swooping tail only appears in the isolated and final forms. Many Persian letters
have tails that behave this way.
As the remaining alphabet lessons will explain, all but seven Persian letters connect with the letter that follows.
As shown on the right, the swooping stroke of each ب connects with the following ا
to spell بابا ‹bâbâ›, an informal word for “father”, similar to the English words
“dad” and “daddy”. The other letters in this section are like ب in that each has a
swooping stroke that sits on the baseline and connects with the following letter, and
each has one or more dots that are written after all of the connected strokes of the
word.
Note that the alefs in بابا are not at the beginning of the word, so they represent long ‹â› and are not written with a “hat”.
بابا ← ب ا ب ا ←بابا
‹â› ‹b› ‹â› ‹b› ‹bâbâ›
پ˒ پ ← پ پ پ ←پ
Connecting letters
بȎ ب ب ب ب ب ← ب
The third Persian letter is پ ‹pe›. It is pronounced as /p/ and its name sounds like
a quick pronunciation of the English word “pay”. Its swooping stroke is written from
right to left like the other letters of this group, then after the rest of the connected

connecting forms ‹pe›
پا ← پ ا ←پا
‹â› ‹p› ‹pâ›
تȘ ت ← ت ت ت ←ت
connecting forms ‹te›
تا ← ت ا ←تا
‹â› ‹t› ‹tâ›
Many Persian letters have one, two, or three dots. In most printed publications, those dots appear as diamond shapes, or
squares, or circles. Groups of three dots are positioned in a triangle, and groups of two dots are positioned side by side. In
fast handwriting, though, three dots are often written as a caret ( ^ ) and two dots are often written as a dash ( - ) or like a
reversed tilde ( ~ ).
The letter ث ‹se› is one of three separate Persian letters for the /s/ sound, since that
is the Persian approximation of the letter's Arabic sound [θ]. In Persian, its name sounds
like an abbreviated version of the English word “say”. It is used mainly in words of
Arabic origin and is not a very common letter in Persian.
ثȞ ث ← ث ث ث ←ث
connecting forms ‹se›
اثاث←ا ث ا ث ←اثاث
‹s› ‹â› ‹s› ‹a› ‹asâs›
strokes of the word are written, the three dots of پ are written below the baseline.
پ followed by ا spells the word پا ‹pâ› (“foot”).
The letter ت ‹te› is pronounced like /t/ and is written with two dots above the
swooping line. Its name rhymes with the other letters in this section.
ت followed by ا spells the word تا ‹tâ› (“until”).
Letters with dots
As shown on the right, ث appears twice in the word اثاث ‹asâs› (“furniture”).
Note the difference between a hatless initial alef pronounced as short ‹a› and an
alef in the middle of a word, pronounced as long ‹â›.
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ب ‹be›, پ ‹pe›, ت ‹te› and ث ‹se›. Remember to write from
right to left and to keep the base lines even.
ب ببب پ پپپ ت تتت ث ثثث
ثȞ ث ث تȘ ت ت پ˒ پ پ بȎ ب ب

ج چ ح خ
‹xe› ‹he› ‹ce› ‹jim›
ج ‹jim›, چ ‹ce›, ح ‹he›, خ ‹xe›
The next four Persian letters, shown on the right, are all written similarly but with varying dots.
Notice that the tails in these four letters hook to the right. Recall that tails only appear in the isolated and final forms for
letters. When another letter follows, the tails are not written, so these four letters lose their hooks when another letter
follows them.
The letter ج ‹jim› is transcribed as ‹j› and pronounced as [dʒ͡
ݮݪݦ ج ←ج ج ج ←
connecting forms ‹jim›
جا←ج ا ←جا
‹â› ‹j› ‹jâ›
ج followed by ا spells the word جا ‹jâ› (“place”). This example shows that the shape of
this letter changes when another letter follows it. The top stroke is still written from left to
right, but a simple right-to-left stroke along the baseline replaces the hook when another letter
follows. The other letters in this section change shape similarly when another letter follows.
ޢޞޚ چ ←چ چ چ ←
connecting forms ‹ce›
ݳݱݯ ح ←ح ح ح ←
connecting forms ‹he›
حب←ح ب ←حب
‹b› ‹h› ‹hab›
Hook-shaped tails
] (i.e. like the
English letter j in jump). The top stroke is written first from left to right above the
baseline, followed by the lower hook extending counterclockwise below the
baseline. The dot is written later, after any other connected strokes in the word.
The letter چ ‹ce› is transcribed in UniPers as ‹c› and pronounced as [t͡ʃ] (i.e.,
like ch in English church).
The letter ح ‹he› is pronounced as /h/. Its name sounds like a quick version of
the English word “hay” (that is, it does not sound like the English word “he”).
ح followed by ب spells the word حب ‹hab› (“pill”).
Unwritten vowels
You probably noticed that the short vowel ‹a› is not represented in حب ‹hab›. That is
because Persian makes an important distinction between short and long vowels. The

ݸݶݴ خ ←خ خ خ ←
connecting forms ‹xe›
خاج←خ ا ج ←خاج
‹j› ‹â› ‹x› ‹xâj›
short vowels (‹a›, ‹e› and ‹o›) are not usually written in Persian. When you come
across a new word in writing you might have to find out how it is pronounced from a
dictionary or someone who speaks Persian. Although there is a system of marking
vowel sounds (see Alefba), it is only usually seen in children's books, because it
disrupts the normal layout of text. In contrast, long vowels have their own letters and
are written down.
More details about writing and pronouncing vowels will be presented in the Lesson 4.
The letter خ ‹xe› is pronounced like the IPA sound [x] (like the Spanish letter j
or the German ch), transcribed in UniPers as ‹x›.
خ followed by ا and ج spells the word خاج ‹xâj› (“cross”). Like the previous few
letters, the tail of خ is not written when another letter follows it.
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ج ‹jim›, چ ‹ce›, ح ‹he› and خ ‹xe›. Remember to write from
right to left and to keep the base lines even.
ج ججج چ چچچ ح ححح خ خخخ
ݸݶݴ خݳݱݯ حޢޞޚ چݮݪݦ ج
Exercises
Distinguishing a and â:
(To check your answers, click “[show ▼]”.)
Decide whether the ‹alef› in the following words stands for (short) ‹a› or (long) ‹â›. You do not need to be able to read the

whole word at this stage.
آبی
(long) ‹â›
اب
(short) ‹a›
آلمان
(long) ‹â›
اکبر
(short) ‹a›
Recognizing letters:
What are the names of and sounds represented by the following letters?
ج
The letter ‹jim›, which represents the sound ‹j› (IPA: [d͡ʒ
]).
ا
The letter ‹alef› without madde, which represents the long vowel sound ‹â› (/ɒː/) in the middle or end of a
word, or a short vowel sound (‹a›, ‹e›, or ‹o›) at the beginning of a word.
ث
The letter ‹se›, which represents the sound ‹s›.
آ
The letter ‹alef›, with madde at the beginning of a word is represents the long ‹â› sound.)
ت
The letter ‹te›, which represents the sound ‹t›.
ب
The letter ‹be›, which represents the sound ‹b›.
پ
The letter ‹pe›, which represents the sound ‹p›.
ا

The letter ‹alef›, without a madde, it represents the long vowel sound ‹â›, or at the beginning of a word, a short
vowel sound (‹a›, ‹e›, or ‹o›).
خ
The letter ‹xe›, which represents the sound ‹x› (IPA: [x]).
ح
The letter ‹he›, which represents the sound ‹h›.
The Persian alphabet:
Which sounds have no letters of their own in Persian?
Short vowels usually are not written in Persian.
Which four letters were added to the Arabic alphabet by Persians to represent sounds which do not exist in Arabic?
پ ‹pe›, چ ‹ce›, ژ ‹že› and گ ‹gâf›.
Reading words:
Read these words by breaking them down into their component parts.
جا
‹jâ›: ج ا
آب
‹âb›: آ ب
بابا
‹bâbâ›: ب ا ب ا
اثاث
‹asâs›: ا ث ا ث
Conversation:
Use the following phrases in a short dialogue:
‹salâm.›
‹tow cetori?›
‹man xubam, mersi›.

