The Persian alphabet

32 letters — the 28 letters of Arabic, plus four that Persian added for its own sounds:

Written right to left, and most letters join to the next; short vowels (zabar, zer, pesh) are usually not written.

Several letters, one sound — Arabic loanwords keep their spelling, so Persian has more letters than sounds:

Why it matters for an Indian learner — the same script, with a few more letters, is used for Urdu; a reader of one is halfway to reading the other.

The trap: Persian has 32 letters, not 28 — the four extra, پ چ ژ گ, are exactly the sounds Arabic lacks.

Nouns — plural, indefinite, and the object marker

No gender, no article — Persian has no 'he/she' distinction in nouns or verbs, and no word for 'the'.

Plurals

'A' — the indefinite -ī — add -ī (ی): ketābī — 'a book'; mardī — 'a man'.

The object marker rā (را) — a definite direct object takes rā after it:

• ›ketāb rā khāndam — 'I read the book'
• ›ketābī khāndam — 'I read a book' (no rā)

The trap: rā marks a definite object — 'the book' — not the subject and not every object; an indefinite object ('a book') usually goes without it.

Ezāfe and the pronouns

Ezāfe (اضافه) — the short -e that links a noun to what describes or owns it; Urdu borrowed it as izāfat:

The order is the reverse of Hindi: Persian puts the noun first — ketāb-e man — where Hindi says 'मेरी किताब'.

Personal pronouns

Short possessives — joined to the noun: ketābam (my book), ketābat (your book), ketābash (his or her book).

The trap: in ketāb-e man the ezāfe -e does the work of Hindi 'की' — the possessor comes after the noun, the reverse of 'मेरी किताब'.

Verbs — infinitive, two stems, three tenses

The infinitive ends in -tan or -dan: raftan (to go), kardan (to do), khordan (to eat), didan (to see), khāndan (to read).

Two stems

The three tenses (raftan, 'to go')

Person endings — -am (I), -ī (you), -ad (he/she; dropped in the simple past: raft), -īm (we), -īd (you pl.), -and (they).

Negation — na- (or ne- before mī-): nemī-ravam (I do not go), na-raftam (I did not go).

Word order — subject, object, verb last: man be madrese mī-ravam — 'I go to school'.

The trap: the Persian future joins khāham to the past stem — khāham raft, 'I will go' — not to the present stem rav.

Points to Remember

• ›alphabet — 32 letters: 28 Arabic + پ چ ژ گ · right to left · short vowels usually unwritten · several letters for one sound (س ص ث; ز ذ ض ظ)
• ›no gender, no article
• ›plural — -hā (ketābhā), -ān (mardān), Arabic broken plural (kotob, olamā)
• ›indefinite -ī (ketābī) · definite object rā (ketāb rā khāndam)
• ›ezāfe -e / -ye — ketāb-e man, khāne-ye pedar; noun first, reverse of Hindi
• ›pronouns — man, to, u; mā, shomā, ishān · short possessives -am, -at, -ash
• ›infinitive -tan / -dan · past stem = infinitive − an · present stem learnt (rav, kon, khor, bin)
• ›mī-ravam (present) · raftam (past) · khāham raft (future) · negation na- / ne-
• ›SOV — man be madrese mī-ravam
• ›Exam tip: to translate a Persian verb, find the stem first — a past stem points to past or future, a present stem with mī- to the present