Colloquial Persian The Complete Course for Beginners Abdi Rafiee Routh AR Routledge LONDON AND NEW YORKFirst edition published 1988 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN ‘Second edition published 2001 ‘This third edition published 2011 ‘Simuttaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1988 Lelia Moshiri © 2001, 2011 Abdi Ratiee The right of Abdi Rafiee to be identified as author of this work has bean asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyrignt, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ‘Typeset in Avant Garde and Helvetica by Graphicraft Limitec, Hong Kong Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utllized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, Including photocopying and recording, or in any Information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Ubrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rafiee, Abdi, 1947— Colloquia! Persian : the complete course for beginners / Abdi Rafiee —3rd ed 1p. cm. — (The colloquial series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1, Persian language—Textbooks for foreign speakers—English. 2. Persian language—Grammar. 3. Persian language—Spoken Persian. 4. Persian language—Sound recardings for English speakers. I. Title. PK6239.5.E5R34 2070 491/,5582421—de2? 2010006487 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-56045-0 (pbk} ISBN 13: 976-0-415-56046-7 (audio CDs) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-55409-1 (pack) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-56047-4 (MP3) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-86589-7 (ebk)Contents 10 Acknowledgements. Introduction Reading and writing in Persian Guidelines for Persian writing p> salam Greetings nJ!g>! abvalporsi Enquiring about health Sagia® glaS kojayi hastid? Where are you from? Sao,S Taz cin ,>1 axare hafte ce-kar kardid? What did you do at the weekend? SonslaS 495) j26 manzeletun kojast? Where's your home? OLAS 42 2459 vorud be tehran Arriving in Tehran oly! 99 dar iran In iran LLS (59 9caF goft-o-gu-ye xidbani Street talk Laylans SF gorosneid? Are you hungry? S)|pbadl cclaccsdgs mouge'iyathd-ye ezterari Emergency situations 10 42 61 106 127 151 172vi Contents 11 Jj42 manzel 491 Home 12 30, gardes 207 Going out 13° a > xarid 226 Shopping 14 Sls xadamat 247 Services 18 Cutligs g CedLy salamat o behdast 264 Health and hygiene 16 So L Lily, ravabet ba digaran 280 Relations with other people 17 ey Glegh; 9 0F kar va zabanhd-ye xareji 298 Business and foreign languages Key to the exercises 315 Reference grammar 361 Persian-English glossary 378 English-Persian glossary 416 IndexAcknowledgements | would like to record my sincere gratitude to my sons, Hameed and Siam, for putting up with a part-time father while the second edition of this course was being prepared in the late 1990s, and for talerat- ing my part-time friendship since | was asked to produce the current edition. | remain grateful to my wife, Sima, for filling the gap. as well as for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions. Since the publication of the second edition in 2001, | have received valuable feedback on the content and form of the course from my students as well as those from al! over the world who have taken the trouble to write their views and comments about the course on the Internet. A big ‘thank you’ to all of them. My thanks also go to the editorial team at Routledge for their com- ments and support. Abdi (Abdorreza) RafiesIntroduction Congratulations on taking the first step towards learning the language of Hafez, Sa’di, Ferdowsi and Khayyam, to name but a few of the literary giants Iran has proudly produced over the centuries as part of its contribution to tha wealth of the world’s cultural heritage. On a practical level, | hope you will agree with the notion that a European learning another European language is one thing; a Euro- pean learning a non-European language is quite another. We cannot separate a language from the cuitural factors (beliefs, assumptions, etc.) that have influenced and shaped it over the years. The cultural gap is significantly narrower and shallower between language com- munities within Europe than between Europe and the East. This means that a European attempting to learn an Eastem language will need to bridge a much wider and deeper cultural gap than if he or she were learning another European language. Despite the eastern cultural backdrop and using the Arabic alphabet, Persian is in fact an Indo-European language, i.e. related to English, and therefore much easier for English speakers to learn than Arabic. Indeed, some of my students have suggested that learn- ing Persian first would make life much easier when you go on to learn Arabic. In this course, | have tried to present a holistic picture of the Persian language, which includes not only the grammar of the word, the phrase and the sentence (i.e. the traditional view of grammar) but also the ‘grammar’ of what to say to whom and how to say or not to say it (i.e. the grammar of communication). So, we will be concerned not just with ‘grammatical accuracy’, but ase with the social and cultural appropriateness of what we say in Persian. Learning 2 toreign language without bothering about the (often) culture-specific norms governing the u: like learning how to drive a car without Code! ise of that language would be bothering about the HighwayIntroduction Who is the course intended for? This course is intended for two types of learner: 1 Those who wish to learn to speak, read and write in Persian. 2 Those who wish to be able to communicate in Persian, without learning the script. Type of Persian used The type of Persian used in this course is educated colloquial Tehrani, which is understood throughout Iran, thanks to the media. Although the principal objective of this course is to introduce spoken colloquial Persian, sufficient guidance is given for those who wish to go on to study literary Persian. The table on p. xi shows the varieties of language referred to in the book. Use of jargon | have tried to keep grammatical jargon to a minimum. Where a technical word is used, it is often backed up by a clarifying example. For instance, under ‘Demonstratives', you are told: How to say ‘this'/‘these’; ‘that'/‘those’. Layout of the book The book is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the Persian sound system and the script supported by a comprehensive exercise at the end. The second part comprises seventeen units. Each unit Contains two dialogues in which everyday language is introduced in its appropriate social and cultural setting. Each dialogue is supported by ‘Vocabulary’, ‘Language and culture notes’ and ‘Exercises’. Each unit ends with a ‘Comprehension test’, which brings together the main language points introduced in the unit.Introduction xi Register Style Context Example Colloquiel Formal Addressing older Fall tase coptlal wis ge (epokerv People, or among = ——mixdid b&haéun berid irén? written) participants in Do you want to go to Iran business meetings, with them? using La Soma ‘you' (formal) Informal Addressing friends Sohal ase opal sls ye and relatives of mba bahasun beri iran? similar or younger Do you want to go to Iran age in speech or in —_with them? writing (e.g. email, letter, postcard) using 4 to ‘you’ (informal) Literary Formal Business Tage Gla! & lagl b sualys ge (spoken/ correspondence; ——mixhid ba nha be iran written) books; newspapers; beravid? news casting; Do you want to go to Iran emails, letters or with them? Plays (addressing saniors) Informal Personal S59 lal a Wal bales oe correspondence mbdhi ba dnhd be Iran addressing friends and relatives of similar or younger age; plays {eddressing peers o” juniors) beravi? Do you want to go to Iran with them?xii Introduction Sound change in casual speech ‘Some sounds tend to influence the quality or langth of their neigh- bours. Sound changes familiar to English speakers are not reflected in the transcription. Examples: n followed by b, p, m is pronounced m. For example, Sanbe ‘Saturday’ is pronounced Sambe. In the trans- cription, however, the original form Sanbe has been used to avoid a clash with the Persian spelling. The consonant cluster nd is normally reduced to n, as in raftand ‘they went’, which is often reduced to raftan. Again, the original form raftand is reflected in the transcription. Words ending in the sound e normally have this sound changed to a when followed by a suffix: .pla:i, aig! unja rafte-am — raftam I've been (gone) there. © panjare window pleyocs panjare-am — panjaram my window -p2yS 5b |, oa panjare ra baz kardam. + .03,5 5b 9,0 > Panjara-ro baz kardam. | opened the window. Using the course Listening Listening to Persian spoken by native speakers helps you to gain mastery of the sound system, improve your pronunciation and develop a good Persian accent. Dialogues, exercises and materials involving listening are marked with this icon Q. The dialogues To understand each dialogue, you need to look nat only at the vocabu- lary but also at the ‘Language and culture notes’ where linguistic and relevant cultural explanations are given. You may also need to refer to the glossaries at the end of the book.Introduction xiil The exercises inmost cases, the first question in each exercise has been answered as an example. The last exercise after each dialogue is intended to broaden the lens and use the grammar in a variety of other contexts. For these exercises and the comprehension test at the end of each unit, you will need to refer to the glossaries at the end of the book. All the answers are given in ‘Key to the exercises’, Role plays This is a very important part of the course. Each lesson is supple- mented with a series of role-play exercises. These are fully explained on the accompanying CDs. Follow the instructions and make the most of your free time (e.g. when travelling, in the kitchen, or at bedtime). A bilingual dictionary - an essential tool This course hopes to help you get to a stage where you can study the language independently. This is where a good (English-Persian, Persian-English) dictionary will be an essential tool. You can help improve the course Everything is known by everyone. ‘Everyone’ has yet to be bom! (a famous Persian saying) Your comments on the form and content of the course would be most welcome. If an aspect of the language has not been covered (sufficiently), please let us know. On the English transcription The English transcription of Persian words appears in bold type. Letters or symbols in round brackets represent sounds that are norm- ally dropped in casual speech. All English transcription should be read according to the values given below.xiv i ‘Sounds tire Introduction In the (mostly English) word{s) swe - - -eee MESES wer DB vgQg05R-* yoo*seaccpee TMS GES Berges ogegea—s~ "seen eeage— ee father (British/American accent) add ice bad church dad egg rein fee good regime hand ski joke kite leek (not keel) mad noon awe (Brtish accent) shorter coin dough (American accent) pad Paris (French accent) harder road (Scottish accent) sad she tea flu gooey (one syllable) vest west loch; Bach yeast zip water (Cockney accent) Note: Persian consonants and vowels are described in the section ‘Reading and writing in Persian’.Introduction Abbreviations used in the book a adjective op Opposite edv adverb p Preposition col colloquial er plural con conjunction pol polite dem demonstrative ps Present stem t formal St ‘structured infinitive inf intormal sing singular I literary so someone Ait literally st something n noun sub subjunctive Cross-referencing style Cross-references are made throughout the book to the particular Unit and Dialogue where an explanation or clarification is given. For example, ‘See U2D2 for possessive endings’ means that ‘possessive endings’ are explained in Unit 2 Dialogue 2.Reading and writing in Persian Introduction Modern Persian uses the Arabic alphabet. The Persian sounds c, g, 9 and p are not represented by any Arabic letters. Therefore, when the Arabic script was adopted, four of its letters were slightly modified to produce new letters representing the above sounds. Persian is written and read from right to left. The first page of a Persian book is the page nearest to the right-hand-side cover. Persian numbers, however, are written and read from left to right. Initially it would be better to write on ruled paper to help you to develop a pleasantooking handwriting. This is because letters are positioned in relation to a horizontal line. Already, you will know a few hundred words commonly used in Persian! These are the words Persian has borrowed from other (mostly European) languages. Some of these words are pronounced in Persian more or less the same as they are in their language(s) of origin, e.g. ‘soup’, ‘team’, ‘jet’. Others have been slightly modified to fit into the Persian sound system: kelas for ‘class’. To minimise the ‘unknown’ area, some of these ‘familiar’ words are used when introducing the Persian script. The purpose here is to use a familiar launching pad that will, | hope, help the learner land smoothly on the Persian writing Pad, so to speak. When we learn a new language with a writing system entirely dif- ferent from that of our own, we are often concerned about (if not intimidated by) at least two things: 1 having to learn a completely new set of symbols, moving in an unfamiliar direction; 2 having to cope with potential irregularities in the relationship between the symbols and the sounds they represent.Reading and writing In Persian On (1), | cannot say much except