Review
In this lesson, you learned some greetings, the first nine letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several words with
those letters from right to left. You also learned that short vowels are usually not written, and that many letters change their
shape depending on whether they connect with letters before or after them.
Core vocabulary:
‹salâm› IPA: /sæˈlɒːm/ —
“peace, hello”
‹cetori› /t͡ʃeˈtoɾiː/ — “how are
(you)” (informal)
‹tow› /tow/ — “you” (informal)
‹tow cetori?› — “How are you?”
(informal)
‹mersi› /'meɾsiː/ — “thanks”
‹man› /mæn/ — “I, me”
‹xubam› /ˈxuːbæm/ — “(I) am
fine/well/good”
‹man xubam.› — “I’m fine.”
Letters:
ا ‹alef›
ب ‹be›
پ ‹pe›
ت ‹te›
ث ‹se›
ج ‹jim›
چ ‹ce›
ح ‹he›
خ ‹xe›
Bonus words:
آب ‹âb› — “water”
بابا ‹bâbâ› — “dad, papa”
پا ‹pâ› — “foot”
تا ‹tâ› — “until”
اثاث ‹asâs› — “furniture”
جا ‹jâ› — “place, space”
حب ‹hab› — “pill”
خاج ‹xâj› — “cross”
Next: Lesson 2 ( ٢ ), The alphabet (continued)
Continue to Lesson 2 ( ٢ ), The alphabet (continued)
Lesson Two
In lesson 1, you learned some greetings, the first nine letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several words with
In this lesson, you will learn more formal greetings, the next eleven Persian letters and syllable stress.
Dialogue: ‹hâl-e šomâ cetor e?›
Arash sees Peyman:
Arash : ‹salâm, âqâ-ye peymân. hâl-e šomâ cetor e?›
“Hello, Mr. Peyman. How are you?” Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your
voice.
Peyman
:
‹salâm, âraš. xubam, mersi. šomâ cetorin?›
“Hello Arash. I am well, thank you. How are
you?”
Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your
voice.
Arash : ‹man xubam, mersi. xodâ hâfez, âqâ-ye
peymân.›
“I am well, thanks. Goodbye, Mr. Peyman!”
voice.
Peyman
:
‹xodâ hâfez.›
“Goodbye.” Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your
voice.

Explanation
Arash and Peyman are using a more formal style of speech typically used to show respect. That is why they use the
formal pronoun ‹šomâ› instead of the informal ‹tow› used in lesson 1.
Vocabulary
‹âqâ› IPA: /ˈɒːɣɒː/ — “Mr.”
‹hâl› /ˈhɒːl/ — “health”
‹šomâ› /ʃoˈmɒː/ — “you” (formal, shows speaker's respect for listener)
‹cetor› /t͡ʃeˈtoɾ/ — “how” (the endings ‹e› and ‹-in› will be explained in Lesson 5)
‹xodâ hâfez› /xoˈdɒː hɒːˈfez/ — “May God keep you” (similar to the literal meaning of “goodbye”, i.e. “May
God be with you”)
Culture Point: Titles
Titles like آقا ‹âqâ› (“sir, Mr.”) are used before or after the first name, before or after a last name, or before or after
both names. In the dialogue above, it is used before the first name پیمان ‹peyman› .
The feminine version of آقا ‹âqâ› (“sir, Mr.”) is آغا ‹âqâ› (“madam, Miss”). The two words are pronounced the same way
and are sometimes confused for each other as a misspelling, but آقا is the proper spelling for use with male names and آغا
for female names.
Family names are a relatively new aspect of Persian culture, having been introduced in Iran in 1912.
Syllable stress
In most Persian words, the stress falls on the last syllable of the stem.
For example, in the following words from the dialogue, the stress is on the last syllable:
‹šomâ›
‹cetor›
‹mamnun›
‹xodâ›
‹hâfez›
When suffixes and enclitics are added to Persian words and word stems, the stress usually does not move:
‹cetor› + ‹-in› → ‹cetorin›
‹hast› + ‹-am› → ‹hastam›
‹hâl› + ‹-e› → ‹hâl-e›
A few prefixes and suffixes are stressed. Those details will be explained in the lessons for those suffixes and prefixes.
A limited set of Persian words (interjections, conjunctions and vocatives), however, has the stress on the first syllable:
‹mersi› — First syllable is stressed when used as in the conversation above, Thanks!
‹âqâ-ye› — First syllable is stressed when addressing someone by title as in the conversation above, but not when
talking with someone else about ‹âqâ-ye› so-and-so.
‹âraš› — First syllable is stressed when addressing Arash as in the conversation above, but the last syllable is
stressed ‹âraš› when talking about him.
‹peymân› — First syllable is stressed when addressing Peyman as in the conversation above, but the last syllable is
stressed ‹peyman› when talking with someone else about him.

د ذ
‹zâl› ‹dâl›
د ‹dâl›, ذ ‹zâl›
The next two Persian letters, shown on the right, have the same basic form, but only second one
has a dot. Like ا ‹alef›, these two letters do not connect with the letter that follows them.
د ← د د د ← د د د
does not connect with the following letter ‹dâl›
داد ←د ا د ←داد
‹d› ‹â› ‹d› ‹dâd›
The Persian word داد ‹dâd› (“(he/she/it) gave”) is shown on the right. As shown, د
does not join with the letter that follows it.
ذ ← ذ ذ ذ ← ذ ذ ذ
does not connect with the following letter ‹zâl›
ذات←ذ ا ت ←ذات
‹t› ‹â› ‹z› ‹zât›
The letter د ‹dâl› represents the /d/ sound. It sits on the
baseline and is written beginning at the top, ending at the bottom
left. Its name sounds like the English word “doll”.
The letter ذ ‹zâl› is one of the “foreign” letters in Persian. In
Arabic, it represents the consonant [ð], but Persian does not have
that sound, so it is pronounced as the closest Persian sound. Thus, ذ
‹zâl› is one of four Persian letters pronounced /z/.
As shown in ذات ‹zât› (“essence”) on the right, the letter ذ also does not join with
the letter that follows it.
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing د ‹dâl› and ذ ‹zâl›. Remember to write from right to left and
to keep the base lines even.
د ددد ذ ذذذ
ذذذ ذ ددد د

ر ز ژ
‹že› ‹ze› ‹re›
ر ‹re›, ز ‹ze›, ژ ‹že›
The next three Persian letters, also have the same basic form except for the dots. They are all written with a
tail that drops well below the baseline. Like ا ‹alef›, د ‹dâl›, and ذ ‹zâl›, these three letters do not connect with
the letter that follows them.
The letter ر ‹re› is pronounced as [ɾ], that is, it is produced by
striking the tongue against the roof of the mouth just behind the
teeth, then expelling air over the middle of the tongue, similar to
the r in the Scottish English pronunciation of free or the tt in the
American English and Australian English better. Between vowels,
it is often trilled like rr in the Spanish word perro. Its name, ‹re›, sounds similar to a quick pronunciation of the English
word ray.
ر ← ر ر ر ← رر ر
does not connect with the following letter ‹re›
در ←د ر ←در
‹r› ‹d› ‹dar›
چرا←چ ر ا ←چرا
‹â› ‹r› ‹c› ‹cerâ›
As shown in the word در ‹dar› (“door”), the letter ر does not join with the letter that
follows it.
چ followed by ر and ا spells the word چرا ‹cerâ› (“why”). Recall that ‹e›, like other
short vowels, is not usually written in Persian.
ز ← ز ز ز ← زز ز
does not connect with the following letter ‹ze›
رز ←ر ز ←رز
‹z› ‹r› ‹roz›
The word رز ‹roz› (“rose”) is shown on the right. Recall that ‹o› is usually not spelled in
Persian words. Like ر, ز does not join with the letter that follows it.
ژ ← ژ ژ ژ ← ژژ ژ
does not connect with the following letter ‹že›
ژخ ←ژ خ ←ژخ
The letter ز ‹ze› is the most common of the four ‹z› letters in
Persian.
The letter ژ ‹že› is transcribed in UniPers and here as ‹ž› and
is pronounced as [ʒ], i.e. like the g in mirage or the s in
measure and Persian. If you open your Persian-English dictionary
at the letter ژ , you can see that it is not used in very many words.
It occurs in many loanwords of French origin.
As shown in the word ژخ ‹zhakh› (“wart”), ژ does not join with the letter that follows it.

