Learn to speak Farsi/ Persian on PDF!

[Ahmad]

But the refugees from Afghanistan (namely Uzbeks) in Quetta used to speak something similar. I can understand them but have difficulty understanding the Persian poetry written by Iqbal.

Persian poetry might not be that easy for you as you dont speak the language that much. Some persian poetry is even difficult for me although i have done all my studies in farsi and speak farsi as my first langauge. Iqbal's poetry is lovely. As per Uzbeki language, the Uzbeki of Afghanistan is influenced by Farsi vocabulary and probably some gramatical structures as well, if an uzbek of Afghanistan speaks in Uzbeki, i can understand them in a great deal because of those persian words, and also, Majority of Uzbeks of Afghanistan are Persian/uzbeki bilingual.

 

[Pasban]

Months, Days and Holidays

Iranians use a different calendar as their main or primary calendar, but they also use the Gregorian (western) and Islamic calendar also. The Iranian calendar (reputed to be the most accurate in the world), as with the Gregorian calendar yet unlike the Islamic calendar, is a solar calendar ( the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar ). It starts at the first moment of spring and ends at the last moment of winter.

The Months are:
Færværdin - 21 March to 20 April
Ordibehesht - 21 April to 21 May
Khordad - 22 May to 21 June
Tir - 22 June to 22 July
Mordad - 23 July to 22 August
Shæhrivær - 23 August to 22 September
Mehr - 23 September to 22 October
Aban - 23 October to 21 November
Azær - 22 November to 21 December
Dey - 22 December to 20 January
Bæhmæn - 21 January to 19 February
Espænd (Esfænd) - 20 February to 20 March

Seasons:
Bæhar - spring
Tabestan - summer
Paiz - fall/autumn
Zemestan - winter

Unique Holidays - Noruz:

Norouz is the Iranian new year and the most important cultural holiday of Iran and other Iranian peoples. It is celebrated on the first day of spring. At the exact moment, exact second of that it turns spring, it becomes the new Iranian year. It is not only celebrated in Iran, but in other countries such as: Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and areas such as Kurdistan, the Pamirs of China, and also in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.

It's an ancient Holiday coming from ancient Iran and celebrated by ancient Indo-Iranian peoples, and was the most important celebration for them. It is a symbol of rebirth and everything anew.

Norouz Literally means "New day," (no, nav, nov = new; ruz = day)
Norouz can also be pronounced as "Navrouz, Nevrouz, Navaroza, Navasal Novruz, etc."

Ways to greet for the new year are:
sal e no mobaræk = Happy new year (Lit. Year of new congrats)
sal e no khojæste-bad = Happy New year
Noruz Mobaræk = Happy Norouz
Noruz Piruz = Noruz Victory


Norouz khojæste-bad = Happy norouz
Norouz shad-bad = Happy norouz

Other information:

English Farsi

Minute Daghighe
Hour Saa'at
Day Rooz
Week Hafteh
Month Maah
Season Fasl
Year Saal
Today Emrooz
Yesterday Dirooz
Tomorrow Fardaa
This week In hafteh
Next week Hafteh bad
Last week Hafteh ghabl
Sunday Yek shanbeh
Monday Do shanbeh
Tuesday Se shanbeh
Wednesday Chaar shanbeh
Thursday Panj shanbeh
Friday Jome
Saturday Shanbeh

 

[Pasban]

Continuing now on the previous teaching format...

"To be doing":

You have learned "to do" (kærdæn) and "to have" (dashtæn):
e.g.
"mæn shena mikonæm" [I swim; shena = swim] or "mæn minevisæm" [I write] (mi-nevis-æm, from "neveshtæn" to write)

"mæn sib daræm" [I have a apple; sib = apple] or "mæn nahar daræm" [I have lunch; nahar = lunch]

Now, how do you say "I am doing." Well we now know that "to have" comes after a noun. To say "I am doing" you have to combine both "dashtæn" and "kardæn" together in the format: "mæn daræm mikonæm" or I am doing.

Whenever "dashtæn" comes after a noun, it means "to have," yet when it comes before a noun and /or verb, it means "am [doing]."

take "mæn shena mikonæm" (I swim) and add the verb "dashtæn" to it and it will make: "mæn daræm shena mikonæm" I AM swimming.

mæn minevisæm [I write] >> mæn daræm minevisæm [I am writing]
mæn mikhoræm [I eat; khor = eat or eater] >> mæn daræm mikhoræm [I am eating]
mæn bazi mikonæm [I play] >> mæn daræm bazi mikonæm [I am playing]
mæn ketab mikhunæm [I read a book; ketab = book] >> mæn daræm ketab mikhunæm [I am reading a book]
mæn ru tækht mikhabæm [I sleep on a bed; tækht = bed ] >> mæn daræm ru tækht mikhabam [I am sleeping on a/the bed]
to mikoni [you do] >> to dari mikoni [you are doing]
an mikone/æd [it does] >> an dare mikone/æd [it is doing]

more soon..

 

[Comet]

Persian poetry might not be that easy for you as you dont speak the language that much. Some persian poetry is even difficult for me although i have done all my studies in farsi and speak farsi as my first langauge. Iqbal's poetry is lovely. As per Uzbeki language, the Uzbeki of Afghanistan is influenced by Farsi vocabulary and probably some gramatical structures as well, if an uzbek of Afghanistan speaks in Uzbeki, i can understand them in a great deal because of those persian words, and also, Majority of Uzbeks of Afghanistan are Persian/uzbeki bilingual.

Well I have spent a lot of time with Uzbeks. I can understand them well. I was always under impression that I was learning Persian from them.