to assure you that the com- paratively ‘phonetic’ nature of the Persian alphabet greatly facilitates the learning of the writing system. In terms of the relation between what you see and how you pronounce it, Persian is much more con- sistent than English. Most sounds are represented by ‘only one letter in Persian. In Persian, the maximum number of letters representing the same sound is four. These are the letters that represent the sound z. Significantly, wherever you see any of these four letters, you can be absolutely certain that the sound represented is z. The alphabet (including the consonants) There are 32 letters in the alphabet. They help to represent 24 consonants and 11 vowels. English speakers will need to learn two new (consonant) sounds. The remaining consonants and vowels are more or less familiar to English speakers. The letter 5 vav is mute in certain words. Please do not be intimidated by what | am going to show you now ~ the entire alphabet! The purpose is to give you a bird's-eye view of all the Persian letters, and their various shapes, in their natural (alpha- betical) order. This is the order in which you will need to remember the letters if you wish to make good use of your Persian-English dictionary. Furthermore, it will be used as a reference later when individual letters are introduced. xviixulli Reeding and writing in Persian Table 1: The alphabet: Persian letters and their various shapes in a word (C01; 5) No. Sound ‘Shapes Name Final separete Final joined Medial Initial 1 (See 1 ! \ (See aiet vowels) vowels) 2b ’ - = = be 3p y vy 4 = pe at 2 2 3 3 te 5s 2 2 a or) 6 i & t > = im 7 ¢ € gE = = oc Bh z t > > betimi 9x z z +s s+ « 10 d ° 2 2 > om Woz 3 3 3 3 owt wer 2 2 2 2 re 1392 3 3 3 > 4 9 3 3 3 > @ 15 8 o o —_ = an 16 8 o o = = tin 7s we uw —_ — 18 2 we ve > =» md 9 t &b b &b b wu 20 z & &b b & 21 é & ~ s anReading and writing in Persian Na Sound ‘Shapes Final separate Final joined Medial Initial i 24 € & a 2 gn 23 t 3 3 3 it “aq e é 3 i at 25 k s Ss ss som 269 vs s s S$ gat at J J J J lim 28 m e os mim 209 e ° 3 4 nun sow 3 2 ’ > vav 31h ° a 4 hedo-cesm 32 y Ss oa 2 = ye A bird's-eye view of the alphabet reveals the following facts. On sounds Two consonant sounds are unfamiliar to English speakers: x (letter 9) and q (letters 22 and 24). Persian x is very similar to the sound represented by ‘ch’ in (Scottish) ‘loch’ and in German ‘Bach’. Persian q is very close to French ‘r’, only a bit harder. Most Persian sounds are represented by one letter each. is represented by 2 letters: & te and b ta is represented by 2 letters: & ein and 3 af is represented by 2 letters: he-jimi and _» he-do-ce’m is represented by 3 letters: 4 se, .» sin and (2 sad is represented by 4 letters: 5 zal, 5 20. 2 zad and bb za is represented by letter ¢ @! and hamze (see Glottal Stop, PP. xxxi-vxil). NO soox Reading and writing in Persian On shapes Each letter may have one, two, three or four shapes for various posi- tions in a word. Nine letters have more or less the same shape for all positions in a word. These are: | alef, dal, 5 zal, , re, 3 ze, 3 de, b ta, b za, 5 vav Nineteen letters have two shapes: small (for the beginning or middle of a word) and large (for the end of a word): wv be, pe, & te, 4 se, z jim, & ce, 7 he-jimi, t xe, sin, (4 8in, (2 sad, Q2 zid, 4 fe, 5 Gif, S kat, 5 gat, J lam, p mim, 5 nun Letter .¢ ye has three shapes: small (for the beginning or middle of the word) and two large ones (one for final joined position, and the other for final separate). Letters 2 he-do-ce&m, ¢ ein and ¢ ein have four shapes: , medial, final joined and final separate. Within the same word, all but seven letters can be connected to the letters on either side — in handwriting and in print. These seven letters can only be connected to the preceding (not the following) letter. These are: Valef, > dal, 5 zl, , re, 5 ze, 5 Ge, 9 vav Note: As we go through the examples, you will note that the final shapes of some letters (when occurring after a connectable letter) are very slightly modified to make the ‘connection’ easier (and nicer). In the introduction to Persian letters, some of the mast common European loanwords and names will be used. However, please bear in mind that these non-Persian words are not always pronounced by Iranians exactly as they are pronounced in their language of origin. Word stress normally ‘alls on the last syllable of a word. Underlining indicates stress. Stressed or unstressed, a Persian vowel is normally pronounced in full.reading and writing in Persian x! The vowels Persian vowels are fairly similar to their English counterparts. Letters 4, 30, 31 and 32 play 2 major part in representing vowels. These are: \alef, 5 vav, » he-do-ce&m and |< ye. Table 2: Persian vowels and their various shapes in a word (CDi; 3) Q No. Vowel shapes Vowel — symbol Final separate Final joined Medial initial 1 ' ' ! i a 2 9 9 ’ 3 u 3 SG = 2 ! ' 4 ° a — ‘ a 5 ‘ a _ ' . 6 $ ’ - i ° 7 ol ol al al ai a ce — 2- 2! a a y2 i s- Fi ou 1c “s ss ~ a) at " 6 7) “4 a)xxii Reading and writing In Persian In addition to their roles as consonants, letters y vav, -2 he-do-ceam and .5 ye (see Table 1 on pp. xviii-xix) are used to represent vowels in the medial and final positions. Thus, the shape of a vowel may slightly change depending on where it occurs in a word: beginning, middle or end. When the word begins with a vowel, the first letter, | alef, is used as a prop: | = a, | = e, | = 0. Sometimes, depending on the spelling of the word, letter ¢ ein acts as a prop. In Table 2 (p. xxi), the first six are called pure vowels. The remaining five are compound vowels (diphthongs). Vowels &, u and i are long. Vowels a, e and 0 are short. Vowels i, ei, ou and of are more or less similar to their English counter- parts. Vowel ui is similar to the sound represented by ‘-ooey’ in the English word ‘gooey’ but pronounced as one syllable — gui rather than gu + i. Most vowels are represented by letters and are therefore incorpor- ated into the word. Other vewels use add-on symbols that are placed above or below the letters they follow. A stroke placed above a letter (_) represents the sound a; below it, represents @. This comma-shaped symbol (’) placed above a letter (__) represents the vowel 0. These symbols are placed above, or below, the consonant they follow, e.g. > = ba, — = be, % = bo. In the medial and final shape columns, the horizontal line (_) has been used as a Cummy consonant to show the position of the Persian vowel symbols (_____) in relation to the consonant they follow - i.e. above or below it. Unlike the long vowels, these short-vowel symbols are not incorporated into the main body of the word. The final ver- sions of these vowels, however, make use of proper letters and are therefore incorporated into the word. The final shapes of letter _» he-do-ce&m (i.e. 0/4.) are used as the final shapes of both vowels a and e. You may be relieved to know that there is only one word in Persian that ends in the vowel @ and uses (4) to represent it. That word is ai na meaning ‘no’ (a negative feply). Now, with the help of Tables 1 and 2 on PP. xvill-xix and xxi, let us do some reading and writing.Reading and writing in Persian xxii Unjoinable letters We begin with the seven unjoinable letters referred to earlier, These are consonant letters: » dal, 5 zal, , re, ; ze, 5 ge, 9 Vav and the first letter in the alphabet, | alef, which is used in vowels. Some of the vowels are also introduced in this section. You are reminded that these seven letters cannot be connected to the following letter, but can be connected to a preceding letter, if it is a joinable one. To write the word dad ‘she/he gave’, we need: d= letter dal = 2 = medial shape of vowel A. = ' d= letter dal = 3 Here is the result: sls To write the word azad ‘free’, we need: @ = initial shape of vowel 2. = i z= letter ze 3 @ = medial shape of vowel a = ' d= letter dal =o The result is: 915! To write the word dud ‘smoke’, we need: d = letter dal = > u = medial shape of vowelu = 5 d = letter dal = Here is the result: 299 To write the word did ‘he/she saw’, we need: d = letter dal i = medial shape of voweli = 4 d = letter dal = Here is the result: 29 Note: The medial shape of vowel i uses letter ye which is a joinable letter. This is why — and > are connected.Reading and writing in Persian To write the word dad ‘beast’, we need: d = letter dal = ° a = medial shape of vowel a d = letter dal Here is the result: 39 To write the word rege ‘parade’, we need: r= letter re = 2 medial shape of vowel e itter Ge inal shape of vowel e Here is the result: 03, Me To write the word roz ‘rose’ (flower), we need: r= letter re a) 0 = medial shape of vowel 0 = z= letter ze = 3 Here is the result: 5, To write the word daiv ‘diving board’, we need: d = letter dal = > ‘Al = medial shape of vowel ai = v = letter vav Here is the result: glo To write the word dei (the tenth month in the Iranian calendar), we need: d = letter dal = 2 ei = final separate shape of vowel ei Here is the result: (co 0" & ‘| To write the word dou ‘running’, we need: d = letter dal ° ou = final shape of vowel ou Here is the result: 45 The short vowel symbols (____"_) which are placed above or below the line are normally dropped. This should not cause much difficulty ‘once the skeleton of the word has become familiar to us.Reading and writing in Persian Joinable letters So far, we have been introduced to the unjoinable letters together with the various shapes of some of the more common vowels, In this section, we will see joinable letters and their various shapes, as well as the remaining vowels, in action, An attempt has been made to include all possible shapes of letters, beginning with smaller wards. Letters — be, ~ pe, — te, 4 se use the same skeleton. Their difference Is in the number and position of dots. Letter °, nun may also be included here, although its final shape is deeper and rounded. To write b&d ‘wind’, we need: b = initial shape of letter be = ~ & = medial shape of vowel & = ' d = letter dal =o Here is the result: ol, To write tip ‘brigade’, we need: u t = initial shape of letter te . i = medial shape of vowel I = p = final shape of letter pe . Here is the result: [3 a To write na ‘no’, we need: n = initial shape of letter nun . = a = final joined shape of vowel Here is the result: 4 To write bad ‘bad’, we need: b = initial shape of letter be . 4 a = medial shape of vowel @ d= letter dal so Here is the result: 3 Note: The medial shape of vowel # is not a letter and therefore not included in the skeleton of the word, This Is why ~ and » are con- ected. This rule applies to all instances where a vowel Ia represented by a sign placed above or below @ preceding letter.Recding and writing in Persian Letters < jim, < ce, ¢ he-jimi, ¢ xe use the same skeleton. Their difference is in the number and position of dots. To write eap ‘print- ing’, we need: itial shape of letter ce = = = medial shape of vowel & p= final shape of letterpe = = Here is the result: b> t To write jip ‘jeep’, we need: j = intial shape of letter jim = > i= medial shape of voweli = = 2 p = final shape of letter pe = = Here is the result: a> t To write jet ‘jet’, we need: j = initial shape of letter jim = = = @ = medial shape of vowele = — t = final shape of letter te =o Here is the result: > To write pic ‘screw’, we need: p = initial shape of letter pe = i = medial shape of vowell = ¢ = final shape of letter ce = Here is the result: ga a ae Letters _» sin and _, in use the same skeleton. Their difference is in dots. To write the English loanword salz ‘size’, we need: 8 = initial shape of letter sin = ~ &i = medial shape of vowel ai = z= letter ze Here is the result: lL. To write nif ‘beard’, we need: letter re = medial shape of vowel | = 4 = final shape of letter ¢in =» Here is the reault: 44, 2Reading and writing in Persian veel Letters 5 fe and |5 @af use a more or less similar skeleton. The final shape of 5 Ql Is deeper and rounded. To write fié ‘fiche’, ‘docket’ we need: , f = initial shape of letter fe i = medial shape of vowel i = § = final shape of latter ain zy Here Is the result: +5 To write faqir ‘beggar’, we need: f = initial shape of letter te medial shape of vowel @ @ = medial shape of letter qt | = medial shape of vowel | r= letter re Here is the result: id To write rafiq ‘friend’, we need: r= letter re a = medial shape of vowel a f = medial shape of letter fe i = medial shape of vowel i @ = final shape of letter qaf Here is the result: 5.3), Letters S kat and .S gif use the same skeleton - the latter has an additional stroke close to, and parallel with the original. To write Jak ‘jack’, we need: | = initial shape of letter jim = _ 2 a = medial shape of vowela = _— k = final shape of letter kaf 2 JS Here is the result: S> To write kaj ‘titted’, we need: k = initial shape of letter kat = a = medial shape of vowel @ J = final shape of letter jim ee Here is the result: of a oun nw a u owen aa \. J | .xxvili Reading and writing in Persian To write gac ‘chalk’, we need: @ = initial shape of letter gaf a = medial shape of vowel @ ¢ = final shape of letter ce Here is the result: 9F wun | To write barg ‘leaf’, we need: b = initial shape of letter be = - a = medial shape of vowel @ r= letter re = 2 g = final shape of letter gat s Here is the result: Sy " To economise on space, we will use a slightly different method of presenting examples for the remaining letters. Reading from right to left, you will see the ‘ingredients’ of each word separated by a space. This is followed by the word in its normal shape. Note the two shapes of letter J 14m in the following examples: Leet J = kilo kilu gL 5 = yj 45 elephant fil J.3 = J 3 Eileen Allin gab) = 4 Jo) Note: A combination of letter _) lm and the first letter (| alet) used in the vowel often looks like this Y when standing alone; and like this SL when joined up to a preceding letter, ¢.g. a town lr Y= , 14 class kelde WS = lJ 5 Note the two shapes of letter » mim in these examples: mode, fashion mod ss = 2 mile mil Joo = Ja Property, belonging mal Jl = J! May; alcoholic crink mel ye = 5 —* omelette omlet clal » o J+!peading and writing in Persian family, relatives famil Juald = J 1b timer timer yoli = ) 0 ols dames Jeimz jar = ja > Zoom ZUM 9) = #95 team tim wai = pad atom atom pil = «| Letter 2 he-do-ce&m has four shapes: hall hal Jl = Jl» hotel hotel Jzb = J i» spring (season) bahir jl; = j!