‹x› ‹ž› ‹žax›
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ر ‹re›, ز ‹ze› and ژ ‹že›. Remember to write from right to
ر ررر ز ززز ژ ژژژ
ژژژ ژ ززز ز ررر ر
س ش
‹šin› ‹sin›
س ‹sin›, ش ‹šin›
The next two Persian letters have the same shape, but one of them has no dots and the other has three.
س ←س س س ←سسس
connecting forms ‹sin›
سر←س ر ←سر
‹r› ‹s› ‹sar›
As shown in the word سر ‹sar› (“head”) on the right, the letter س joins with the letter
that follows it.
ش ←ش ش ش ←ششش
connecting forms ‹šin›
Writing practice
The letter س ‹sin› is the usual Persian letter for /s/. Its name sounds
like the English word seen.
The letter ش ‹šin› is pronounced as [ʃ], that is, like sh in English.
It is transcribed in UniPers as ‹š›, but in other literature it may be
transcribed as sh, sch, ʃ, or ş. Its name sounds like the English word
“sheen”.

شب←ش ب ←شب
‹b› ‹š› ‹šab›
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing س ‹sin› and ش ‹šin›. Remember to write from right to left
and to keep the base lines even.
س سسس ش ششش
ششش ش سسس س
صض
‹zâd› ‹sâd›
As shown in the word شب ‹šab› (“evening”), the letter ش joins with the letter
that follows it.
ص ←ص ص ص ←صصص
connecting forms ‹sâd›
صد←ص د ←صد
‹d› ‹s› ‹sad›
As shown in the word صد ‹sad› (“hundred”), on the right, the letter ص joins with the
letter that follows it.
ض ←ض ض ض ←ضضض
connecting forms ‹zâd›
Writing practice
ص ‹sâd›, ض ‹zâd›
The next two Persian letters have the same shape, but only one has a dot.
The letter ص ‹sâd› is the third Persian letter for the sound /s/.
The letter ض ‹zâd› is another Persian letter for the sound /z/.

ضد←ض د ←ضد
‹d› ‹z› ‹zed›
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ص ‹sâd› and ض ‹zâd›. Remember to write from right to
ص صصص ض ضضض
ضضض ض صصص ص
ط ظ
‹zâ› ‹tâ›
As shown in the word ضد ‹zed› (“opposite”) on the right, the letter ض joins with the
letter that follows it.
ط ←ط ط ط ←ططط
connecting forms ‹tâ›
طاس←ط ا س ←طاس
‹s› ‹â› ‹s› ‹tâs›
ظ ←ظ ظ ظ ←ظظظ
connecting forms ‹zâ›
Writing practice
ط ‹tâ›, ظ ‹zâ›
The next two Persian letters have the same shape, but only one has a dot.
The letter ط ‹tâ› is another Persian letter for the sound /t/.
As shown in the word طاس ‹tâs› (“bald”) on the right, the letter ط joins
with the letter that follows it.
The letter ظ ‹zâ› is another Persian letter for the sound /z/. It is rare and only
appears in words of Arabic origin.
ظ joins with the letter that follows it.

Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ط ‹tâ› and ظ ‹zâ›. Remember to write from right to left and
to keep the base lines even.
ط ططط ظ ظظظ
ظظظ ظ ططط ط
Exercises
ش
The letter ‹šin›, which represents the sound ‹š› (IPA: [ʃ]).
د
The letter ‹dâl›, which represents the sound ‹d›.
س
The letter ‹sin›, which represents the sound ‹s›.
ژ
The letter ‹že›, which represents the sound ‹ž› (IPA: [ʒ]).
ظ
The letter ‹sâ›, which represents the sound ‹s›.
ذ
The letter ‹zâl›, which represents the sound ‹z›.

ص
The letter ‹sâd›, which represents the sound ‹s›.
ض
The letter ‹zâd›, which represents the sound ‹z›.
ز
The letter ‹ze›, which represents the sound ‹z›.
ط
The letter ‹tâ›, which represents the sound ‹t›.
ر
The letter ‹re›, which represents the sound ‹r›.
Reading words:
چرا
‹čerâ›: ج ر ا
صبح
‹sobh›: ص ب ح
بابا
‹bâbâ›: ب ا ب ا
اسم
This exercise is incomplete. Help the English Wikibooks Persian Language course by completing it
(https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Persian/Print_versionaction=edit).
چرا
‹čerâ›: ج ر ا
اثاث
‹asâs›: ا ث ا ث
توت

Word recognition.:
See if you can recognize these familiar words:
ژاكت
ژاكت ‹žâkat› (“jacket”)
بازار
بازار ‹bâzâr› (“bazar, marketplace”)
بد
بد ‹bad› (“bad (not good)”)
Review
In this lesson, you learned some greetings, the first nine letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several words with
Core vocabulary:
‹âqâ› IPA: /ˈɒːɣɒː/ — “Mr.”
‹hâl› /ˈhɒːl/ — “health”
‹šomâ› /ʃoˈmɒː/ — “you” (formal, shows
speaker's respect for listener)
‹cetor› /t͡ʃeˈtoɾ/ — “how”
‹xodâ hâfez› /xoˈdɒː hɒːˈfez/ — “May God
keep you” (similar to “goodbye”, “God be with you”)
‹hâl-e šomâ cetor e?› — How is your health?
‹man xub hastam.› — “I am well.”
‹šomâ cetorin?› — “How are you?” (formal)
Letters:
د ‹dâl›
ذ ‹zâl›
ر ‹re›
ز ‹ze›
ژ ‹že›
س ‹sin›
ش ‹šin›
ص ‹sâd›
ض ‹zâd›
ط ‹tâ›
ظ ‹zâ›
Bonus words:
داد ‹dâd› — “(he/she/it)
gave”
ذات ‹zât› — “essence”
در ‹dar› — “to, for, at”
رز ‹roz› — “rose”
چرا ‹cerâ› — “why”
ژخ ‹žax› — “wart”
سر ‹sar› — “head”
شب ‹šab› — “evening”
صد ‹sad› — “hundred”
ضد ‹zed› — “opposite”
طاس ‹tâs› — “bald”
Below are all the core vocabulary words from lessons 1 and 2. The far right column shows the words in Persian script. Don't
worry if you can't yet read the Persian script:
All vocabulary Lessons 1 - 2 edit (https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Persian/Glossaryaction=edit)
English gloss Notes ‹fârsi› فارسی
Letter: [ɒː], [æ], [e], [o] Lesson 1 ‹alef› ا
Noun: gentleman, sir, Mr. Lesson 2 ‹âqâ› آقا
Letter: [b] Lesson 1 ‹be› ب
Letter: [p] Lesson 1 ‹pe› پ