Chi hal ast? do you understand this?

 

[Al-zakir]

s æ lam = hello (Ar.)

Good thread and appreciated however it will be hard for people to pronounce using roman letter.

If this æ pronounce with c sound then how do you pronounce

Sælam.

Isn't Sælam pronounce same as Arabic salaam.

Original Persian script would have been better because roman letter will not produce right pronounce for people with zero Farsi background.

 

[Comet]

Good thread and appreciated however it will be hard for people to pronounce using roman letter.

If this æ pronounce with c sound then how do you pronounce

Sælam.

Isn't Sælam pronounce same as Arabic salaam.

Original Persian script would have been better because roman letter will not produce right pronounce for people with zero Farsi background.

These are not Roman Letters. These are Phonetics Symbols. These are used to teach sounds of certain words.

more here: A Reference and Introduction to Phonetic Symbols

 

[Al-zakir]

These are not Roman Letters. These are Phonetics Symbols. These are used to teach sounds of certain words.

more here: A Reference and Introduction to Phonetic Symbols

ummm.....Thanks. I am not familiar with these symbols.

 

[qsaark]

I am sure Urdu speaking friends would be able to learn it quite easily.

Not all but those who have taste for poetry and prose as Persian words are endemic in classical Urdu poetry/prose. At any rate, I have always loved Farsi (zuban e Pehlawi) thanked to my Grand Ma who taught me Gulistan, Bostan, Shahnama etc when I was only a child.

 

[Pasban]

Good thread and appreciated however it will be hard for people to pronounce using roman letter.

If this æ pronounce with c sound then how do you pronounce

Sælam.

Isn't Sælam pronounce same as Arabic salaam.

Original Persian script would have been better because roman letter will not produce right pronounce for people with zero Farsi background.

æ as in cat
There fore it would be Salam with the "A" pronounced as in cat

Hence, It is not pronounced with a "C" sound but a variation of the "A" sound.

I already explained that if I used the Arabic-Persian script members would pronounce the words wrong as Urdu and Persian pronunciation is different even for identical words.

For example, take the English word "Revolution"

Writing in Persian-Arabic script: انقلاب
Farsi speaker pronunciation: en-ghee-labh or engelabh
Urdu speaker pronunciation: in-kee-laabh or enqelab

It is a common practice to have a G or Gh type sound (گ or &#1594 after a K-based (&#1705 sound in Farsi, where as in Urdu a a Ki-based (ک&#1607 or Ka-based (ک&#1575 would follow depending on regional variations. Variations are there in Iran also. This is the topic of another post though altogether.

I hope you have understood.

Here is another example for your sake:

English word: Pajama
Urdu pronunciation: Peh-jam-ah
Farsi pronunciation: Peh-jam-ey

Also, the popular traditional fried chicken to Urdu speakers is "Tikkh-ah" whereas to Farsi speakers in Iran it is "Tikkh-ay."

This despite both being written the identical way in both tongues.

 

[Ahmad]

Well I have spent a lot of time with Uzbeks. I can understand them well. I was always under impression that I was learning Persian from them.

Chi hal ast? do you understand this?

With some minor corrections it means How are you. Yes, this one is farsi. perhaps those uzbek guys were speaking farsi.

 

[Ahmad]

Not all but those who have taste for poetry and prose as Persian words are endemic in classical Urdu poetry/prose. At any rate, I have always loved Farsi (zuban e Pehlawi) thanked to my Grand Ma who taught me Gulistan, Bostan, Shahnama etc when I was only a child.

Right, but i was refering to the shared vocabulary which might make it easier for them to learn. Another easy thing in Persian is the absence of Femenine and Masculine. In Farsi there is nothing like that. In Urdo we say(if I am not wrong): Achha Larka and Achee Larkee. But in Farsi we Say: پسر خوب (good boy) and دختر خوب(good girl)


خوب means good and it was the same for girl(دختر) and for boy(پسر) and it didnt change, but in case of Urdo it differed, اچها and اچهی(spelling?)


Gulistan and also Shahnama is one of the masterpieces of persian language. Your Grand Ma's farsi skills must be really good to understand them.

 

[qsaark]

Gulistan and also Shahnama is one of the masterpieces of persian language. Your Grand Ma's farsi skills must be really good to understand them.

As far as shared vacublary is concerned, there are a number of words which you do find in lughaat (dictionary) and in the literature but not in the spoken language. Over the period of time, Urdu has been simplified to astonishing levels and a number of Persian as well Arabic words are no longer in use.

Before the British occupation of the subcontinent, Persian was the official language hence learning Persian as well as Arabic was a must for the kids from educated Muslim families. My GrandMa was Moulvi Faazil (Post Graduate equivalent of modern British education system). After the introduction of British education system, those Muslims who had sand (certificate) of Moulvi Aalim (Graduate) and Moulvi Faazil were considered un-educated.

 

[xenia]

@ ahmed
if u dont use the persian script i'd never b able to read the rustum n sohrab epic n sheikh saadi..
is it possible to write the words in origional script when u give the english ones..that ll help!

 

[Al-zakir]

æmu = uncle on father's side

Does this pronounce as amu .........

 

[Al-zakir]

I shall try to keep this thread active. Also, learning a tongue is very beneficial and easy too when you get hold of the repetitive patterns that each language holds. I myself speak Persian/Farsi, Azeri, French, German, English and Urdu.

Very impressive brother. Dutch language is very hard to adopt so far I know.

How do you get to learn Urdu??

Does Iranian understand a little Urdu???