-4- 4 Fahrenheit farenhalt yl, = 4!4.3 )!4 quince (rut) beh as Note: After an unjoinable letter, the initial shape Is used in the middie of a word; and the final separate shape at the end of a word: mouth dahin lao» 3!» > tendah «=e 5 king @fh ola = old mountain kun oyS = 69S The vowel ol is very rare in Persian. The only example normally given is xoi, the name of a town in Iran. Here is how it Is wetten: ftown) Kol se > 59> Vowel ui occurs mostly in literary Persian, as in sy gui ‘ball and Sx bui ‘smell’. A more common @: mple Is sayy, ruldad ‘event’, Letters (0 sBd and _2 z&d use the same skeleton. The latter hae ‘one dot over it. Note their two shapes: hundred pad we +o =e chair candall gle = g-) 92 insistence eerar j|pe! - |) <0! ixXK Reading and writing in Persian half nesf kai = Gs destination magsad sais = so 3 _, special MAXSUS opare = oso 5 _, greedy haris ja, ,> = 22) > multiplication zarb 5 = G ) _s ready hazer pol>= ) 3|_> presence hozur j4a> = , 5 > loan qarz (2,5 = 9 3 ill mariz (2 = 2) Letters b ta and & 2 use the same skeleton but the latter has a dot over it. They have only one shape: parrot tuti goo = bb divorce talq 3b = 51 b floor, storey tabage ab = «3, b relationship rabete ala! = «. b 4! , relevance rabt La, = b— ', recording zabt hws = bs noon zohr jab = oe appearance zher als = , a! b view, opinion nazar ,Bi = , & 3 Purpose, aim manzur jg = » 9 bi Protector hafez lail> = b 3!> Letters € ein and & qein use the same skeleton. The jatter has 2 dot over it. They have four shapes: festival ‘id nc = 22+ then, afterwards ba'd asi = 5 2 quarter rob’ ax) = 2-2Reading and writing in Persian: sadness gam i = pe Cave qar je = ,1é Occupation (job) goql jis = J. “_s blade tiq ag = A 5 advertisement tabliq a3 = a Jos Note: After an unjoinabie letter, the initial shape is used in the middle of a word; and the final separate shape at the end of a word: thunder ra'd ac’, = o£, divine law Sarg, = ¢ —5 gardener baqbin foreign exchange bureau sarrafi ite = 5 #!") 0 Sometimes the presence of taSdid creates a difference in meaning, as in: female (animal) made osls = 02 |» substance, matter m&dde edle = o> !_+ wailXOxXiv Reading and writing in Persian tanvin =(* ) This sign normally appears over an alef (| ). The combination is Pronounced an. Exampies: about (in the region of) hodudan [ag = fs 40‘ approximately tagriban L. ,a5 = 1__, jas sokun = (‘) Normally placed over a consonant, this sign shows that the consonant is not followed by a vowel. It may be used to prevent corfusion. For instance, to ensure that the English loanword ‘mask’ is pronounced correctly in Persian, i.e. as one syllable mask (rather than masek, etc.), a sokun may be placed over the —. s, thus: mask mask Sil = 5 Lvl This sign has been used with the letter vv ‘5 to represent a w sound in the vowel ou, e.g. The short alef = (') Used in words of Arabic origin, this sign represents an & sound. Its most common position is over letter ye (¢). The combination is Pronounced a. Examples: Moses musi gigs = ig —~ 9 —* Jesus is& ene ep et even (though) hata | > = > We have now covered all the various shapes of Persian vowels and Consonants, as well as the other signs used in the script. Here ar some brief guidelines for Persian writing.Guidelines for Persian writing The sample below shows three things: How to write each letter, i.e. where to begin (the arrow shows the starting point). 2 How to position each letter in relation to the ‘carrier line’ on which we write. 3. Proportions: how large or small each character should be. Note: To economise on space, only the first member of each family of letters sharing the same skeleton is shown here. < < —exwaxvi Guidelines for Persian writing Reading exercise The exercise below is to help revise all of the above. Tables 1 ang 2 on pp. xviii-xix and xxi may be used as a source of reference in the future and, if needed, when attempting the following exercise. (The answers are given at the end of ‘Key to the exercises’, p. 360.) Match the English-Persian 1 hard saxt 2 eg. masalan 3. nail mix 4 essence zat 5 sauce sos 6 good xub 7 guarantor zamen 8 five panj 9 mask mask 10 yard yard 11. downside zir 12 posing gest 13. a minor saqir 14. service servis 15. parrot tuti 16 protection hetz 17 tasty laziz 18 then ba'd 19° beard rif 20. oppression zalm 21 signature emea* 22. builder banna 23 one third sols 24 asset dardyi 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 4 BaRES 48 equivalents. boss ra‘is photograph aks asphalt asfalt poor faqir Tehran tehran nine noh gas gaz rival harif, furniture mob! lamp lamp shah 8ah size saiz pilgrim haji greedy haris ill mariz citizen tabe" a blade tig nearly taqriban hundred sad a fly mages believer momen visa vizd kilo kitu absorption jazb 49 50 51 52 Sas 57 58 59 60 BRBRZ SsBB28 Pope pap AIDS eidz bottle botri decision tasmim question so°al responsible mas'ul hall hat spoon qaoq cheque cek Passport pasport atom atom often aglab building band asset dara’t apex, head ra's no na oppressed mazium fuse fiuz morning sobh badness su’ child bacce agent ma'murGuidelines for Persian waitingUnit One pw salam Greetings In this unit we will look at how to: Q * exchange greetings at various times of the day and say ‘goodbye’ introduce yourself say ‘thank you’ use the polite form for ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’ ask simple ‘yes/no’ questions in the present tense eee2 Unit 1: satan 6 EE a Greeting and leave-taking (cD1; 12) It's 8 a.m. at the office. Members of staff greet each other briefly and go into their offices. Later in the evening, they ‘say goodbye. PM Eee ple: Pe Tee ple os why ab clade Las nee ab db Lis 8 S A: salam. sob(h) be-xeir. B: salam. sob(h) be-xeir. A: xoda (h)afez. Sab be-xeir. B: xoda (h)afez. Sab be-xeir. ’&: Hello. Good moming. 8: Hello. Good morning. A: Goodbye. Goodnight. B: Goodbye. Goodnight. Gre sob(h) —moming 2>4 be-xeir may it be good | Me xod& God | li hifez protectorunit 1: Greetings 3 Language and culture notes Q How to say ‘good morning’ Here is the formula: ge sob(h) morning + > be-xeir may it be good = x4 Gre SOb(h) be-xeir Good morning The same formula can be used to say: ye4 ed Bab be-xeir Goodnight 74 yi Safar be-xeir (Have a) good joumey Mare formal: ye>% 39) Fuzbe-xeir == Good day ye>% 46 — zohr be-xeir Good mid-day/noon ye pat asrbe-xeir Good (late) afternoon Nate: Younger people are expected to say pL» salém ‘hello’ first. Exercise 1 &7 Match a letter with a number. Follow the example. 1 qo sobh [b] (a) night 2 pL. salém {1 (©) moming 3 fab [] © hello ; 4 Lil ls xod& héfez — | ]_(d) good morning 5 y54) go sobfh) be-xeir {| (6) goodnight 6 Sa + Babbexeir § {) (f) goodbye Exercise 2 &7 Can you say these in Persian? 1 Good day. 2 Good afternoon. 3 (Have a) good journey. 4 Good mid-day/noon.Introducing yourself (co1; 14) Mr Reza Hooshangi (H) has just been called by the information desk officer (0) at the airport in Tehran. ik OL steele yy UT dL Sige ley pine Sige Gye tet scaled she ld pl sa Lal on Syl ll gasps Ox Ot ‘salam xAnom. salam aqa. befarmayid. bebaxgid, man huSangi hastam. rez& huSangi. ha bale, in telefon baraye Somast. mersi xAnom. alou? . . . FQOFOF +: Hello madam. ©: Hello sir. What can | do for your? Ht Sony (to bother you). | am Hooshangi. Reza Hooshangi. o An yes, tis telephone cals for you 4: Thank you madam. + wis xinom madam Gl aan ‘i, gentleman sulejir betarmayid Please go ahead. OR: What can | do for you?” thy bebaxtid sorry, forgive (rne)* oman ' itp hutangi Hooshangi (sumame) le, raze Reza (male name)unit 1: Greetings clad sly OH xub () am ‘Ah, Aha, Oh yes this telephone (call) for you (f) (t's for you thanks hello (telephone) to be fine, good, weil is (normally emphatic) doctor but s/he (polite); (originally) they MsiMrs Mr happy message present, gift parcel, gift Kamran (male name or surname) Ahmadi (surname) ticket too, also very; many; much obliged, grateful ® ition, “Beth of these are ‘imperative’ forms. For a gemma xplanal Please see ‘Imperative’ on pp. 93ff, 100ff, 374.6 Unit 1: satin -P Language and culture notes Personal pronouns LL ma we ¢ to you (inf) las SomA you (f, pi) glow he, she lagl = anh they ol an it, that Verb ‘to be’ in the present simple tense How to say ‘I am fine’; ‘you are fine’: etc. Verb (jg: budan ‘to be’ apie O35 Ge Man xub hastam. —|_am fine. gD Gy gto xub hasti. You (inf) are fine. “cewl ge glu xub ast. He/She is fine. scowl go Gg) an xub ast. It/That is fine. | spree g> le ma xub hastim. We are fine. | steed ug lod — $0mA xub hastid. —_-You are fine. \ skceed G9> ey] Anh xub hastand. —_They are fine. ‘ The verb normally comes at the end of the sentence. The word =...! ast is the normal equivalent for the English word ‘is’ when there is no emphasis on it. However, when the English word ‘is' does carry a stress for emphasis, its Persian equivalent would be cu..2 hast. Compare: ‘cul 259 9! u doktor ast. S/he is a doctor. [No stress on is] wl ne So g! u doktor hast amma... SMe is a doctor but . .. [e.g. s/he doesn't have a surgery.) After some vowels (such as ) cou! ast ‘is’ often loses its vowel Thus, las Soma ‘you' followed by cu! ast becomes Cla) 8or as in this sentence from Dialogue 2:unit 1: Greetings culed gly Gali Gz! In telefon baraye Somast. This telephone call’s for you. (Note a similar shortening of ‘is’ in the English translation.) In colloquial Persian, the sequence of sounds an is often Pronounced un. Thus, 5! an ‘that’/‘it’ and lag] anh ‘they’ will be written as oy un and la,,! unha in this book to reflect their colloquial pro- nunciation. Similarly, the sound combination 4m is often pronounced um in some words, e.g. elaS kodaim ‘which’ and ¢1,| aram ‘calm’, which are pronounced 345 kodum and pg ,] drum respectively. Polite forms of ‘you’, ‘she’ 4g to ‘you’ and its verb forms are generally used among children and between close friends and relatives of similar age or social status (spouses, siblings). Li Soma ‘you’ and its verb forms are used between strangers and those who have a formal relationship, such as business people in formal meetings. A senior in age or status may use 55 to, and receive Los oma, when talking with a junior (compare with French tu and vous). If unsure, use Ll. Soma. A more polite form for 3! u ‘he'/‘she’, would be oye! isun used with a plural verb form. For example, when introducing Ms or Mr Johnson, we can say: ed guile @ilF Qty! Wun xdnom-e jdnson hastand. She is Ms Johnson. si guile sll pti! Hun Aqaye janson hastand. He is Mr Johnson. Note: A direct Persian translation of ‘This is Ms/Mr Johnson’ would be impolite in this context. It would, however, be acceptable when introducing a person in a photograph (see U2D2). Questions While a statement has a falling tone, a ‘yas/no’ question uses 2 rising tone, as in English. Unlike English, no change in word ord necessary. Compare:8 Unit 1: sam assum 59 la toma doktor hastid. You are a doctor, (Falling tone) focus So ld soma doktor hastid? Are you a doctor? (Rising tone) Exercise 3 gxercse Using the information in the box on p. 6, replace the word 55 xub ‘fine’ witn Jl>_23> x08-hall ‘happy’, to produce tne Persian equivalents of ‘I am happy’; ‘you are happy’, and sc on. Exercise 4 sxerre = Can you say these in Persian? Hello sir. | am Peter Brown. Oh yes, this message is for you. This present is for you. This present is for Mr Ahmadi. This parcel is for Ms Ahmadi. This is Ms Ahmadi. (introducing) This is Mr Kamram. (introducing) Are you Ms Johnson? @BNAnEwoNs Q Comprehension (cos; 16) A has just called into a travel agency. B is the travel agent. Ble » dealers paddy pat pild ple 1 Sagrada Gl palS gil Lad cautey paddy pat wegle yi al | ' . petal aerl oy Slyt h pliy cop! acomaleds slop Cal cal egancl ibe sal, Lal ope he ape pet es BS DS >unit 1: Greetings RR eRe RRR aeons BBL LS ase bi Ls 2 salam qa. salam xanom. asr be-xeir, betarmayid. asr be-xeir. bebaxéid, Soma Sqaye kamran hastid? bale, befarmayid. man ahmadi hastam. ha bale, xanom-e ahmaci, in belit bardye Somist. in peiqam ham baraye Somast. xeili mamnun, safar be-xeir. mersi. xoda hafez. xoda hafez. ‘What time of the day is it? ‘What does A want to know? Who is A? (What's her name?) What two things is B offering A? What is B wishing?Unit Two nig! ahvdalporsi Enquiring about health -P In this unit we will look at how to: * say ‘How are you?’ and respond to a similar question * introduce yourself, say ‘Pleased to meet you’, and reciprocate enquire about other people express possessionunit 2: Enquiring about health How're you? (CDi; 17) Banman (8) is ringing his close friend Ali (A). Here are extracts from their conversation. Sy ple le SGrglaz pe SC yghar 95 rye omg $aings babe $35 ghar LL gut pe genet dy Satags oolgil> fay glam Led pyres end Sojglar dal is sus ye hisg dao wath Aide OS Sy Ssh aly 5I Soe il ala gh LIS 5 ILL [a few minutes later] bile bs Sad bile bs oS eS HS HS BS ae