Letter: [t] Lesson 1 ‹te› ت
Pronoun: you (singular, informal) Lesson 1 ‹tow› تو
Letter: [s] Lesson 1 ‹se› ث
Letter: [dʒ] Lesson 1 ‹jim› ج
Letter: [tʃ] Lesson 1 ‹ce› چ
Adjective: how Lesson 2 ‹cetor› چطور
Phrase: How are you? (informal) Lesson 1 ‹cetori?› ؟ چطوری
Letter: [h] Lesson 1 ‹he› ح
Noun: health Lesson 2 ‹hâl› حال
Letter: [x] Lesson 1 ‹xe› خ
Phrase: May God keep you. (Goodbye.) Lesson 2 ‹xodâ hâfez.› . خداحافظ
Phrase: I’m fine. Lesson 1 ‹(man) xubam.› . (من) خوبم
Letter: [d] Lesson 2 ‹dâ› د
Letter: [z] Lesson 2 ‹zâ› ذ
Letter: [ɾ] Lesson 2 ‹re› ر
Letter: [z] Lesson 2 ‹ze› ز
Letter: [ʒ] Lesson 2 ‹že› ژ
Letter: [s] Lesson 2 ‹sin› س
Phrase: Peace (hello)! Lesson 1 ‹salâm!› ! سلام
Letter: [ʃ] Lesson 2 ‹šin› ش
Pronoun: you (plural or polite singular) Lesson 2 ‹šomâ› شما
Letter: [s] Lesson 2 ‹sâd› ص
Letter: [z] Lesson 2 ‹zâd› ض
Letter: [t] Lesson 2 ‹tâ› ط
Letter: [z] Lesson 2 ‹zâ› ظ
Interjection: thanks Lesson 1 ‹mersi› مرسی
Pronoun: I, me Lesson 1 ‹man› من
Next: Lesson 3 ( ٣ ), The alphabet (continued)
Continue to Lesson 3 ( ٣ ), The alphabet (continued)
Lesson Three
In lessons 1 and 2, you learned some greetings, the first twenty letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several
words with those letters. You also learned syllable stress in Persian words.
In this lesson, you will learn more about casual and formal speech, the next nine Persian letters, and more about short
vowels in Persian.

“Good morning, Mamad!” Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your
voice.
voice.
“Not bad, thanks. And you?” Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your
voice.
‹man xeyli xubam.›
“I'm very good.” Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your
voice.
Mohamad and Hassan are using a very casual style of speech because they are close friends. “Mamad” is a common
nickname for people named Mohamad. “Hassani” is a common nickname for people named “Hassan”.
In any language, speakers use various levels of formality in various social settings. For example, an English speaker in a
formal setting may use proper grammar, pronounce -ing clearly (i.e., so that walking does not sound like walkin'), may
choose formal or technical words (e.g. sodium chloride rather than salt and child rather than kid), and refrain from saying
ain't, but the same person could violate some or all of those rules in an informal setting.
In Persian, several speech patterns are used to raise or lower the level of formality. One general rule in the Persian
formality system is that referring to an individual with a plural pronoun and/or plural verb indicates respect for that
individual. In polite Persian conversations, it is therefore customary to use the plural pronoun شما ‹šomâ› to when
speaking with a superior or someone whom one has just met, and to use the singular pronoun تو ‹to› only when talking to
friends, family members, and the like.
ع غ
‹qeyn› ‹’eyn›
Dialogue: ‹sobh bexeyr›
Hassan drops by to see his good friend Mohamad:
Hassan : ‹sobh bexeyr, mamad!›
Mohamad
:
‹sobh bexeyr, hasani. hâlet cetor e?›
“Good morning, Hassani. How’s your
health?”
Hassan : ‹bad nistam, mersi. va to?›
Mohamad
:
Explanation
Vocabulary
‹sobh bexeyr› IPA: /sobh beˈxejɾ/ — “Good morning”
‹hâlet› /ˈhɒːlet/ — “your health” (informal)
‹bad› /bæd/ — “bad” similar meaning and pronunciation as the English word
‹nistam› /ˈniːstæm/ — “(I) am not”
‹va, o› /væ/, /o/ — “and”
‹xeyli› — “very”
Familiarity and formality
ع ‹’eyn›, غ ‹qeyn›
The next two letters have the same form except only one has a dot over it. The bottom hook in
these letters is a tail that only appears in isolated and final position.

ع ←ع ع ع ←ععع
connecting forms ‹’eyn›
رعد←ر ع د ←رعد
‹d› ‹’› ‹r› ‹ra'd›
غ ←غ غ غ ←غغغ
connecting forms ‹qeyn›
باغ ← ب ا غ ←باغ
‹q› ‹â› ‹b› ‹bâq›
The Persian letter ع ‹’eyn› represents the sound [ʔ], i.e. the glottal stop in the
middle of “uh-oh” in English. Traditionally, as well as in UniPers it is transcribed as
‹’›. Its name sounds something like the English word “main”, but beginning with a
glottal stop instead of an m. The top loop sits on the baseline. When it is the last (or
only) letter in a word, its lower loop hangs below the baseline. When another letter
follows it, it has a different form.
As shown on the right, the letter ع ‹’eyn› combines with the letter that follows it, e.g.
with د in the word رعد ‹ra’d› (“thunder”).
The Persian letter غ ‹qeyn› represents the sound [ɣ], that is, it is produced by
placing the back part of the tongue against the soft palate and vibrating the vocal
cords while pushing air from the lungs over the middle of the tongue.
The top loop sits on the baseline. When it is the last (or only) letter in a word, its
lower loop hangs below the baseline. When another letter follows it, it has a
different form.
As shown on the right, the letter غ ‹qeyn› is used to spell باغ ‹bâq› (“garden”).
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ع ‹'eyn› and غ ‹qeyn›. Remember to write from right to left
ع ععع غ غغغ
غغغ غ ععع ع

ف ق
‹qaf› ‹fe›
ف ←ف ف ف ←ففف
connecting forms ‹fe›
فردا←ف ر د ا ←فردا
‹â› ‹d› ‹r› ‹f› ‹fardâ›
ق ←ق ق ق ←ققق
connecting forms ‹qaf›
آقا ←آ ق ا ←آقا
‹â› ‹q› ‹â› ‹âqâ›
ف ‹fe›, ق ‹qaf›
The next two letters are shown on the right.
The Persian letter ف ‹fe› sits on the baseline. Its name sounds like a quick
pronunciation of Faye.
As shown on the right, the letter ف ‹fe› combines with the letter that follows it, e.g.
as the first letter in the word فردا ‹fardâ› (“tomorrow”).
The Persian letter ق ‹qaf› is pronounced like غ ‹qeyn›, i.e. like [ɣ]. The small
loop sits on the baseline and the tail, when present, hangs below the baseline. Like
other Persian letters with tails, the tail is only written when no other letter follows.
As shown on the right, the letter ق ‹qaf› combines with the letter that follows, as in آقا
‹âqâ› (“Mr., sir, gentleman”).
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ف ‹fe› and ق ‹qaf›. Remember to write from right to left
ف ففف ق ققق
ققق ق ففف ف

ک گ
‹gaf› ‹kaf›
ک ←ک ک ک ←ککک
connecting forms ‹kaf›
کتاب←ک ت ا ب ←کتاب
‹b› ‹â› ‹t› ‹k› ‹ketâb›
گ ←گ گ گ ←گگگ
connecting forms ‹gaf›
The Persian letter ک ‹kaf› sits on the baseline. The slash on top ( / ) is
written after the connected strokes of the word, along with the dots in any of the
word’s dotted letters. Its name sounds a bit like the English word “cough”.
The Persian letter گ ‹gaf› sits on the baseline. The two slashes on top ( // )
are written after the connected strokes of the word, along with the dots in any of
the word’s dotted letters.
بزرگ ← ب ز ر گ ←بزرگ
‹g› ‹r› ‹z› ‹b› ‹bozorg›
ک ‹kaf› and گ ‹gaf›
The next two letters are shown on the right.
As shown on the right, the letter ک combines with the letter that follows it, e.g.
as the first letter in the word کتاب ‹ketâb› (“book”).
As shown on the right, the letter گ is used in the word بزرگ
‹bozorg› (“big”).
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ک ‹kaf› and گ ‹gaf›. Remember to write from right to left
ک ککک گ گگگ
گگگ گ ککک ک

ل ← ل ل ل ←للل
connecting forms ‹lâm›
لΨ گل←گ ل ←
‹l› ‹g› ‹gol›
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ل ‹lâm›. Remember to write from right to left and to keep
the base lines even.
ل للل
للل ل
م ←م م م ←ممم
connecting forms ‹mim›
ل ‹lâm›
The letter ل ‹lâm› sits on the baseline and connects with the letter that follows it.
اسم←ا س م ←اسم
‹m› ‹s› ‹e› ‹esm›
ل is the last letter in گل ‹gol› (“flower”).
Writing practice
م ‹mim›
The Persian letter م is pronounced as /m/.
The Persian word اسم ‹esm› (“name”), shown on the right, is an example of
an initial alef without a “hat” ( ا ) used to indicate that the word begins with a short
vowel, in this case, with ‹e›.

