The Persian language uses the Arabic alphabet but pronounces it differently and very simplified. Also 4 letters are added.
The 4 letters are:
Pe - like Pe in Penny
Zhe - Like the Ge in Gel
Ge - Like the Gue in Guess
Che - Like the Che in Chest
Persian is very regular. I don’t think you have any irregular verbs. But every verb has 48 conjugations.
Persian is very flexible which makes it easy to incorporate new words. It is influenced greatly by Arabic words and there are also some French and English words used in the everyday language.
In addition to Iranian Persians, Afghan Persians and Tajiks also speak Persian ( called Dari and Tajiki respectively) and I’d say their Persian is more pure and uses older words. Personally, I find it very joyful to listen to them.
When you learn verbs, there’s a tendency to start with the preterite form which has the easiest construction.
There are 2 sentences every first grader learns as their first sentences they learn in school. To learn these sentences we need:
“Alef baa kolaah” - means - A with a hat:
You write it like a straight vertical line: l
However when you start a word with it, you have the hat which looks like a tilde sign on top of it. So here is what it looks like: آ
Alef is the first letter in the alphabet. It is pronounced as a long aa.
Next letter is”Be” pronounced like the Be in best. In the beginning of a word half of it is not written. In its full form, it kind of looks like a flat sink with a dot beneath. Here is what it looks like: ب
OK now that you know two letters, let’s make three words with them. We will need them for our two sentences:
“Baa” means with. Remember Alef baa kolaah meaning Alef with a hat. Persian like Arabic is written from right to left, so when we write it, it will look like this: با
Now say “baabaa”. This means dad. It’s written like this: بابا
For Christmas, “Baabaa Noel” comes to town. Yes, you guessed it right. It’s a french loan word for Santa.
And finally the third word we’re going to make with our two letters is “Aab” which means water. It’s written like this: آب
OK, we’re going to learn one more letter for our first sentence. It’s not the third letter of the alphabet. That place is taken by “Pe”. Yes pronounced like Pe in Penny. However, the one we’re going to use is “Daal”. It is the tenth letter and has the same form no matter where in the word it is. It’s written like this: د
OK here is the sentence we’re going to learn today:
بابا آب داد
Were you able to read it ?
“Daad” means gave, the third person preterite form of the verb for giving.
Dad gave water.
I know, it’s kind of an awkward sentence. Nothing anyone would say ever. But it is the first sentence all first graders learn.
Here we can also observe what order Persian uses to create sentences: SOV ( Subject Object Verb)
Hope you liked the first lesson.