alou? ali jan, salam. : salam, ceto(u)ri? xubam, mersi. to ceto(u)ri? bad nistam, mersi. baba ceto(u)rand? maman xuband? bad nistand, mersi, Soma ceto(u)rid? Xanevade xuband? hame xuband, mersi. xob, ahmad ceto(uyre? yek kam xaste ast [xastast]. az ci? az zendegi? ; Na babal az karl xeili tanbale. [a few minutes later] : x0b, fe()lan xoda (n)afez. A xoda (h)afez. PR PR Pe MR eR 212 Unit 2: ahvéiipory BoE chvaiB rj Helio? (lit) Dear Ali, hello. Hello, how're you? I'm fine, thank you. How're you? [singular, informal] I'm not bad, thanks. How's your] dad? Is [your] mum wei? They're not bad, thanks. How're you [plural, |.e. people on you, side]? Are [your] family well? They're all fine, thanks. So, how's Ahmad’? : He's a little tired. Of what? Of life? Oh no! [He's tired] of work! He's very lazy. [a few minutes later] OK, goodbye for now. Goodbye. ROrar Breer 2 ze we all male name oe jan dear yee cetofulr how Soshe — cetofuyri how're you (inf) ve xub good, well, fine ~~ xubam 'm fine bad bad i nistam I'm not LL baba dad jzz — catolujrand how's s/he (f) oll m&man mum, mom says xuband ghhe's well (f) a nistand they're not oye = mamnun —_—_ grateful; thank you; thanks suzy catofujrid how're you (plural) eslyls —xdinevide family sug> xuband they're well 42 hame allunit 2: Enquiring about health 13 sob ‘So; OK (then) ae! ahmed male name ayez — coto(uyre how's SS oyek a, an; one oS kam little — tired ja of; from a ot what fa; zendegi life con no TUL as na baba! Oh no! [Certainly not! No way!) ws kar work ots xelll very Jsi — tanbal lazy Mab felan for now Language and culture notes Q Contraction How to say ‘I’m fine’, ‘you're fine’, etc. Verb (355: budan ‘to be’ in reduced form +g (cy) (man) xub-am. I'm fine. stg> (95) (to) xub-i. You're fine. (sing, inf) 4295 (9!) (u) xub-e. He/She's fine. (un) xub-e. it/That’s fine. (ma) xub-im. We're fine. (Goma) xub-id. You're fine. (pl/f) (unha) xub-and. They’re fine. In the box above, what comes after the word 3 xub ‘fine’ are the reduced forms of the verb ,)>5: budan ‘to be’ introduced on p.6 - compare. They also act as personal endings for other verbs. Sincethese endings indicate ‘person’, the personal pronouns are often omitted as redundant - hence the brackets. These unstressed ending, are very important and must be learned at an early stage, Note: In casual speech, the second- and third-person plural e, nd ings wy -Id and si° -and are slightly modified as in and , -an, respectively. So, here are the more casual forms of the last two lines, in the box on p. 13: sone (let) — (oma) xub-in, You're fine. seng> (59!) (unha) xub-an. — They're fine. To avoid confusion, these casual forms will not be used in this book. For added clarity, and only at this introductory stage, these endings have been written after a hyphen (-) in the English transcription, However, in the rest of the book, they will appear without a hyphen to reflect the Persian spelling. Exercise 1 below should provide good practice. Exercise_1 Using the box on p. 13, replace the word 45 xub ‘fine’ with Jl> sig xo-hlil ‘happy’, to produce the Persian equivalents of ‘I'm happy’. ‘you're happy’, and so on. Example: pl> >> (y+) (man) xo8-halam. —_ I'm happy. Note: Two vowals do not normally follow each other ‘comfortably’ within the same word - they create an inconvenient sound known as a ‘glottal stop’ (see pp. xxxlxxxill). [Try saying ‘a egg’ in English!) So. we either put a butfer between them (e.g. a soft y sound) or get rid of one of the vowels, often the shorter one. Reduced forms of the verb 0°» budan ‘to be’ (see tha box on p. 13) begin with a vowel. So, # the word before them ends in a vowel, such adjustment is normally Made. The most notortous of these vowels are | & and » @, as demon ‘strated In the two following boxes. ‘Note: For the third person singular (‘s/he, It’) the original c=! ast is used with a slight modification. ing about heatth nit 2: Enquiing 15 forms of verb ‘to be’ after the vowel | @ cog. bx»! inj nere) ig el : man injam 'm here f to injayi You're here u injast ‘She's here ral ma injayim We're here sab! lt — Soma injayid You're here sda! leyy! una injand They're here Reduced forms of verb ‘to be’ after vowel o @ (e.g. <~,5 gorosne hungry) plae,S 2 man gorosnfejam = — i'm hungry sln,S y to gorosnei You're hungry "cul S lu gorosn(ejast S/he's hungry wlan S le ma gorosneim We're hungry an FT LS oma gorosneid You're hungry wha F lay! umha gorosn{ejand — They're hungry Negative forms of the verb ‘to be’ in the Present tense How fo say ‘lam not’, ‘you are not’, and so on. Negotive forms of verb 5,24 budan ‘to be’ ++. nistam. lam not... nist. You are not .. . (sing, inf) He/She is not. . - It/That is not... We are not... You are not... (pi/f)Unit 2: GhValpory, Note: Unlike English, the Persian verb 99 budan ‘to be’ has ng reduced negative forms. Therefore, atu .. le MA...nistim woulg be an equivalent to these English sentences: We are not...; We aren't... ; We're not... Exercise 2 We all had lunch an hour ago. None of us are 4,5 gorosne ‘hungry’ now. Complete the following sentences to express this. 1, 41,5 5 man gorosne | am not hungry. Example: pimei din S G2 man gorosne nistam. 2. 4x5 Le ma gorosne __ We are not hungry. 3. 42, 95 to gorosne __You are not hungry. (inf) 4. 44,5 los! unha gorosne They are not hungry. 5. 4.452 Soma gorosne You are not hungry. 6. 4205 slugorosne __ S/he is not hungry. Questions While a statement has a falling tone, a ‘yes'/‘no’ question uses a rising tone, as in English, Unlike English, no change in word order is necessary. tug LS soma xubid. You're good/well/fine/OK. . (falling) Tage Lad Soma xubid? Are you good/well/fine/OK? ; (rising) Sayles Ld Soma xasteid? Are you tired? (rising) Sy A5> Ls Boma doktorid? Are you (a) doctor? (rising)Unit 2: Enquiring about health 7 As in English, questions beginning with the following question words. fiave a falling tone. a> ce what oki who \> cera why yslz coto{u)r how lS koja where > cand =how many wal what (col) ise kel whan #995 kodum — which 4igS> cegune — how (more iterary) ku Where Is it? (co!) Gaim cand th how many (more col) yi ceqadr how much <5, s> cand vagt how long Note: The above question words normally carry the sentence stress. After Gai>/ai> cand t/cand ‘how many’, the noun takes a singular form. Sam cle? What is it? aS kie? Who ie It/he/she? So,gk> — cato(u)re? How Is It/herahe? SanlbS kojayid? Where are you? Sgptle Gaz cand tA mééin? = How many care? Exercise 3 Cen you say these in Persian? How're you? (inf) How're you? (f) How's Mum/Dad? How're the family? How's Parviz? Are you OK/well/fine? Are you tired? NOBRON+ & ('m not bad, thank you. \'m a little tired. thanks. They're fin He's fine, thanks. I'm fine, thanks. No, I'm not. I'm a bit hungty18 ¢ 2 Pleased to meet you! (c01; 20) Ahmadi (A) is mingling among his guests, He's just met a new face (6). _Unit 2; AbVGlpors; POR DRee zRraee Base Lead pout! prea gdec! Cpe pe: pit Sole Ge pe 3 PBs p> 222 pe Oe 3 Solar ope ws Sap yglay Led cguye org 1 OF epee de [pointing to some pictures on the wall, 8 asks] aS Bi oy! ayy Op! Ladle bg glo ablelobe 595 a pies gles $a pid cpl Aayple os! salam. man ahmadi hastam. esm-e Soma cie? : salam. man behzadi hastam. xo$-vaqtam. man (h)am hamin-to(u)r: : xob, haletun cato(u)re? xubam, mersi. Soma ceto(u)rid? bad nistam, mamnun, [pointing to some pictures on the wall, 8 asks] in aga kie? un pedarame, Pedaretun mAsa(a)lla(h) xeili x08-tipand! xeili mamnun, in xdnom kie? un m&darame. Ses we BE See GS wDynit 2: Enquin n@ about heatth eRe eee |Boewee Hello. | am Ahmadi. What's your name? Hello. | am Behzadi. I'm pleased (to meet you). Same here. (or: Me too.) So, how're you? (lit How's your health?) I'm fine, thank you, How're you? 'm not bad, thank you. [pointing to some pictures on the wail, 8 asks] Who's this gentleman? That's my father. Your father is very handsome, may God preserve him! Thanks very much. Who's this lady? That's my mother. isl ahmadi Ahmadi (famiy name} rl eam name ow «Gl what “2 oe what's Sle behalidl Behzadi (family name) Sigtys rndveqt pleased eis = xod-veqtam: I'm pleased = hem foo, aiso wseyeee — hamin-tofuyr same way Je hal heath onl> — hlletun your health pee mamnun grateful, obiged ot ia this wl aga gertieman we OW = se who's (who is) os oun het > peder father e>y pedaram my fatherUnit 2: ChVEIpony ov, pedaretun your father kL masa(e)Il@(h) May God preserve him we ell very ute xod+tib handsome wis xdinom lady ple madar mother ple madaram my mother oly] Sparteman flat, apartment PeqlS — kampluter computer yl adres address LL ADA cetolujre? How's [your] dad? (Grammatically correct, but socially inappropriat®) faijge> LL baba ceto(ujrand? Hows [your] dad? (Polite)unit 2: Enquiting abou neath The magical functions of ‘ezGfe’ Here is an exciting piece of Persian grammar. It is efficient, con- sistent and easy to learn. Compare it with English, and judge for yourself! Put simply, ez&fe is the vowel sound e which is normally added to a noun. When you add ez&fe to a word, you are in fact sending the following message to your listener: I'm going to give you more information about the word you have just heara! Here is the generic formula for the use of ez&fe: NOUN + e + more information In the English transcription, ezafe will be shown as -e. Note: eziife does not carry a stress. Some of the main functions of ezafe are outlined below. Expressing possession: How to say ‘your name’ Formula: Belonging + e + owner Examples: telefon-e jak Jack's telephone telefon-e oma —_your telephone (f) Lew! — esm-e Soma your name (f) Exercise 4 &? Can you give the Persian equivalents of these phrases using ezafe? Follow the example. 1 My car oO Cntle maéin-e man 2 My telephone 3 His/her name —__— 4 Our flat/apartment = =9§__— ——— 5 Their computer Unking a forename to a surname Goer! yuo hasan-e ahmad! = (Mi) Hassan AhmadiUnit 2: aty With foreign names, no linking sound is normally added; oS oye ori nikson George Nixon Unking two nouns Examples: SauE old film-e taitanik the film Titanic SygieST GbLS xidban-e Aksford Oxford Street 2ygduST lane meldiin-e dksford Oxford Circus bl, gluse meidain-erésel Russell Squre Sg gle meiddn-e vanak == Vanak Square (Tehran) oJ Jo mahall-e tavallod _ place of birth agi g,6 tarix-e tavallod date of birth gi G-t> jagn-e tavallod birthday celebration/party Linking a noun and an adjective Formula: noun + e ~ adjective Examples: & eld film-e bad bad film cla (il telefon-e hamrah —_ mobile telephone (gBem ili telefon-e hamegani public telephone S225 l,l) Aparteman-e qa8ang nice apartment/tiat Note: Regardless of its function, ezafe is slightly modified as ye when it comes after a vowel. La — sinema cinema oll slew — sinema-ye iran Iran's cinema . & ja Place/seat Lat cle — ja-ye Soma your place/seat LL baba dad ve sll baba-ye xub good dad » mu hair o* Sy mu-ye man my hair 49> xune house L S49> —_xune-ye ma our houseunt 2: Enquiring about health 23 ola Somare number i ve, ja» Somire-ye telefon telephone number Exercise 5 & Choose a word from each set and make pairs using the appropriate form of ezife. The first two have been done for you. Set (a) Set (b) oki film film bed bad LL baba dad ye xub- good Goetle matin car wb boland long ~ mu hair Sj} bozorg large ul febis clothes, dress S24 meski — black y bu smell ay bur blonde} 4y> xune house Se tik chic 1 Bad film = 4 eld film-e bad 2 Good dad = Y—> cll babé-ye xub 3 Black car — 4 Blond(e) hair 5 Chic dress 6 Good smell 7 Long hair = — 8 Large house = Possessive endings We can also show possession by using the following (unstressed) Possessive endings. Here, thay are used with the word pp» Sup ‘soup’, supam my soup supet your soup (inf) supes his/her/its soup supemun = our SOUP supetun your soup (f) esupeéun their soup24 In literary Persian, some of the above are written and pronounegy slightly differently: ‘supat supas supeman supetan supesan your soup (inf) his/her/its soup our soup your soup (f) their soup The pattern Sa,gl> jgJl> haletun ceto(ujre? ‘how're you?’ in, Dialogue 2 above literally means ‘How's your health?’ The word for ‘health’ is Jl> hal. Exercise 6 Repeat Exercise 4 using appropriate possessive endings. Follow the example. 1 My car 2. My telephone 3 His/her name 4 Our flat/apartment 5 Their computer t | | tle masinam How to say ‘mine’, ‘yours’, and so on Ezéfe is also used to produce possessive pronouns. For example: property mine (lit property of me) yours (lit proparty of you) whose (lit property of whom) How fo say ‘this’/‘these’; ‘that’/‘those’ dle mal oe J mal-e man Ls J mal-e $oma cS Sle mallee ki Demenstratives a! in this os un that les! nha —sthese lays! unha those1 2. Enquiring about heatth 25 uni Examples: fear cn! In cle? What's this? ail 4! un telefone. That's/it's (a) telephone. $45 Jle yal Gy! In telefon mal-e kle? Whose telephone is this? (lit Whose property is this telephone?) ca Sle ali Gy! un telefon mate That telephone is mane. mine, Note how we say ‘these/those telephones’ in Persian: Wg yl lop! In/un telefonha these/those telephones (iit thisAthat telephones) (For plural markers, see pp. 33tf.) How to say 'so/nor am I’, ‘so/nor do I’, ‘so/nor have I’, and so on For all the above, and other similar ones, Persian uses: : ‘ye man (hlam hamin-to(ujr Same here (it | aso role gree (eh oe inthe same way) Note: The only part that changes Is the subject: the yeast pa Le ma ham hamin-to(uje So are we, etc. spleen po gis all ham hamin-to(ur So ia All, etc. Exercise 7 &? Reapond to the mlatamieate in Pandan, Follow the @xanpte ('m hungry. 1 So am |, pba et oe man ham haminstotu, 2 So are we. 3 So In Pater,4 I live in Londen. So do |. —— 9s§ ——____ So does she. 5 ve seen Titanic. 