Get out a pen and paper and practice writing م ‹mim›. Remember to write from right to left and to keep
ن؇ ن ← ن ن ن ←ن
connecting forms ‹nun›
نان← ن ا ن ←نان
‹n› ‹â› ‹n› ‹nun›
Writing practice
م ممم
ممم م
ن ‹nun›
The name of this letter nun is pronounced rhyming with noon and not nun. Note
the difference between ن nun and ب be, in be the dot is below the curve and in nun it
is above. The shape of nun is also narrower than the be, pe, se, te group of letters.
The Persian word نان ‹nun› (“bread”) is shown on the right. Note that the written
form uses ا ‹â› , indicating that the word should be pronounced as ‹nân›, but in standard
Persian, ان ‹ân› is usually pronounced ‹un›, including the word آن ‹un› (“that”).
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ن ‹nun›. Remember to write from right to left and to keep
ن ننن
ن؇ ن ن
Exercises

ف
The letter ‹fe›, which represents the sound ‹f›.
ل
The letter ‹lâm›, which represents the sound ‹l›.
گ
The letter ‹gaf›, which represents the sound ‹g›.
ق
The letter ‹qaf›, which represents the sound ‹q›.
ع
The letter ‹'eyn›, which represents the sound ‹'›.
غ
The letter ‹qeyn›, which represents the sound ‹q›.
ک
The letter ‹kaf›, which represents the sound ‹k›.
Reading words:
بازار
بازار ‹bâzâr› (“bazaar, market”)
چادر
چادر ‹câdor› (“chador, covering”)
بانک
بانک ‹bânk› (“bank”)
چک
چک ‹chek› (“Czech”)

Review
In this lesson, you learned ..., the next seven letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell several words with those letters
from right to left. You also learned about syllable stress in Persian words.
Core vocabulary:
‹nistam› IPA: /ˈniːstam/ — “(I) am not”
‹sobh bexeyr› /sobh beˈxejɾ/ — “Good
morning”
‹hâlet› /ˈhɒːlet/ — “your health” (informal)
‹bad› /bæd/ — “bad” similar meaning and
pronunciation as the English word
‹xeyli› — “very”
Letters:
ع ‹’eyn›
غ ‹qeyn›
ف ‹fe›
ق ‹qaf›
ک ‹kaf›
گ ‹gaf›
ل ‹lâm›
م ‹mim›
ن ‹nun›
Bonus words:
رعد ‹ra’d› — “thunder”
باغ ‹bâq› — “garden”
فردا ‹fardâ› —
“tomorrow”
آقا ‹âqâ› — “sir, Mr.,
gentleman”
کتاب ‹ketâb› — “book”
بزرگ ‹bozorg› — “big”
Adjective: bad Lesson 3 ‹bad› بد
Noun: your health (informal) Lesson 3 ‹hâlet› حالت
very Lesson 3 ‹xeyli› خیلی

Interjection: Good morning Lesson 3 ‹sobh bexeyr› صبح بخیر
Letter: [ʔ] Lesson 3 ‹’eyn› ع
Letter: [ɣ], [ɢ] Lesson 3 ‹qeyn› غ
Letter: [f] Lesson 3 ‹fe› ف
Letter: [ɢ], [ɣ], [q] Lesson 3 ‹qaf› ق
Letter: [k] Lesson 3 ‹kaf› ک
Letter: [g] Lesson 3 ‹gaf› گ
Letter: [l] Lesson 3 ‹lâm› ل
Letter: [m] Lesson 3 ‹mim› م
Letter: [n] Lesson 3 ‹nun› ن
Verb: (I) am not Lesson 3 ‹nistam› نیستم
Conjunction: and Lesson 3 ‹va, vo, o› و
Next: Lesson 4 ( ۴ ), The alphabet (continued)
Continue to Lesson 4 ( ۴ ), The alphabet (continued)
title=Persian/Print_versionaction=edit). (See the Persian course Planning page.)
Lesson Four
In lessons 1, 2, and 3, you learned some greetings, the first twenty-seven letters of the Persian Alphabet, and how to spell
and pronounce several words with those letters.
In this lesson, you will learn the final three letters ( و ‹vâv›, ه ‹he› and ى ‹ye›), diacritics, and the remaining rules for reading
and writing Persian vowels. You will also learn about a Persian tradition called ‹haft sin›.

The dialogue below and those in subsequent lessons are shown in both Persian script and UniPers. Some of the Persian letters used below are
explained later in this lesson, so read the UniPers transcription for now, then come back to read the Persian script version after completing this
lesson.
“Excuse me, what is your name?” ؟ است у شما اسم ، ببخشید
Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice.
ين: ش
“My name is Reza. And you?” ؟ شما و. است رضا من اسم
رضا:
“My name is Shirin.” . است ین؈ ش من اسم
ين: ش
“Nice to meet you, Miss Shirin.” . ین؈ ش خانم ، خوشبختم
رضا:
و ← و و و ← وو و
does not connect with the following letter ‹vâv›
آواز←آ و ا ز ←آواز
‹z› ‹â› ‹v› ‹â› ‹âvâz›
چوب←چ و ب ←چوب
‹b› ‹u› ‹c› ‹cub›
Dialogue: ‹esm-e šomâ ci e?›
Reza meets Shirin:
Shirin: ‹bebaxšin, esm-e šomâ ci-st?›
Reza: ‹esm-e man rezâ-st. va šomâ?›
Shirin: ‹esm-e man širin e.›
Reza: ‹xošbaxtam, xânom-e širin.›
Explanation
Shirin meets Reza.
Vocabulary
ببخشید ‹bebaxšid› — “excuse me”
اسم ‹esm› — “name”
چی ‹ci› — “what”
خانم ‹xânom› /xɒːnom/ — “Miss”
خوشبختم ‹xošbaxtam› — “Nice to meet you.”
و ‹vâv›
The letter و does not connect with the following letter. It is
pronounced in different ways, depending on the word: ‹v›, ‹u›, or
‹o›.
The word آواز ‹âvâz› /ɒːˈvɒːz/ (“voice, song”) is shown on the right,
demonstrating that و ‹vâv› is pronounced as the consonant ‹v› in some words.
The word چوب ‹cub› /tʃuːb/ (“wood”) is shown on the right,
demonstrating that و ‹vâv› is pronounced as the long vowel ‹u› in some words.

اوت←ا و ت ←اوت
‹t› ‹u› ‹-› ‹ut›
تو← ت و ←تو
‹o› ‹t› ‹to›
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing و ‹vâv›. Remember to write from right to left and to keep
ھɺɸ ه ←ھ ھ ه ←
connecting forms ‹he›
The long vowel sound ‹u› may also occur at the beginning of a word, in which case it is
spelled with initial او , as demonstrated on the right in اوت ‹ut› (“August”).
Some Persian words that were originally pronounced with the long vowel sound ‹u› are
pronounced today with the sound ‹o›, but their spelling has not changed. So و sometimes
represents the sound ‹o› in Modern Persian:
و ووو
ووو و
ه ‹he›
The letter ه ‹he› is often pronounced like ‹h›, just like the Persian letter ح
‹he›. To distinguish between them, a Persian speaker may specify ح by saying ‹he-ye
jimi›, in reference to the similar form shared with ج ‹jim› . Or, because of the
traditional arrangements of letters in chronograms, they may be distinguished as حاء
جوجه←ج و ج ه ←جوجھ
‹h› ‹j› ‹o› ‹j› ‹jojeh›
تو ‹to› (“you (informal)”)
دو ‹do› (“two”)
Writing practice
حطّی ‹he-ye hotti› for ح and ھاء ھوزّ ‹he-ye havvaz› for . ه
The connecting forms of ه ‹he› are shown on the right in a typical Persian
style. There are several variations, though, so you may run across any of the
following:
راه ‹râh› (“road, path”)
جوجھ ‹jojeh› (“chicken”)
At the end of a word, ه often is not pronounced as ‹h›, but just indicates that the word ends in the sound ‹e›: خانه ‹xâne›
(“house”)
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ه ‹he›. Remember to write from right to left and to keep the
base lines even.