6 So have |. | didn't sleep well last night. 7 Nor did we. I won't come to this restaurant again! 8 Nor will |. Exercise 8 Complete these questions with the help of the English translations. Sam cie? What's your name? (f) Example: faz ¢g-e! esmetun cie? What's your name? (f) 2 Sa cle? What's his/her address? 3 Sa cle? What's their nationality? 4 _____cie? What's your date of birth? (f) 5 Sore cande? What's your phone number? (inf) Exercise 9 Can you say these in Persian? Noaanona How's your mother? She's fine, thanks. What's your job? I'm a doctor. Your flat is pretty/nice. Thank you. Who's this? That's my brother. What's that? It's my lunch. Where's your car? It's here. Where's yours? Whose car is this? It's mine.urit 2; Enquiring about heaith 2 Comprehension cor; 2) Q This morning, 8, a Londoner, received a phone call from an Iranian colleague, Ahmad Kazemi (A). ° fogglag Ggill> pls eypla Lets Sle a gaye yg SealAS get po oan de ood Sam pga sols a Sor, TSGS Sank wba Le cyl pelt pyoly 9 yalge Qole oa ui YatlS gat sypied glive Sio3) Cara Sle Teyghe Jee AS Lal Sarg canal ty UA salam. ahmad-e kazemi hastam. salam, haletun ceto(u)re? xubam, mersi. hal-e Soma ceto(u)re? bad nistam, mersi. kojayid? landan. kodum hotel? hotel(-e) tehran. tanhayid? na, pedar, madar, xahar va baradaram ham inja hastand. hoteletun kojast? xidban-e rijent. nazdik-e meidan-e aksford. hotel ceto(u)re? bad nist. kuceke amma qaSange. RHR OR AR HR OR sR From which city is A phoning? Who is he with? Where is he staying? What do we know about the locatiorviandmarks? How does he feel about the accommodation? aeonsUnit Three kojayi hastid? Where are you from? In this unit we will look at how to: * seek and give personal details: gender, nationalty, marital status, place of birth, hobbies, occupatian, place of work —_ | * introduce B to C * pay, and respond to, compliments * talk about age * use numbers | }iynit 3: Where are you from? ew ie» party game: Who am I? (coi; 23) Q At an Iranian party held in London, each guest is given the picture of a well-known figure. The winner will be the first person to identify another guest by merely asking questions. Scum (yj led oo Sez oh pie oli » Saedotie let y al, Fae alaF ygrail> Acbile po O9) SouslaS cgialys Jove woul Sax ope ge Se stalls 433339 step Sez og IS pourael 3 Semmdleat 95 IF fore Ve SO Sisigh hh aya Saadeh pp greats la opps wal BsGs> us as Gs ses esses sy Soma zan hastid? na. melliyatetun cie? beritaniayi hastam. Soma mota‘ahhelid? bale. * x2nometun kojayi hastand? * un (ham beritaniayie. PROP Oe OeRREReEReReee FRO TF Me TR HR Bh ARM __vnit a: koléyi hastigg mahall-e tavallodetun kojést? landan. sargarmihatun cie? musigi, varze8, motale’e. k&retun cie? karmand hastam. ; mahall-e karetun kojast? landan, xiab&n-e dawning, pelak-e dah. Soma noxost-vazir hastid? bale, mot(a)Sakkeram. Are you a woman? No. What's your nationality? I'm British. ‘Are you married? Yes. Where does your wife come from? She too is British. Where's your place of birth? London. What are your hobbies? Music, sport, reading. What's your job? : I'm a (Civil) servant, Where's your place of work? London, Downing Street, No. 10, Are you the Frime Minister? : Yes, thank you.sat ge Where are you from? oy mn “ ona (s~7IS! engelisi English iISul eskatiand Scotland — 5.151 eskatlandi Scottish oL-Sl pakestin Pakistan > 351, pakestini Pakistan, cx!j G8pon Japan > gi!) Biponi Japanese When a name ends in a vowel, the ending _. -yi is used: Lith,» beritinia Britain > Lily» bertéinidy! British 1S, jal amrikd America > (9% ,01 Amrikayi American WIS kanddd Canada > globlS kénddayi Canadian li! osteralia Australia > _.LJ!,=! osterallayi Australian If a place name already ends in ._ i, the following forms may be used: (se! fib Libya 1 gtlese! libldyi Libyan (person) 2 sd pl ahl-e libi a native of Libya 3 is) CLS saixt-e libi made in Libya Word stress is shifted over to the suffix in all the above cases. GK Exercise 1 Fill in the nght column. Follow the example. Place name Native 1 ola tehrn Tehran (i145 tehrani From Tehran 2 ja) landan Londoner 3h paris Paris Parisian 4 gee mashad Mashhad From Mashhad 5 oljicl esfahain Esfahan From Esfahan 6 Lk! italia Italy italian3 Where are you from? Unt 33 Exercise 2 You nave met a Persian speaker at a social gathering. Find out: 1 If he/she is Iranian. 2 If he/she is married. 3 Where he/she was born. 4 Where he/she works. 5 Where his wife/her husband comes from. 6 What his/her hobbies are. Plural of nouns ‘The most common way to make a noun plural is by adding the suffix le -ha: Al telefon telephone > la, ab telefonha — telephones S-» sargarmi hobby = > La, ,0,5 ,. sargarmiha hobbies With inanimate nouns, the verb can take a singular form: 4g> le 931, operator(h)a xuband. The operators ara gocd. au'5 Weigel kampiuter(h)a The computers are xaraband. broker/down. OR: 2) 5 Wn syeelS kampiuter{h)s The computers are xarabe. (lit is) broken/down. ‘The _2 h of the plural marker is often dropped in speech, hence the brackets in the English transcription above. For animate nouns, the suffix 5! -an (or ob -yan after a vowel) 5S normally used in more formal contexts. sy. mard = man bye mardan = men 5 dust friend lng? dustan friends 3 UIST aqay&n —_gentlernen obpenilo d&neSjuy4n students Adiectives can also be pluralised in Persian: ~> mb good lye xuban the good (Le. good people) x bozorg big; great 5), bozorgan great people ‘The Diural endings introduced above carry the word stress. &Unit 3: kojayt hy Exercise 3 Write the plural of these ncuns. Follow the example. 1 yl3,4] aparteman flat > aglL | BpErtomainha fats 2 Qetl masin car > _____ cars 3 dualijg, ruzndme newspaper snewsp 4 slp! irani lranian > Iranians 5 cugo dust friend 2 friends 6 9j,.79> xoS-ru friendly 7 friendly p Exercise 4 Can you say these in Persian? 1 Where are you from? 2 I'm from London/Manchester. 3 I'm ttalian/German/Spanish/French. 4 My place of birth is London/Paris/New York. 5 My hobbies are music and reading. 6 My watch is made in Japan."a where are you from? 35 * introducing B to C (coi; 25) hr Ahmadi (A) has invited his colleague, Mr Morris (8), for dinner. introduces Mr Moris to his wife, Shahin (c). wdtienld pAlF gta! 9 (um) Py Kam nr rge lil - pabggs weg SOB GLU] gleam a oe webs abd p Sane a: aga-ye moris hamk&ram (hastand), va iSun xfnomam hastand. xosvaqtam. fs: man (h)am hamin-to(uyr. Aparteman-e qagangi dand. ©: mot(a)Sakkeram. lott darid. ogo Ss &: Mr Morris (is) my colleague, and this (lit she) is my wife. ©: I'm pleased (to meet you). ‘So am |. You have a nice flat. Thank you. That's vary kind of you (lit You have kindness). 's il Bqi-ye Mr jSen — hamkdr colleague oye! tun he, she (pol) pis xdnom wife Joy lacy! uh pul dirand. They have money. ea ee Cardinal Numbers (co1; 28) (ou will note that from 21 onwards we add 4 0 ‘and’ between 0 a yuo set 1 \ x oyek a Y Po do 4 ¥ nw 6 4 t le coahar (co! cir) 6 : pan} 4 ‘ zB ted (col a38 100 110 199 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000 1,001 \eel otae okt oF Seg te 0d 9 ho 45 9 995 9 do Unit 3: kojéyi hy haft hast noh dah yazdah davazdah sizdah cahardah (coi cardah) panzdah (co! punzdah) Snzdah (co! Bunzdah) hefdah (co/ hivdah) hejdah (co/ higdah) nuzdah bist bist 0 yek bist o do bist o noh si sio yek cehel (co! cel) panjah Sast haftad haétad navad sad sad o yek sad o dah sad o navad o noh devist (co! divist) sisad caharsad (col carsad) pansad (co/ punsad) Sessad haftsad (col hafsad) haStsad (co! hagsad) nohsad hezar hezar o yekv 3; Where are you from? 39 1,985 VAAD wy g alte g wags y 50 hezr o nohsad 0 hagtad o panj 2,769 TVA aig ead g dating 5m 90 do hezar o haftsad o gast o noh 10,524 OYE lee 3 een g daily 9 N32 09 dah hezar o pinsad o bist o cahar 100,000 \errre jie we sad hezar 1,000,000 \+s++++ ge Ss -yek milyun 1,365,497 \YFOFAV 9 ober 9 Ie Bg ad y eae 9 ygalen | CAR g Sg yek milyun o sisad o Sast o panj hezar o caharsad 0 navad o haft After a number or Li s:> cand ta ‘how many’, the noun comes in the singular. Settle G ae cand tA magin? —_ How many cars (lit car)? ntl wz panj magin five cars (ft car) Indefinite and definite articles Generally, Persian does not distinguish between ‘a car’ and ‘the car’, as in: 41,5 Gedle masin xarabe. The car is broken. farjbo Gable masin darid? Do you have a car? Here is another example: 48.23 L431 aparteman qagange. The flat is nice. Say jlo Gleij4| aparteman darid? Do you have a flat? To indicate the indefinite, we use SX, ye(k) ‘one’ before the noun: Hietee 9 igs Seg 0/89 Sei 9 Lb EIS ye(k) &partemdn dar tehran dare va ye(k) xune dar maghad. He has a flat in Tehran and a house in Mashad.40 Unt 3: kojéyi tS A less colloquial form uses the unstressed suffix . -i (or ww the noun ends in a vowel): lai,bi apartemani a flat, an apartment LL baba dad cell babayi adad pelo danedju student ot gretile daneajuyi @ student When the noun is qualified by an adjective, the ending goes after the adjective: wy) S25 LIL) aparteman-e qaSangi darid. You have a nice flat. Exercise 7 Can you say these in Persian? You have a nice car/garden/house! That's very kind of you (to say so). I'm sorry, | don't have time. How old is he? He's 30 years old. This is my friend Peter. He's English. This is my mother. Pleased to mest you. So am I. How many Iranian friends do you have? | have five Iranian friends. BYHAHMAOHH 0) Comprehension (cos; 30) You have received a recorded message from your Iranian Internet friend. pee pls prem ftabre Gyo gyi elle poy oe OY Pn eS yo otgetin Oya Ags Tote patent lalne be tna aaa Ll lS pal tule one oslo Jl TY pails pjb JLT? Las LT 2 gals 2 ERE Se Le els alls go Spas g Loses oe gee te . < ames Glygd 9 SEtd ly SEF; Where are you from? 4 Pot man parviz-e alizade hastam. man mote'ahhel hastam. xanomam allem-e engelisie. mA mosalman hastim. mahall-e tavallod-e man jashade. man karmand hastam. si o panj sal daram. xanomam si o sal dare. mahall-e tavallodeS amrikast amma melliyates irdnie. i-e man sinema va sargarmi-e xénomam naqqasie. ma yek irteman-e kucek vali qaSang car tehran darim. What is your friend's full name? What does he do for a living? Where was he bom? What is his wife’s job? Where was she born? What is her nationality? What religion do they follow? What do we know about their age? What do they do in their spare time? What type of home do they have, and in which town? Identify a word that shows he is happy with his home. Soeotonn eonsUnit Four Cayo Wap aide 51 axar-e hafte ce-kar kardia? What did you do at the weekend? In this unit we will look at how to: tak about past events ask, and respond to, questions about last weekend tak about a film you saw, a birthday pary you attended make comments about food tak about what happened on each day of the week make longer sentences in Persian — EEE Pole Khajoo, Esfahan. Photograph by Donal O'Leary.unit 4: what did you do at the weekena? wish you were there! (cot; 31) simin (s) and her colleague Parviz (P) are talking about what they did last weekend. FOBIS (tys cae 51 oq gE agile caly Sash AS $u9,5 ae is pote Gsilypl pled Se Laie ppatd, deoe Od $392 O95 Fao S War Lad tend Ls 09) Goo oe ee es ote etl opete yb joe anton 1S hee hal lavas ‘ogees Sogy glee Ise Loge pprger Coy cuss | dle WSS egos acl EDK DK TK HTB BB : Gxar-e hafte xo gozast? bale, jatun xali bud! xob, ce-kar kardid? koja raftid? : Sab-e jom’e raftim sinema. ye(k) film-e irani didim. ; xub bud? komedi bud. xeili xandidim. Soma ce-kar kardid? panj-Sanbe ba'd-az-zohr, mehmun dastim. ja8n-e tavallod-e Pesaram bud. " bah-bah! tavallodeS mobarak! : mamnun. qaza cetour bud? : li! dast-poxt-e Souharam bud! : albatte, bedun-e ak! 2RHRRAVA RBRRAR 8: Did you have a good weekend? (lit Did the weekend pass Pleasantly?) ”“2 Yes, you should have been there! (It Your place was vacany) So, what did you do? Where did you go? ) On Thursday evening (it eve of Friday) we Went fo the cinema We saw an Iranian fim. % PHOPODR On Thursday afterncon, we had (some) guests. It was my son. birthday celebrationiparty. Thanks. How was the food? Of course, without 4 doubt! i amar cin hafte «cin 3] axare hafte ae x08 (5) A538 gozaétan (gozar) al bale & #B oxy — Jatun we xa oy budan <> xob Wee ce-kar 2S — kardan LS koja 3, raftan fab a> jome Li sinema SS oyek Wow! Happy Birthday to him! (lit May his birth be blessea,) Excellent! It was my husband's cooking/cuisine! end week weekend pleasant(ly) to pass yes place your place vacant to be so what activity todo where to go night, eve Friday cinema one, a, ansoa nb le film irani didan xub komedi xelli xandidan panj-sanbe ba‘d-az-zohr mehmun jaén tavallod pesar bah-bah! mobirak mamnun qazi cetour ali dast-poxt Souhar albatte bedun-e sak what did you do at the weekend? film Iranian to see good comedy a lot, very to laugh Thursday afternoon guest celebration birth(day) son, boy Wow! blessed (I'm) grateful, thank you food how excellent cooking, cuisine husband of course without doubt Language and culture notes Past simple tense How to say: ‘| went’ Here is the formula: Past stem of verb + personal ending (see pp. 1: Sf)Unit 4: Gxare halte ce-kar kardiay All Persian verbs (infinitives) end with the sounds -an. To get the past stem of a verb, we omit these two sounds. The verb ‘to go’ is 23 raftan, Its past stem is 3, raft. » man raftam | went to rafti You (inf) went u raft He/she went ma raftim We went soma rattid You went un(h)a raftand == They went *In this tense, no personal ending is used for the third-person singular (.e. he, she, it, etc.) . For the negative, we add the (stressed) prefix J na: man naraftam _| didn’t go to narafti You didn't go u naraft He/she didn't go If the verb begins with a vowel, the negative prefix is slightly modified as: —3 nay-: sgl umad sys nayumad Q Days of the week (cD1; 34) a 45 ganbe 42i5, yek-Sanbe do-Sanbe se-Sanbe sae Panj-Sanbe 4no> jome Examples: 399 Tuz day c(ah)ar-Sanbe He/she came He/she didn’t come Saturday (first day of the week) Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday (weekend) (@) 4xo> (59,) (ruz-e) jom’e (on) Friday (one-off event: past future) (b) Leaxe> jom’eha (on) Fridays (regular events)ita: what did you do at the weekena? - a7 unr glajg, ruzha-ye Jom’e on Fridays (iit {on the) days of Friday) Sab-e joe Thursday > xb $ab-e jom’e Thursday evening/night {lit eve (one-off event: past or future) of Fey > .sleut Sabhd-ye jom’e Thursday evenings/nights (it eves of Friday) (regular events) note: (2) and (e) are the forms commonly used in Iran. Alternatively, you can use a direct translation of the forms used in English: , (a) 4222 panj-Sanbe Sab(ha) Thursday eveningis) @ Exercise_] Tel a Persian speaker what happened on different days of the week. Fellow the example. + On Saturday, Ahmad came to London. stag! GO & deo>l.4.i5 Sanbe, ahmad be landan umad. 2 On Sunday, we went to the supermarket. 3 On Monday, we went to an Iranian restaurant. 4 On Tuesday, | went to a birthday party. Ahmad didn't come. 5 On Wednesday, we went to a swimming pool. 6 On Thursday, Ahmad went to Iran. 7 On Friday, my parents came to my home. Reduction In casual speech, the sentence 23, lam 4 4 man be sinema raftam ‘I went to the cinema’ is often reduced to: eins 92d, raftam sinema. | wert to the cinema. In this reduction, three things happen: (@) The subject is omitted because the person to the verb indicates the subject. (0) The preposition 4 be ‘to’ is omitted. (©) The verb 23, raftam ‘| went’ is placed before ‘cinema’, (0) and (c) normally occur when verbs of motion to go’, ‘to come’, ‘to take’, ‘to bring’). Here Is ver Og! umadan ‘to come’: ‘al ending attached Law sinema are involved (such as an example with theUnit 4: Gxare hatte ¢, on ‘Ahmad came here yesterday. J) 4, da2t a9 dua, ahmad be. weg! umad. inja Reduced form: xx! dag! dom! «59720 Gin, red mating Full form: Exercise 2 se Repeat Exercise 1, this time using the reduced form. Example; 14 On Saturday, Ahmad came to London. aged dag! deol as Sanbe, ahmad umad landan, How to say ‘Did you have a good weekend?’ We literally say: ‘Did the weekend pass pleasantly?’ The verb used is (+54 gozaStan to pass. Here is the sentence: ScubdS Gags acai 51 Bxarce hafte xo gozast? This is @ very versatile pattern. It can be used to ask the following questions simply by replacing the underlined bits: SEbIF S95 Gp! rin x08 gozast? Did you have a good time in Iran? (Did you enjoy your visit to Iran?) SOIT t95 dbs — taltilat x08 gozast? Did you enjoy [your] holiday? SOSIF 39> 5g0q2 mehmuni x08 gozast? Did you enjoy the party? A common reply to the above question is: Log) JS syle al bale, jatun xali (bud). (lit) Yes, your place (was) vacant. (Wish you were there. OR: You should have been there. OR: You were missed!) The verb used is: -,>5, budan to be. However, this is often omitted - hence 99: bud ‘was! is in brackets. Note: This is a polite, almost socially expected, response. Itis wet sees amatic as suggested by the Iteral translations in English Shorr w tre tak about a pleasant experience. It is an Iranian Wal hot inl Pleasant experience with others, albeit verbally. It much; but it does a lot in Creating rapport.what did you do at the weekena? unit 4 49 How to SOY ‘What did you do?’ ve use the word J kar which has various Meanings: work, job, wey. We combine 4z ce ‘what’ and JS kar ‘activity’ to produce Suz oe-Kar ‘vinat activity’ or simply ‘what’ in English, The verb used & or kardan ‘to do’. Here is the result: suas War ce-kar kardid? What did you do? How to say ‘| went to London by toxi yesterday.’ Here is the formula: Subject + Time + Manner + Place + Verb 28) Qe man raftam. | went. ( ad & ye man be landan raftam. | went to London. (p23) ga & jgn° Ge man diruz be landan raftam. | went to London yesterday. (€) 8) Gad & SU L 3929 Gye man diruz ba taksi be landan raftam. | went to London by taxi yesterday. Note: We use the same pattern to say: 98) Od deol jane Oe man diruz ba ahmad be landan raftam. | went to London with Ahmad yesterday. (L ba = by, with) sposag! WS a p29 ja yl oe man emruz dir be kelas umadam. came to the class late today. OR: | was late. (> dir = late) Exercise 3 &Y? Put these jumbled sertences in order. and then translate them into Erglsh. The first one has bee? done for you. 1TbL-L-.: a oc - “yd LL jgpo— a ge we OM landan - raftim - metro - be ~ diruz - m5 ~ esd, oa & gel jane le ma diruz ba metro be landan raftim. We went to London by metro yesterday.50 Unit 4: Sxare hatte C6-kSr kar, laa 2 yom Lad jy dade 2 WT Kelas - be - umadid — emruz - oma - dir BL 59) asd — ay Ade = bess Spl — lacy havapeima - iran - unha - se-8anbe ~ be ~ raftand ~ ruz.g_ 4, 4 CS fegsge— 5g — weal = AEE GT BL ba - rafta = be - man - Sanbe - xanomam ~ ryz.g _ supermarket 5 39) ~ pee AEST LO tal = I GS ym — L ma - SouhareS - u - be - umad - ba - yek-Sanbe - manzel.g -ruz-e How to say ‘I saw a film in London yesterday * Here is the formula: Subject + Time + Place + Object + Verb Swet+ineeeeee—r—e spose G2 man didam. | saw. poss pd SG man yek film didam. | saw a film. pee wld Se jane Ge man diruz yek film | saw a film didam. yesterday. pee old SK ot 59 jap? o man diruz dar landan yek film didam. | saw a film in London yesterday. Exercise 4 Can you say these in Persian? The first one has been done for you: 1 | ate/had lunch in a restaurant yesterday. P2195 JE bye, 39 jan? Oe man diruz dar resturan nahar xordam. | read a book in the library yesterday. | saw a film in the cinema last night. | ate a sandwich at work this morning. | cooked an Iranian dish at home today. | saw a good programme on TV this afternoon. What did you do at the weekend? Nothing! | slept all day! | was tired. ONYNOnRaNDit unit 4 | what did you do oF the weekend? 51 g went toa birthday party on Friday. 40 We had a good time - wish you were there! ; % Nothing to write home about! (cp1; 35) =D « wo cousins are talking about last weekend. Saman {s) male; Marjan (M) female. BF fe cia >i NoSNAs gis pai Sas jy 21 po F USL Op pagli 9 priga aig oF 0,5 cols IF Soop sgl 95 cece pee Via SE 9 Gegails K CS leprges jJ eld sly og 8 isa ue G dey 0495 g,\yhay oreeg? tp y9> sre gdile Oo e295 sik Ssh cop M Wpstd Gylune :S zEBEB S: axar-e hafte xo gozast? Mi talrifi nadast! 8: cetour mage? _ M: kare xassi nakardam. tu xune mundam o televizion tamasa kardam. axar-e hafte-ye to catour bud? ; bad nabud. baraye 4m az supermarket ye(k) sandevic © yetk) pitza xaridam. man s&ndevic-o xordam; dustam pitza-ro xord. ba'd ta sobh Satranj bazi kardim! M: bordi ya baxti? mosavi Sodim! 2 2 Did you have a good weekend? * Nothing to write home about! : But why? (How come?) : I didn't do anything special. | stayed at How was your weekend? z@=o home and watched TV.52 Unit 4: Gxane hatte ce-kar karaiay s: It wasn't bad. For dinner | bought a sandwich and a pizza from the supermarket. | ate the sandwich; my friend ate the Pizza, Then we played chess until the (following) morning! m: Did you win or lose? s: We drew! —— SEs Aes -inyps taif compliment ay ta rif a compliment gail — dagtan to have cls nadast it did not have ctl isa talrifi nadast nothing to write homa about (it it didn't have any compliment) jez cetour how 4S. mage but {Se yyke catourmage? —_But why? How come? (ft How but?) ee hic none; nil gS kar work, job, activity eG xdss ‘special, specific os — kardan to do po nakardam | didn't do 5 tu in igs xune house, home oye mundan to stay orxsi — televizion television Ls tamasa watching ceS sls tamasa kardan to watch (jit to do watching) oy budan to be ox bud (it) was oxi nabud (it) wasn't siz baraye for ce im dinner j from Shae supermarket ‘supermarket wl Bindevic sendwichit 4 what did you do at the weekend? 53 ipa itl pizza gue xaridan to buy pus xaridam | bought ooysxordan to eat joys Korda late cue dust friend ex dustam my friend aye xord (s/he) ate ay bad then, afterwards Gta until qe sobh morning b+ Satranj chess cof sik bai kardan to play oo» bordan to win en bordi you won uo ya or ost baxtan to lose el baxtl you lost (sls mosavi equal oat Sodan to become dd Gglane mosavi Sodim we drew (lit we became equal) Language and culture notes Q Compound verbs dan ‘to eat’, 44° didan ‘to see’ Persian verbs are of 2 compound ts of two (or more) words. One-word verbs, such aS 29> XO are called ‘simple verbs’. The bulk of Mature. A compound verb normally consis! Here is the formula: Noun/adjective/adverb/preposition + simple verb = compound verbUnit 4: Gxare hatte ce-kar kardigp Perhaps the largest number of compound verbs are procuceg vin the help of these two verbs: oo kardan to de; to make oo» Sodan to become Examples: 5 ab telefon kardan to telephone; to make a telephone call JS kar work 995 JS kar kardan ‘to work jk baz open oS jk baz kardan to open (something); lit to make open ood jb baz Sadan (for something) to open; lit to become open yele hazer ready oy pele hazer kardan to make ready (yb pole hazer Sodan to get ready Therefore, it is well worth learning their structural behaviour at an early stage, i.e. now! Their past stem is 0,5 kard and 1.3 Sod respectively. Examples: p25 JS 3901 emruz kar kardam. | worked today. 5 jb j> dar baz Sod. The door opened. The compound verbs used in Dialogue 2 above are: Lilo tamasa watching 025 sls tama$a kardan to watch Gib bai game; playing O25 Gx bazi kardan to play (a game) Definite article for a direct object |, (rd) How to say ‘| ate the sandwich.’ The word |, ra plays an important role in Persian grammar. It that the word (or phrase) immadiately before it, is the direct obieCt of the sentence. Since this concept does not exist in English. let us familiarise ourselves with the idea using English examples first! showsita what did you do at the weekena? uri piect oF indirect object? , A direct object Is one that is affected directly by the example: @! bought Peter a sandwich. In the above sentence, the word ‘sandwich’ is the direct object pecause it was the sandwich that was bought, not Peter! (‘Peter’ is the indirect object: | bought a sandwich for Peter.) When you refer to the same ‘sandwich’ again, you say ‘the sandwich’: (b) He ate the sandwich. verb. Now the word ‘sandwich’ is a definite direct object. In Persian, such an object is normally followed by the word |, ra. No |, ra is needed for (a) because ‘a sandwich’ is indefinite. One more condition: If there is a preposition before the object, no |, ra is used after it: He looked at the sandwich. (Preposition ‘at’) | said to Peter/him/them . .. (reposition ‘to’) To sum up, when the abject is ‘definite/specific’ and known to both the speaker and the listener, we normally use |, ra after the object. Consider this pair: {a} | ate lunch at 1 o'clock. (bj | ate my lunch at 1 o'clock. Ina Persian translation of the above sentences, |, r Is not used in (@] because the speaker is talking about ‘lunch’ in gexeral; while it is Used in (b) because he is referring specifically to ‘his lunch’, More examples: In the Persian equivalents of the following sentences, after the object (underlined): He ate it. | saw Peter. | invited hinvhis brother/them. She called me/us. we use|, r& F ‘object For ease of reference, the word | |, © will be called the Marker’,Uni 4: GXxaR® hatte Cokar Kanai, Exercise 5 Based on the above, which of the objects (underlined) in the toloys sentences would be followed by the object marker |, translated into Persian? Tick the appropriate box [v’]. Note: This exercise is purely in English! It is intended t0 help uy understand the concept. Fa if they were [Yes] | saw James. Iv] | bought him a drink. [1 | bought Susan a sandwich anda cake. [ She ate the sandwich. [ But she didn’t eat the cake. [ | looked at her. [ | said to her... [ l Zz zz | had/ate dinner at 8 o’clock. | had/ate my dinner at 8 o'clock. | didn’t invite them. Somrvansaaons 1 The ‘Golden Rules’ for the use of the object marker: |, ra is used after a word if all these conditions are met: 1 The word must be the object of the sentence. 2 It must be the direct object of the sentence. 3 It must be definite or specific (ie. not general) 4 It must not be preceded by a preposition. In casual speech, |, ra is reduced to 9) To after a vowel, and 50 after a consonant. In the English transcription, these will be show" as -ro and -o respectively. Note: The colloquial pronunciation of 3 va meaning ‘and’ is also 0. To prevent confusion between this and -0 (as the collocuial form of |, ra) a hyphen is placed before the object marker. Furthermore. it the Persian script, the opject marker 9-0 is connected (or position close) to the object, while the 5 0 meaning ‘and’ is preceded DY a space. Examples:a: what did you do at the weekend? as f 9 diruz ahmad-o | saw Ahmad orl jaz yesterday. pe per? didam. : o>! ja 2 ano Jay fran viad o parvin-o didam. | saw Ahmad and Parvin yesterday. You will also note that the direct object marker goes after the last object. Where the colloquial forms 9 -0 and 4, -ro are likely to cause confusion in the Persian script, the full form |, ra will be used. Now, let us consider the examples used in Dialogue 2 above. Saman says: (a) payee SE 9 Gegtilee Se yek sandevic o yek pitza xaridam. | bought a sandwich and a pizza. (0) -p2)9> gzzgsile y« man sAndevic-o xordam. | ate the sandwich. (0) 2)5> gy);22 piwgo dustam pitza-ro xord. My friend ate the pizza. in (a) no object marker is used because the objects are indefnite: ‘a sandwich’ and ‘a pizza’. in (b) and (c) the object marker is used kecause the objects are now definite: ‘the sandwich’ and ‘the pizza’. On condition 4 of the ‘Golden Rules’ mentioned above: There are a few verbs in Persian that can be used with or without a preposition. 