In Persian there is more than one letter available for some sounds because words imported from Arabic are spelled using
their Arabic spelling, but with Persian pronunciation. So, there are three letters for ‹s›, four for ‹z›, two for ‹t›, two for ‹q›,
two for ‹h›, and two for ‹'›. They are not all used equally, for example ز is more common than the other ‹z› letters.
In Arabic, a symbol known as hamza ( ء ) is used to separate two vowels. This convention only used in
Persian for words of Arabic origin.
ۛ ی ← ی ی ی ←ی
connecting forms ‹ye›
ه ھھه
ھɺɸ ه
Duplicate Letters
‹s›:
س
ص , e.g. صد ‹sad› (“hundred”)
ث
‹z›:
ز
ذ
ظ
ض, e.g. راضی ‹râzi› (“satisfied”)
‹t›:
ت
ط, e.g. طور ‹towr› (“method”)
‹q›:
ق, e.g. آقا ‹âqâ› (“sir”)
غ, e.g. آغا ‹âqâ› (“madam”)
‹h›:
ه
ح
':
ء, e.g. رأس ‹râ's› (“head”)
ع, e.g. رعد ‹ra'd› (“thunder”)
ی ‹ye›
The last Persian letter, ى ‹ye›, has a few different pronunciations: ‹y›, ‹i›, or ‹ey›.
Its isolated and final forms vary significantly from its initial and medial forms: It has a
tail and no dots in the isolated and final forms, but it has two dots and no tail in the
initial and medial forms,.

یک← ی ک ←یک
‹k› ‹y› ‹yek›
بп سیب←س ی ب ←س
‹b› ‹i› ‹s› ‹sib›
ایران←ا ی ر ا ن←ایران
‹n› ‹â› ‹r› ‹i› ‹-› ‹irân›
این←ا ی ن ←این
‹n› ‹i› ‹-› ‹in›
In یک ‹yek› (“one”), ی as the first letter of the word is pronounced ‹y›.
As the examples این ‹in› (“this”) and سیب ‹sib› (“apple”) show on the
right, ی as the second letter of the word is pronounced as ‹i›.
In فارسی ‹fârsi› (“Persian (language)”), ی as the last letter of the word is
pronounced as ‹i›.
ۜ؟ فارسی←ف ا ر س ی←فار
‹i› ‹s› ‹r› ‹â› ‹f› ‹fârsi›
Vowels at the beginning of words
When a Persian word begins with any vowel sound, it is spelled with an initial ا. If that initial sound is a short vowel, the
specific vowel is not indicated, but if it is a long vowel, the corresponding long vowel letter is written ( ا for ‹â›, و for ‹o›,
or ی for ‹i›). So, ا is the first letter in Persian words that begin with a long ‹i› sound, such as ایران ‹irân› (“Iran”) and
این ‹in› (“this”).
Remember from lesson 1, though, the long ‹â› sound at the beginning of a word is not spelled with two ا letters in a row,
but with آ, alef madde.
Writing practice
Get out a pen and paper and practice writing ی ‹ye›. Remember to write from right to left and to keep
ی ییی
ۛ ی ی

Culture Point: ھفت سین ‹haft sin›
Do you remember the letter س ‹sin› from leson 3? Combined with ھفت
‹haft› (“seven”) from this lesson makes an important Iranian New Year
tradition of ھفت سین ‹haft sin› (“seven Ss”). During the Persian New
Year ‹nowruz›, the سفره ‹sofreh› (“tablecloth”) is arranged with seven
items beginning with the letter س ‹s›. That might include:
1. ‹sabzeh›
2. ‹sib›
3. ‹sir›
4. ‹samanu›
5. ‹senjed›
6. ‹serkeh›
7. ‹somâk›
Originally called ھفت چین ‹haft cin›
Which of the following items would go on your traditional ھفت سین ‹haft sin› table? (Clue: Sabzeh, Sib,
Sir, Samanu, Senjed, Serke and Somâq):
سیب زمینی
sib zamini (potato)- no
سیب
sib (apple)- yes
سگ
sag (dog)- no
ستاره
setareh (star)- no
سیر
sir (garlic)- yes
سركھ
serke (vinegar)- yes
سوسک
(cockroach)- no
سبزه

سیگار
سنگ
سماق
سنجد
سمنو
لا ← ل ا ←لا
Ligatures
Certain combinations of letters are written in a combined form known as a ligature.
When ل ‹lâm› is followed by ا ‹alef› , they combine to form the ligature لا ‹lâ› , as shown on the
right.
The lâm-alef ligature appears in the greeting سلام ‹salâm› .
‹â› ‹l› ‹lâ›
سلام←س ل ا م ←سلام
‹m› ‹â› ‹l› ‹s› ‹salâm›
In an ezafe construction after a word ending in ‹he›, the ی is sometimes written in a small
form over the ه, i.e. as ۀ ‹he-ye› . It looks like a hamze, and is considered such by some, but
others consider this a ligature of .ه ی
Diacritics
Like the accent mark over the e in café, Persian diacritics (symbols written above or below the letters) are not actual letters
in the Persian alphabet.
ۀ ←ه ی ←ۀ
‹ye› ‹he› ‹he-ye›
sabzeh (wheat, barley or lentil sprouts)- yes
sigar (cigar)- no
sang (stone)- no
somâq (sumac berries)- yes
senjed (senjed, the dried fruit of the oleaster tree )- yes
samanu (wheat pudding)- yes
‹tašdid› (“strengthening”)
Tashdid is a mark that looks like a small, curly w, placed above a consonant to double or strengthen it. It may be omitted,
but is used in many situations for clarity.