59,8 olf negah kardan to look (a) .9,$ olSi <2 4 be man negah kard. S/he looked at me. tb) .0,5 ol& gx man-o negah kard. S/he looked at me. 395 98 gus kardan to listen ©) 3,55 395 ye 3,> & be harf-e man gus nakard. S/he didn't listen to my advice. (9) 055 sig gue > harf-e man-o gus nakard. S/he didn’t listen to my advice. 'n @) and (c) no object marker is used because the object is preceded by a preposition. In (b) and (d) the object marker is used because there is no preposition before the object in the Persian sentences. ° Note: Unlike Persian, both English verbs need a preposition - *c@pt when you say ‘She looked me in the eye!”Unit 4: Gxare hatte ce-kar kara, 2 How to say ‘He bought me a drink.’ We say the equivalent of ‘He bought a drink for me.’ ly baraye for dnt nusidani drink wee dedys Sy ye gly glu baraye man yek nusidani xarig Exercise 6 With the help of the Englis1 translations, put the object marker |, ra in the blanks whe needed. 1 pays —___ 9} jayel 2 man emruzu_____didam. | saw him/her today. 2 .pd)5> obj ol oe man ab ziad xordam. | drank a lot of water. 3 09 0S Ose 09995 —_ ol wal G2 man in ab naxordam con garm bud. | didn’t drink this water because it was warm. Ae SS g es pe Ip ool ahmad baraye man bastani o keik xarid. Ahmad bought (some) ice-cream and cake for me. 5 pdys SS oe man keik xordam. | ate the cake. 6 ogi ge pll> ope poy ie Ll amma bastani naxordam con halam xub nabud. But | didn’t eat the ice-cream because | was not feeling welldo at the week pnt 4 What ad you (end? 59 exercise 7 Repeat Exercise 5, but this time translate the sentences into Persian, For vocabulary, you may need to refer to the glossaries at the end of the 000K, How to say ‘I took Anmad to London by taxi yesterclay.’ A pasic formula for this sentence patter is: es Subject + Time + Object + Manner + Place + Verb og gel & SUL) wer! jg p09 Ge man diruz ahmad ra ba taksi be landan bordam. Exercise 8 & Can you say these in Persian? Did you have a good holiday? Yes, wish you were there! Nothing to write home about! We didn’t do anything special. We stayed at home and watched the rain! What was your weekend like? \ worked on Saturday. On Sunday, | went to my friend’s home. We ate some Iranian food. 10 | cooked it! 17 We watched an Iranian film. 12 We played backgammon. 13 On Monday, my parents came to my house. 14 We had lunch together. 15 My father washed the dishes! sOHOrhona on Comprehension (cot: 38) Q) Smin is talking about Mahnaz. Listen to the recording and answer the questions in English.oo Unit 4: Gxare hatte ce-kar karaigy TTT ee ie ght IE ogile ste wey bi ote od ars, og Ope Ig G9e (8) ngs L Lal emma 499 985 Ape cosig pry oy Gh pale cay cans bape lle ELA page b ob, cp md yg ES b gy gle 99.5 Seay? GIF G4 ed gas by hay psd gle ped GOT poled Le opld 5} amy eid595 ga sage a gybaaan dar edna, 9 2S A95 lel hogs wh Je 95 Ls pe Sab-e yek-Sanbe raftam jagn-e tavallod-e dustam mahnaz. jétun xal xelli xo8 gozast. manzeleé ziad dur nist, amma ba otobus raftam con hava sard bud. panjah ta mehmun daést! qaza ali bud! dast-poxt-e madareé bud. Scuhares zarfha-ro ost. man cai dorost kardam. céi-ro ba keik xordim. bastani ham xordim. ba’d-az $m, yek film-e komedi didim. xeili xandidim. ba'd be musigi-e irani gus kardim 9 raqsidim. ba'd hedyeha-ro be mahnaz dadim. xeili xoS-hal Sod. 1 Where did Simin go? 2 When did she go? 3 What was the occasion? 4 Who is Mahnaz? 5 How do we know Simin enjoyed the event? 6 How did Simin travel to the venue, and why? 7 Who else was at the wenue? 8 What is Simin’s opinion of the food? 9 Who was the cook? 10 What happened to the dishes? 11 How did Simin help? 12 What did they have for dessert? 13 Why did they laugh after dinner? 14 Why does she mention Iranian music? 15 Why was Mahnaz happy?unit Five cule CgFljno . manzeletun kojast? Where’s your home? “in this unit we will look at how fo: seek and give your home address, and refer to landmarks ask about the availability of facilities express regret use ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.) ask and answer questions about family and relatives say how often you do things make comparisons express an opinion62 tnt & manzeletun kotéay, @& Dielecc Q Giving your details (cD1; 39) Mrs Rezaee (A) is phoning for an ambulance for her husband, who has just fallen down the stairs. Here's an extract from her conversation with the hospital telephonist (1). we $42z slow pl ster! Quo Se ogte,sT gy IY gles] ph Gaia A SO eee MLS sale’ Pare pee OghF CLS sg Seabed aigdcge idle Lee ab oS jbo ges Solty yor Laren S99) Caw, Fap,!o sgeiberl ilatalee va] 5 Lal oe on Fosse pygisdl ole .0,)5 we Nl Glo YOVVFY 8 esm-e bimar cie? ; hasan-e ahmadi. dresetun cie? : tehran, xiaban-e mehr, pelak-e hast, tabaqe-ye SeSom, parteman-e davazdah. koja-ye xiabun-e mehr hastid? sinema hafez midunid kojast? bale. dorost ru-be-ru-ye sinema hastim, pahlu-ye supermarket. @sansor darid? darim, amma xarab-e, mota(‘)assefane. 6i vail xob, elb nadare. Somare telefonetun cande? R_ si 0 panj, hefdah, cal c do. RaRa ARARaARS5; where's YOUr home? unit What's the name of the patient? a Hassan Ahmadi. i what's your address? je Tehran, Mehr Street, No. 8, 6th floor, Flat 12. 1. Where in Mehr Street are you (located)? , Do you know where Hafez cinema is? 1 Yes. pe We're just opposite the cinema, next to the supermarket. + Do you have a lift? We do, but it's broken, I’m afraid. + Oh dear! OK, never mind. What's your phone number? gr 35-17-42. gle bimar patient ® pl adres address 4b tabage flocr ptt Se8om sixth bs koja where bs kojé-ye where in; which part of 5y.¢ midunid you know iyo) Ginigs dunestan (dun) to know cup dorost just, exactly S34) Frbe-rusye opposite; facing ss, Pahlu-ye next to spell @sansor lift, elevator Gl amma but vis xarab broken (not working) “iL. mota‘assefane unfortunately ‘sly cl el vail Oh dear! we eib problem jks ce elb nadire no problem (lt it doesn't have a problem) eas Somare number vil telefon telephone “= cand what; how much64 Unit 5: manzelety Ye lit Language and culture notes Prepositions Here are some common prepositions and prepositional phrases, There are more in the glossaries. | Note: In casual speach, the ¢s -ye is often dropped. Sy ru-ye on o 3) zir-e under us tye in (col) 5) dar in (I) we jelo-ye in frort of ope — birun-e outside (of) Wk bala-ye above, over 3, pahlu-ye next to Cu, poste behind cul — payin-e below, beneath {US kenar-e by (the side of) Jel daxel-e inside (of) 65749) Tu-be-rurye opposite, facing see Sj 3) (dar) taraf-e cap-e (on) the left side of coil, Gb Go) dar) taraf-e rast-e (on) the right side of Exercise 1 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate preposition. oo cele) 1 sandevicetun __ mize. Your sandwich is on the table. jee la 2 medad mize. The pencil is under the table. - Sle 5 Lays gus ole 3 tualet supermarkete. The toilet is inside the supermarket.unit 5: where's your home? S5 jy f 4 pomp-e benzin _parkinge. ~ The petrol station is next to the car park. . evened piles LT -2 5 apartemanam ____ sinemast. ~ My flat is opposite the cinema. a ee slew gal 7 6 telefon-e hamegani manzel-e mast. The public telephone is in front of our house. Chetan deol caigs = 7 xune-ye ahmad sinemast. Ahmad’s house is behind the cinema. wele Jle ee old kT -A 8 aparteman-e ali mal-e mast. Ali's flat is above ours. wel o> -4 9 80fag panjare ast. The [central heating] radiator is by the window. Age ogi cab -\> 10 telefon televizione. The telephone is on the right side of the TV. From cardinal to ordinal Here is how we convert cardinal numbers (one, two, etc.) to ordinal Numbers (first, second, etc.). For the first three, we say: Cardinal numbers Ordinal numbers S yek one Js! awal first 3 do two 235 dowom second 4 se three pou seworn third For all the other numbers, we add the (stressed) suffix » -om to the €nd of the cardinal number to get an ordinal number.Unit 5: manzel & 10 Koken ylez cahar four ejlz caharom fourth @ panj five pe Panjom fifth SK yey bist o yek twenty-one pS y Cum bist o yekom twenty-first Exercise 2 Can you give the Persian equivalents of these ordinal numbers? (a) first = (@) ninth = (b) second (e) thirty-first = (© third = (f) seventieth = Postal address A postal address normally begins with the largest unit, i.e. name of the country, city/town, and ends with the smallest, i.e. house/fiat number, followed by the name of the recipient, e.g. GT pee ASSL tT QUES VAP eee oS hd gil rer! iran, tehran, kod-e posti-e 218603, xiaban-e aban, pelak-e 9, manzel-e 4qa-ye ahmadi Iran, Tehran, Postcode 218603, Aban Street, No. 9, home of Mr Ahmadi Exercise 3 Imagine you are the British premier. You are inviting some Iranian friends to your home at No. 10 Downing Street, London SW1, England. Give your address in Persian. Present simple tense How to say ‘I know’, ‘you know’, etc. Here is the formula: Pre X (52 Mi- + present stem of verb + personal endingprt 5: Where's your home? Reminder: Present stems are irregular. The present stem of each verb jntroduced is given in brackets. For personal endings, see pp. 13ff. The verb we need here is: (39) 5-99 dunestan (dun) to know. fis present stem is 332 dun. Note: The prefix _,» mi- carries the word stress. Listen to the audio. (CD1; 41) is? OF midunam. I know. (s90.g4 8 to miduni. You (inf) know, -43g9,—¢ gl =u midune. He/she knows. awsigeyge 2 ma midunim. We know. wdaigd.ge lo Soma midunid. You know. w3g2.g2 43! una midunand. They know. ‘Yo make the verb negative, we add the prefix J ne-. Note: The negative prefix normally carries the word stress. Listen to the audio. (CD1; 41) +3945) Ge = Mannemidunam. _| don’t know. wsig2_gei lab SOMA nemidunid. —_You don't know. In fterary Persian, the personal ending for | u ‘he/she’ and | an ‘it/that’ is > -ad. Compare: 29> 50 51 umixore ‘he/she eats! (col) 29 4ge glu mixorad ‘he/she eats’ (/) The verb used is (j5>) (2) xordan (xor) ‘to eat’. The next example is a bit more challenging because the verb lse'f is colloquialised. (See U1D2 for colloquialisation of sounds an ®un) (G59) Gyinigo dunestan (dun) —_to know (co!) Glo) Giasl danestan (dan) —_to know (/) 4590.50 gl u midune he/she knows (co!) wloie fu midanad he/she knows (/) 67 QUnit 5: manzeletun kolgsty Exercise 4 Here is what diferent people do on different days of the Week. Flin hg blanks vith the help of tne English transations and the verbs prove Follow the example. G) 3) raftan (7) to go G3) 8.3% — xordan (xor) to eat; to drink G)) 3°53 zadan (zan) to play (musical instrument) (Gy) Gags xundan (xun) to read CS) os kardan (kon) to do (65) 39,5 Se cek kardan (kon) to check CS) 99,5 IS kar kardan (kon) to work (6S) 59,5 5 Sena kardan (kon) to swim (65) 99,5 LL tamasa kardan (kon) to watch Saturday to Wednesday, | go to university. —— olB.tib ay adile> Gans Sanbe ta cahar-Sanbe, be dane&gah Example: page Rtas ay cde Gad Sanbe ta cahar-Sanbe, be daneSgah miram. N On Fridays, we eat dinner in an Iranian restaurant. Ald ily! glyginy 99 daar jomeha, dar resturan-e irani 4m o On Mondays, Ali plays the piano. gly gle rate do-8anbeha, ali piano On Tuesdays, we read books in the library. LS aig (cg)gi oan se-Sanbeha, tu(-ye) ketabxune ketab s 5 What do you tinf) da on Sundays? $__ aq nett yek-Sanbehd ce-kar_—? 6 I check my emails in the evening. 3 ord gla ees! Sabha imeilham-o _‘s your home? unt’ where's you nomen 70n Thursdays, | work in a bank. Sb Se (o)gi leat: penj-tanbeha, tu(-ys) yek bank Penton 8 She swims for an haur in the morning. eels bane sobhha yek si'at 9 On Wednesdays, they watch a TV serial. Sepak She Se leas cahar-danbeha, yek seriai-e televizioni he Reading a telephone number Telephone numbers are normally read in twos or threes. A zero in the middle Is a good dividing point. YAr+Or dus 9 olay ero ahd g SLND g Congo devist o hastad o SeS, sefr, panjah o se 286053 two hundred and eighty six, zero, fifty-three DPV VELA SY 93 009595 lee 9 alte — 5 9 Sead «ie cia jhe sefr, Sast o yok — haftad o cahar, nuzdah, do setr, haft 061-7419007 zaro, sixty one — seventy-four, nineteen, double zero, seven Exercise 5 & our Persian-speaking friend? Can you give these phone numbers to y 1 7102683 2 3413509 3 4455002 4 7853412 § 7890635 6 503679770 e& Unit 5: Manzeletun koja, Exercise 6 Can you say these in Persian? What's Ahmad’s address? No. 24, Hafez Street, Tehran 16372 Do you have a lighter? Yes, but it's broken, I'm afraid, " Which floor is your flat on? Fourth floor. Where's my sandwich? It’s on the table, in the kitchen, The post affice is opposite the petrol station, next to the cinema. 6 Your pen is under the chair. 7 I saw him outside the cinema. 8 He doesn’t know where we are. 9 Do they know we are here? 10 Do you know who she is? 11 Do you know what this is? 12 What do you do on Saturdays/Sundays? 13 | go shopping. anon Asking about family (co1; 42) An Iranian (\) and a British tourist (1) met a while ago when they took their seats on an Iran Air flight from London to Tehran. Here is an extract from their conversation. fala! sal ce opal Sloe be tlige 3b ae 99 dle ely faz op eee gee aslzl SoS ge SOS aS go Way Lad eT ge WS lS pol SKF” pet we Sade HP Pe ep stlFaigF yy LT ol ot oly i loiSegS ht los 3 Saajhd slp 9 plas Lass Cl oalgild gcse oy i SergS sal, ph ails, vas . Syglae aby $A alge Jb Sy chy wie yo Led jgin AS 54 F353} PIF ple Gaus ly plige sb Ss dle Boul ged 5 lp {aig cos plalld Gi Soma har sal tabestun miaid iran? rasteS, sali do se bar miam. k&retun cie? operator-e kampiuter hastam. koja kar mikonid? tu yek Serkat-e amrikayi kar mikonam. Soma ce-kar mikonid? moallem hastam. : ci dars midid? dars midam. ... TA A ae oF : : : az Soma xeili kucektare! bale, kucektarin ozv-e xanevad(e)ast. Soma xahar o baradar darid? T. na, mota‘assefane nadaram. & bacce ceto(u)r? T: nahanuz. Soma har cand vaqt yek bar miaid engelestan? Sli yek bar miam baraye didan-e xal(ejam. tu landan zendegi mikone. 