The diacritic ‹hamze›, isolated and over ‹he›:
ء هٔ
‹’›, ‹ye›
خانهٔ←خا نهٔ ←خانھٔ
‹e-ye› ‹n› ‹â› ‹x› ‹xuneye›
ء ‹hamze›
The symbol on the right is called ھمزه ‹hamze› . It is never at the
beginning of a word and has different pronunciations, depending on whether
it is in a native Persian word or one borrowed from Arabic.
In Persian words, hamze may be written over silent final ‹he› ( هٔ ), as shown on
the right, to represent the sound ‹ye› in a construction called ‹ezâfe› that will
be explained in Lesson 6. The hamze for this purpose is usually left unwritten
and is only added for extra clarity. Rarely, it is used in the same way with
words ending in ی (that is, .(ئ
Historically, Persian words with the sounds ‹âi› or ‹ui› were written
with a hamze (that is, with ائی or وئی ) to show that the vowel sounds
were separate, but today such words are usually written with a
doubled ی (that is, ‹âi› is written as ایی and ‹ui› as ویی ) instead.
Similarly, words ending with ‹ei› were once written as هٔ, but today
that ending is written as .ه ای
Historically Modern
جمله ای جملهٔ ‹jomlei› (“a sentence”)
قھوه ای رنگ قھوهٔ رنگ ‹qahvei rang› (“brown”)
خسته ای خستهٔ ‹xaste i› (“you are tired”)
شیمیایی شیمیائی ‹šimiāi› (“chemical”)
بگویید بگوئید ‹beguid› (“say”)
ژوئن←ژ و ئ ن ←ژوئن
‹n› ‹-› ‹u› ‹ž› ‹žuan›
As shown on the right, ئـ is used in some foreign words, like ژوئن
‹žuan› (“June”) (from French juin), to show a transition between vowels.
أ ‹a’›/‹’a› متأسف ‹mota’assef› (“sorry”)
تأسیس ‹ta’sis› (“foundation”)
ؤ ‹o’› مؤمن ‹mo’men› (“believer”)
مسئول ‹mas’ul› (“responsible”)
ئو ‹’u›, مسألهمسئله ‹’› ئـ ‹mas’ale› (“problem”)
جزء←ج زء ←جزء
At the end of an Arabic word, ء is usually silent and written by itself, e.g. جزء ‹joz›
(“part”).
Arabic loanwords ending with a final اء are sometimes still spelled that way, but the final
hamze in such words is silent, so the hamze is usually omitted. For example, ابتداء
‹ebtedâ› (“beginning”) is now usually written . ابتدا
Short vowel marks
In children's books and some other learning resources, short vowel are marked using the following symbols:
‹z› ‹j› ‹joz›
In words taken from Arabic, like the ones on the right, hamze
may appear anywhere after the first letter of a word to
represent a glottal stop [ʔ], i.e. the same ‹’› sound that ع
‹’eyn› represents. Usually, though, أ is written without the
hamze, e.g. متاسف ‹mota’assef› , مساله ‹masale› .
, called زبرَ ‹zabar› (“above”) or فتحھ ‹fatha› (“opening”), is used to represent short ‹a›. E.g. دَر
‹dar› (“door, at”)
, called زير ‹zir› (“below”) or كسره ‹kasra› (“breaking”), is used to represent ‹e›.

, called پیش ‹piš› (“before”) or ضَّمھ ‹zamah›, is used to represent ‹o›.
The short vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of an Arabic loanword to indicate that the vowel is followed by ‹-n›,
known as تنوين ‹tanvin› (“nunation”) (also, تنوين نصب ‹tanvin nasb› (“marking a consonant with tanvin”)). In Arabic,
the signs indicate grammatical case endings: ـً ‹-un› (nominative), ـٍ ‹-en› (accusative), and ـٌ ‹-an› (genitive).
A related mark is سُكون ‹sokun› , also called جَْزم ‹jazm› (“amputation”). It is used to indicate the absence of a vowel and
is written as a superscripted o: Exercises
و
The letter ‹vâv›, which represents the consonant ‹v›, the long vowel ‹u›, or the short vowel ‹o›.
ى
The letter ‹ye›, which represents the long vowel ‹i› or ‹ay› in a dipthong, e.g. ‹ye›, ‹ay›, ‹ey›, ....
ن
The letter ‹nun›, which represents the sound ‹n›.
ه
The letter ‹he›, which represents the consonant ‹h› or the short vowel ‹e›.
م
The letter ‹mim›, which represents the sound ‹m›.
Non-connecting letters.
Which seven Persian letters do not join with the letter that follows?
ا ‹alef›, د ‹dâl›, ذ ‹zâl›, ر ‹re›, ز ‹ze›, ژ ‹že› and و ‹vâv›.
Reading words:
ما
‹mâ›: م ا
ماه
‹mâh›: م ا ه
نھ

‹nah›: ن ه
ھفت
‹haft›: ھ ف ت
طناب
‹tanâb›: ط ن ا ب
اسم
‹esm›: ا س م
The Persian script:
Determine which of these words has unwritten vowels (vowels not included in the spelling of the word).
ما
No, the one vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian.
ماه
نھ
Yes, نھ ‹nah› (“not”) has an unwritten short vowel: ‹a›.
چرا
Yes, چرا ‹cerâ› (“why”) has a written long vowel ‹â› and an unwritten short vowel ‹e›.
ھفت
Yes, ھفت ‹haft› (“seven”) has an unwritten short vowel: ‹a›.
آب
بابا
No, the vowel ‹â› is written, like all long vowels in Persian.
اسم

چرا
اثاث
Yes, the vowel ‹â› in the middle of the word is written, but the short vowel ‹e› at the beginning of the word is
unwritten.
توت
Word recognition:
See if you can recognize these familiar words.
شاه
شاه ‹šâh› (“shah, king”)
افغانستان
افغانستان ‹afqânestân› (“Afghanistan”)
زعفران
زعفران ‹za'ferân› (“saffron”)
پایجامھ
پایجامھ ‹payjâma› (“pajamas”)
مادر
مادر ‹mâdar› (“mother”)
Review
In this lesson, you learned the final letters of the Persian Alphabet and some diacritics. You will also learn about a Persian
tradition called ‹haft sin›.
Congratulations! You now know how to read, write, and pronounce Persian words!
Core vocabulary:
‹bebaxšin› — “excuse me”
‹esm› — “name”
‹ci› — “what”
Letters:
و ‹vâv›
ه ‹he›
ی ‹ye›
Bonus words:
آواز ‹âvâz› — “voice, song”
چوب ‹cub› — “wood”
اوت ‹ut› — “August”

‹xânom› /xɒːnom/ — “Miss” Diacritics and ligatures:
لا ‹lâ› (‹lâm› + ‹alef›)
ۀ ‹he ye›
اً ‹tanvin nasb›
‹tašdid›
ء ‹hamze›
‹fatha›
‹kasra›
‹zamma›
تو ‹to› — “you” (informal)
جوجھ ‹jojeh› — “chicken”
یک ‹yek› — “one”
سیب ‹sib› — “apple”
فارسی ‹fârsi› — “Persian”
ایران ‹irân› — “Iran”
ھفت ‹haft› — “seven”
ھفت سین ‹haft sin› — “seven
Ss” (Iranian New Year tradition)
سي ‹sir› — “garlic”
سنجد ‹senjed› — “senjed” (the
dried fruit of the oleaster tree)
سمنو ‹samanu› — “samanu” (a
kind of wheat pudding)
Noun: name Lesson 4 ‹esm› اسم
Interjection: excuse me Lesson 4 ‹bebaxšid› ببخشید
Adjective: bad Lesson 3 ‹bad› بد
Pronoun: what? Lesson 4 ‹ci› چی
Noun: your health (informal) Lesson 3 ‹hâlet› حالت
Noun: (person) wife, lady, Miss Lesson 4 ‹xânom› خانم
Phrase: Nice to meet you. Lesson 4 ‹xošbaxtam› خوشبختم
very Lesson 3 ‹xeyli› خیلی

Lesson د 2
Interjection: Good morning Lesson 3 ‹sobh bexeyr› صبح بخیر
Letter: [ʔ] Lesson 3 ‹’eyn› ع
Letter: [ɣ], [ɢ] Lesson 3 ‹qeyn› غ
Letter: [f] Lesson 3 ‹fe› ف
Letter: [ɢ], [ɣ], [q] Lesson 3 ‹qaf› ق
Letter: [k] Lesson 3 ‹kaf› ک
Letter: [g] Lesson 3 ‹gaf› گ
Letter: [l] Lesson 3 ‹lâm› ل
Letter: [m] Lesson 3 ‹mim› م
Letter: [n] Lesson 3 ‹nun› ن
Verb: (I) am not Lesson 3 ‹nistam› نیستم
Letter: [v], [u], [ow] Lesson 4 ‹vâv› و
Conjunction: and Lesson 3 ‹va, vo, o› و
Letter: [h] Lesson 4 ‹he› ه
Noun: Persian New Year’s tradition of
“seven S’s” Lesson 4 ‹haftsin› ھفت سین
Letter: [j], [i], [ej] Lesson 4 ‹ye› ی
Symbol: (ligature) lam-alef Lesson 4 ‹lâ› لا
Symbol: (diacritic) tashdid
(“strengthening”) Lesson 4 ‹tašdid›ّ
Symbol: (diacritic) hamze Lesson ء ‹’› 4
Symbol: (diacritic) zabar (“above”) Lesson 4 ‹a›َ
Symbol: (diacritic) zir (“below”) Lesson 4 ‹e›ِ
Symbol: (diacritic) pish (“before”) Lesson 4 ‹o›ُ
Symbol: (diacritic) sokun Lesson 4 ‹-›ْ

Next: Lesson 5 ( ۵ ), Introduction to Verbs
Continue to Lesson 5 ( ۵ ), Introduction to Verbs
title=Persian/Print_versionaction=edit). (See the Persian course Planning page.)
Lesson Five
In lessons 1 through 4, you learned some greetings and how to read, write, and pronounce Persian words.
In this lesson, you will learn about Persian verbs: their agreement with the subject, their location in a sentence, and how to
conjugate the most common one, بودن ‹budan› (“to be”), in the simple present tense.
Dialogue: ؟ شما کجایی ھستید ‹šomâ kojâi hastid?›
Reza and Shirin have just met:
Shirin: ‹xošbaxtam, âqâ-ye rezâ. šomâ kojâi hastid?
›
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Reza. Where are you
from?”
ید؟ Ș سɸ یн کجا شما . رضا آقای ، خوشبختم
Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload
your voice.
ين: ش
Reza: ‹man irâniyam. az mašhad hastam. šomâ
cetor?›
“I’m Iranian. I’m from Mashhad. How about
you?”
چطور؟ شما . ستم ɸ دɺ مش از . ایرانیم من
your voice.
رضا:
Shirin: ‹man az tehrân hastam.›
“I’m from Tehran.” . ستم ɸ ران از من
your voice.
ين: ش
Reza: ‹va âqâ-ye esmit? engelisi-st?›
“And Mr. Smith? Is he English?” ؟ است ۜؠп لΪ ان ؟ اسمیت آقای و
your voice.
رضا:
Shirin: ‹xeyr, u âmrikâiy-st.›
“No, he’s American.” . است یн ا΄м آمر او ،؈ خ
your voice.
ين: ش
If you intend to help complete this dialogue, please see #Exercises and Persian/Planning#Dialogue for suggestions that
emphasize this lesson's topic: simple present tense forms of . بودن
Explanation
Shirin and Reza have just met.
Vocabulary
کجایی ‹kojâi› — “from where?”

ایرانیم ‹irâniyam› — “(I) am Iranian.”
او ‹u› /uː/ — “he, she, it”
انگلیسی ‹engelisiy› — “English”
خیر ‹xeyr› — “no”
آمریکایی ‹âmrikâiy› — “American”
ما ‹mâ› /mɒː/ — “we, us”
آنھا ‹ânhâ› /ɒːnˈhɒː/ — “they”
Subjects
In both English and Persian, sentences have subjects and verbs. In a sentence that expresses an action, the subject is usually
the main actor or agent. In a sentence that makes a comment about a topic, the subject is usually that topic. A verb is a word
like talk that expresses an action, or one like is that links the subject to the words that comment about it:
Sentence Subject Verb
“I am a student.” “I” “am”
“Did you complete the assignment?” “you” “Did complete”
“Study this grammar topic!” “(you)”[1] “Study”
Each sentence above, like all complete sentences in English and Persian, has a subject and a verb, even if the subject is only
implied. Subjects have grammatical “number” and “person”:
First, second, or third person: indicates whether the speaker or addressee is included
Singular or plural number: indicates how many people or things are included [2]
Grammatical person and number may be represented by the following pronouns:
Grammatical number and person Number
Singular
(one)
Plural
(more than one)[2]
First person
(the speaker)
ما من
‹man› ‹mâ›
“I” “we”
Second person
(the addressee)
شما تو
‹to› ‹šomâ›
“you” “you”
Third person
(someone else)
آنھا او
‹u› ‹ânhâ›
“he/she/it” “they”
Present tense forms of بودن ‹budan› (“to be”)
Persian verbs are conjugated by adding suffixes, similar to the way English verbs like talk take the suffixes -s, -ed, and -ing
to make verb forms like talks, talked, and talking. In Persian, though, the verb’s suffix clearly indicates its grammatical
person and number. For example, the table on the right shows the simple present tense “full” forms of the Persian verb بودن

بودن ‹budan› (“to be”)
Simple present tense, “full” form
Stem: ھست ‹hast-›
Number
Singular Plural
First person
(ما) ھستیم (من) ھستم
(‹man›) ‹hastam› (‹mâ›) ‹hastim›
“(I) am” “(we) are”
Second person
(شما) ھستید (تو) ھستی
(‹to›) ‹hasti› (‹šomâ›) ‹hastin›[3]
“(you) are” “(you) are”
Third person
(آنھا) ھستند (او) ھست
(‹u›) ‹hast› (‹ânhâ›) ‹hastan›[3]
“(he/she/it) is” “(they) are”
‹budan› (“to be”), consisting of
the stem ھست ‹hast-› and various
suffixes to indicate the person and
number:
Conjugation
Say each of the personal pronouns from the table above. While saying each one, imagine and point to the people to whom
the pronoun might refer. For example, while saying ما ‹mâ› (“we, us”), imagine another person next to you and
point to that person and yourself.
Repeat the personal pronouns as above, but after each one, say the corresponding simple present tense full forms of بودن
‹budan› from the table above. For example, when saying شما ‹šomâ› (“you (plural)”), point to two imaginary
addressees and then say ھستید ‹hastin› .[3]
The full simple present tense of بودن ‹budan› appeared as ھستید ‹hastin› and ھستم ‹hastam› in the first and third
lines of the dialogue above.
بودن ‹budan› also appears in abbreviated form above, once as the word است ‹e› [3] and once as the suffix م ‹-am›
following ایرانی ‹irâniy› (“Iranian”). That's because the verb بودن ‹budan› has both a full form using the stem ھست
‹hast-› and a short form. The long form is a bit more formal in tone and often carries the sense of “exists”.
The short form is used more often than the long form, especially in casual speech. As shown below, most of the short form
is written as suffixes (technically clitics since they attach to phrases rather than just words) like ید ‹-in› [3] in چطورید
‹cetorin› (“how are you”), but the third person singular form is written as a separate word: است ‹e› (“is”)[3]:

است ‹ast› can be used with singular or plural subjects to express existence, like there is or there are in English.
For plural “animate” subjects (one that refers to multiple people or to a thing that might be thought to behave figuratively
like multiple people), existence can also be expressed with the plural form ھستند ‹hastan› .
Some sources disagree with this and say است is only used as a copula, never used for existence.
Colloquially, ھستند ‹hastand› may be a suffix pronounced ‹an› after consonant or ‹n› after vowel.
Word order
As the previous dialogues have shown, the verb usually comes last in a simple Persian sentence. For example, the last word
in each Persian sentence below is a form of the verb بودن ‹budan› (“to be”):
Grammatically, subjects are optional in Persian. Since the suffix of a conjugated
verb clearly indicates the number and person of the subject, subject pronouns are
often omitted from Persian sentences, except when used for emphasis.
“I am fine.”
ستم. ɸ خوب من
من خوب ھستم
‹hastam› ‹xub› ‹man› ←
“am” “fine” “I” ←
“You are a student.”
.ۘ سɸ وݨɲ دا تو
تو دانشجو ھستی
‹hasti› ‹danešju› ‹to› ←
“are” “student” “you” ←
“The university is
big.”
است. بزرگ اه Ϊ شɲ دا
دانشگاهبزرگ است
‹e› ‹bozorg› ‹dânešgâh› ←
“is” “big” “university” ←
بودن ‹budan› (“to be”)
Simple present tense, short form
Number
Singular Plural
First person
... + یم ... + م
‹...am› ‹...im›
“(I) am” “(we) are”
Second person
... + ید ... + ی
‹...i› ‹...id›, ‹...in›[3]
“(you) are” “(you) are”
Third person
... + ند است
‹ast›, ‹...e›, ‹...s› [3] ‹...+an›[3]
“(he/she/it) is” “(they) are”

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