7: baraye xarid nemiaid?! cera, amma xal(ejam nemidune! Do you come to Iran every summer? (lit every yesr (in) the summer) T: Actually, | come two or three times a year.72 rFard a Unit §: manzeletun kojsy aS What's your job? I'm a computer operator. Where do you work? I werk in/for an American company. What do you do? I'm a teacher. What do you teach? J teach maths... Js this gentleman your son? No, he’s my brother. He's much younger than you! Yes, he’s the youngest member of the family. Do you have brothers and sisters? No, unfortunately | haven't. How about children? (lit How about child?) Not yet. How often do you come to England? J come once a year to see my (maternal) aunt. She lives in London. Do you not come for shopping?! Yes, but my aunt doesn’t know (this)! » her every Jl sal year opeb tabestun summer sele miaid you come Hl, rastes actually, to be honest (lit its truth) Ju sali a year; each/per year a bar time(s) tle miam 1 come agly) Operator operator Fra kampiuter computer C5) 59,5 8 kar kardan (kon) to work Sige 8 kar mikonam | work Sys Berkat company, “irmwhere's YOUr home? unit 3 qoS.g¢ 154z O@rKar mikonid? What do you dor jus movallem teacher yp dars lesson (os ddan (d) to give ©) 3 er? dars d@dan (d) to teach ade uty dars midid you teach th) rizi maths pute dars midam I teach jm than Sesh kucek young; small Sz kucektar younger eSzsf kucektarin youngest pie ORV member esis xdnevade family flys xahar sister pl, baradar brother bacce child je hanuz yet; still <3) vaat time jbS ciyae phar cand vagt how often (it once every yek bar how much time) olulSl engelestan England sly bardye for (the purpose of) (2) gas didan (bin) to see; seaing as xale maternal aunt Pls gus sly bardye didan-e in order to see my aunt xKe)am (lit for the seeing of my aunt) oad landan London fai; zendegi lite C5) o3,5 3, zendegi kardan to live (kon) 45 xarid shopping le cera ‘yes’ to a negative question: why74 Unit 5: manzeletun, kolésty -P Language and culture notes How fo say ‘I come’, ‘you come’, etc, The verb is: (1) 423 umadan (a) ‘to come’ The tense is the ‘Present simple’ introduced in Dialogue 1 above Here is a reminder of the formula: Prefix .<¢ mi- + present stern of verb + personal ending Verbs whose present stem ends with a vowel need a little more atten. tion. This is because the personal endings which are added to it all begin with a vowel. Two vowels do ‘ot follow each other comfortably — in English, too: try saying ‘a egg’ instead of ‘an egg’! Therefore, some adjustment is needed. The present stem of :).9! umadan ‘to come’ is a single vowel | A. In literary Persian, this is resolved by adding a soft — y sound as a ‘buffer’ between the two vowels. In colloquial forms, however, the tendency is to reduce rather than add sounds! Here is the result: Q Listen to the audio. (CD1; 45) Literary (written) Colloquial Meaning cles mika+yam thee miam | come le mitatyi she miai you come (informal) ail mitatyad oi miad he/she/it comes yim lee miaim we come +yid wale miaid you come (formal/plural) sale mitatyand wile miand they come a To make the verb negative, we add the (stressed) prefix 7 ne-, ¢9- Q Listen tc the audio. (CD1; 45) fli memiém | don't come Slat nemiai you don't come (inf) ol is nemiad he/she/it doesn't comeit 5 where’s your home? unl 75 ‘every day; once a day: ow to saY 3 a day; tece every two days’ , 3a) © har ruz every day gh S Gig Tui yek bar once a day jb 59) 9° har do ruz yek bar once every two days Note: Both of these are unstressed: © phar every » tne suffix .¢ -i meaning: a, per. each Listan to the audio. (CD1; 46) Q jay uz day Gig) ual a/per/each day jy harruz every day aan hafte week sli hafte-i a/per/each week «cam ym harhafie every week ole mah month walk mahi a/per/each month ele ® = har mah every month Ju sal year le sali a/per/each year Jy» har sal every year Exercise 7 correct form of the verb With the help of the Englsh translations, use the llow the example. (V) eg! umadan (8) ‘to come’ in the bianks. Fol Do you come here every day? ; ny cay gba ws jg, Soma har ruz be inja _? Example: . Saal ge bel jg) 2 4 ‘Soma har ruz be inja miaid?76 Unit : Manzeletun Kole *_Un § erin tof 2 | come here two or three times a week, bral 4 shaw b ge les man hafte-i do ya se bar be inj Siti Ahmad comes here once a month. —__ bul ahmad mahi yek bar be inja o ESS cole uss 4 We come to the Farsi class once @ week, std PW 4b Se lactis ma hafte-i yek bar be kelas-e farsi 5 They come to England every year. _ . _ GEE Je Loa unhd har sal be engelestan 6 I come here avery week. —— bale ain oy man har hafte be inja ~ They come to our home twice a year. Le Spee ay 3b 99 lle bags) unha sali do bar be manzel-e ma 8 Ahmad comes to the supermarket with me once every two weeks. ES a pge & cye b yk Sy ace 99 yp aes! ahmad har do hafte yek bar ba man be supermarket ____ Comparative adjective How to say ‘younger; more beautiful’ We add the (stressed) suffix 3 -tar to the adjective. Note: Word stress is shifted over to the suffix. Listen to the audio. (CD1; 47) kucek small, young kucektar — smaller, younger ziba beautiful zibatar more beautifu' jaleb interesting lebtar more interesting‘ home? yt where's your No! 7 How to say ‘X is younger than VY." col pSV IX Kaz Y kucektar ast. () apse Y 31X X az ¥ kucektare. (co/) Note this irregular form: 3 "ub good > behtar better Exercise 8 — Pravide the missing word. Follow the example. # —_fomalon) is 39) J 295-1 1 ford az rolz-rois (smaller) e. A Ford [car] is smaller than a Rolls-Royce. Example: 2 PSo—5 m19, 39) J 2395-1 ford az rolz-rois kucektare. 0 5.995 2598 rolz-rois (than) ford geruntare. A Rolls-Royce is more expensive than a Ford. oo larger) gh EI 3! gp! -¥ iran az engelestan (larger) e. tran is larger than England. le (more beautiful) 3145 5! label -F esfahan az tehran (more beautiful) e Esfahan is more beautiful than Tehran! (than) 25,39, -¥ cS o a 6 ___ (better) pigs Cou? gl pple yee -b dast-poxt-e madaram az dast-poxt-e dustam (better) e. My mother's cooking is better than my friend! a 's cooking.78 Unit §: manzeletun keyg, st Superlative adjective How to say ‘smallest; youngest’ We add the (stressed) suffix ¢» »5 -tarin to the adjective. Example, Soo kucek small, young cp yiSe95 — kucektarin smallest, youngest The word order is similar to English: Q Listen to the audio. (€D1; 48) kucektarin magin smallest car kucektarin ozv youngest member bozorgtarin Sahr = argest city geruntarin magin most expensive car Also note these irregular forms: \9> xub good; <4, behtar better; ¢» i~ behtarin best soos! alive! [aati] sete lel eo oe tle) ye i & be nazar-e man, zibatarin gahr-e iran ma&had [bebaxsid!] esfahan ast. In my opinion, the most beautiful city in Iran is Mashad (sorry!] Esfahan. Exercise 9 Fill in the blanks. The first one has been done for you. 1 eld oy a — 2 ol’ film-e bad — badtarin film bad film — worst film 2 © 99.5 Qos maésin-e gerun > expensive car > most expensive car 3 © 95)! ol5,L] aparteman-e arzun > ___ cheap flat > cheapest flat 4 © 5)> 544 Sahr-e bozorg > big city — biggest city 5 © 99> 4) Zan-e javun > young woman — youngest woman- where's your home? ee mard-e mosenn ‘old man — oldest man 5 obs filme cub good film — best film g © > Gh qazi-ye xub — good food — best food 6 Extended family Compared to English, Persian uses more descriptive words to refer to members of the extended family. Perhaps the most notorious example concerns the word ‘cousin’ which has no fewer than eight equivalents in Persian: yee amu paternal uncle vals dayi maternal uncle 4s amme paternal aunt aJls xale~ maternal aunt To each of the above we add ».. pesar ‘son’, or poo doxtar ‘daughter’, to produce the various meanings of ‘cousin’, e.g. yee 30 doxtar(-e)-amu paternal uncle’s daughter (cousin) a> }.. pesar(-a)-xale — maternal aunt's son (cousin) The linking sound e (ezafe) is omitted for convenience. Exercise 10 &7 Can you say these in Persian? Do you have a younger siste’? I'm three years older than my brother. Are you the eldest member of the family? My father is two years older than my aunt (his sister). In my opinion, the best Iranian food is chelo-kabab. Where is the nearest Iranian restaurant? , We come to this restaurant two or three tit Do you (formal) come to this restaurant frequently? This is the largest supermarket in this town. 10 | don't watch television. 11 listen to the radio. 12 Do you (formal) come here every day? imes a month. COVOORENH80 Unit 5: mar “nH manson tog 13 They don't come to England every year. 14 They come here once every two years. 15 On Fridays, we come home late. 16 We don’t come to the Farsi class in (the) summer, Q Comprehension (co1; 49) The following is what your Iranian friend wrote in a recent email; a seal Gil Le eyo] esto she? p89 6 SL VO Se pS ody acta CULE VAYFA Qo as tem Site thet Sa beg Saal, Spb 39 Cael Cash rey Le Le ste copes, Sa be Gals Cogle cel Calg aS Ge Gyb 59 Sal gtgyd hy scald Le Spt ee Sed pyar Gyo hargh Iolo aul Coy igi aestle Spee 99 BUT ge SF yp Cpe GUL Lal Cs Spy obs be Ga Se BLL 59 gf cel FLEE oly SSeS ope Sle jl psalye tl 4 ppb ghd jl Sop eee Se Led dbl 9 Ge 0, bj Hams cal gly! seals Gee oot SRS Sle ee Le 0 gh eS xe gS Lol lasted et A” SES 52 Fi} lyivel 92 pig 9 dae 25 ge lz! ors jet? phloem lige jad gl lnc gasdt g ob tone slate Isy38 gs iad ghd i Lad ole wiper WISI? ma yek xane dar qarb-e siraz darim. adres-e ma in ast: 8ir8z, kod-e posti-e 18248, xiaban-e sa'di, kuce-ye narges: 15, manzel-e hoseini. pelak?5 where's YOUr home? 5 8 ye kuce-ye ma yek pomp-e benzin ast. dar taraf-e rq bet yeusl ast. dar taraf-e cap-e kuce nanvayi ast, ‘alo-yontree sandug-e post ast. daxel-e kuce, darb-e caharom dast-e cop Iranzel-e a ast. ane-ye MA ziad bozorg nist amma otaq-e man bozorgtarin ot&q dar Manzel-e mast. otaq-e xaharam az mal-e man kucektar, vali qaSang- toast. u da otaqas aks va poster ziad darad. man dar otaqam fagat yak poster bozorg az Sajarian daram. be nazar-e man u behtarin xanande-ye iran ast. man har Sab avazha-ye u ra guS mikonam. u har se ya cahar sal yek par dar Siraz konsert ejra mikonad. amme va dayiam dar esfahan zendegi mikonand. anha bardye didan-e Sajarién va Senidan-e seda-ye u be $iraz miayand. pesar-dayiam dar orkestr-e u tar mizanad. ja-ye Soma xali, xeili xo mig(o)zarad! In which part of Shiraz does she live? What type of accommodation do they (her family) have? What is her address? What is opposite their alleyway? Where is the pizza shop? What is on the left of the alleyway? Where is the post box? Which side of the alleyway is their home located? What comment does she make about the size of their home? Who has the largest room? 11 What comparisons does she make about rooms? 12 What are you likely to see in the rooms mentioned? 13 What opinion does she exoress? 14 What does she listen to every evening? 15 What happens every three or four years? 18 Why does she mention Esfahan? 5 Who comes to Shiraz and why? 19 Who in her family is a musician? Which instrument does s/he play? 9 How do we know she is talking abou CmvrMHZwoNnH Ss it a pleasant experiance?Unit Six OIA ogg | vorud be tehran Arriving in Tehran - In this unit we will look at how to: answer routine questions asked by immigration and customs officers wish someone a nice time and reciprocate suggest that you and others do something together talk about something you are doing now talk about something you will do in the future ask someone (not) to do something offer to do something for someoneya 6: Amiving in Tehran “ | How long will you stay In Iran? (co1; 50) Q ‘An Australian tourist (T) has just arrived at Tehran airport, ‘The passport officer (0) begins the conversation. 10 iT 10 wale dus Sgd> Gage pies pl jl gthae 0 sletel C2 ye Shred 69) Aj) eee pg) G2 Wy 7 we Solp! gf Susb patehe oye! lol dle :0 RR pygetdi cT SaS ge Call Jam pga 40:0 olga 49 whe Jem y ily 92 peal ue 7 waastegl Gas gle! 0 As > iT 10 : gozarname, lotfan. befarmayid. mot(a)Sakkeram. cand vaqt tu iran mimunid? hodud-e se mah. : hadafetun az in safar cie? Vall, man zaban-8enas hastam. daram ru-ye lahje-ye Sirin-e @sfahani kar mikonam. : ali es! dres-e moSaxxasi darid tu Iran? fa, miram hotel. dar kodum hotel eqamat mikonid? hotel amir dar tehran va hotel abbas dar esfahan. * befarmayid. be iran x08 umadid. Xeili mamnun. xoda hafez. * xoda negahdar. AOeHQnHO erenQn0Unt 6 vonuid be teh, ~~ 0: (Your) passport, please. T. Here you are. 0: Thank you. How long will you stay in Iran? 1: About three months. 0: What's the (it your) purpose of this visit? T Well, I'm a linguist. I’m working on the sweet Esfahani accent, 0: That’s excellent [with an Esfahani accent}! Do you have a known address in Iran? 7 No, I'll go ta a hotel. ©: In which hotel will you be staying? 1: Amir Hotel in Tehran and Abbas Hotel in Esfahan. 0: Here you are. Welcome to fran. 1: Much obliged. Goodbye. 0: Goodbye. 406,3f gozarname Passport tw lotfan please auleyi, befarmayid here you are Xt. mot(a)Bakker thankful, grateful pyXtie mot(a)Sakkeram I'm grateful; thanks = cand how much <3 vagt time asigege-mimunid you (wil) stay Ge) gsigo-mundan (mun) to stay/remain syi> hodud-e about, approximately dae hadat purpose, aim j| az of; from iv safar visit, trip wy valla well [from Arabic «bl, wallah by God] obj zaban language toh; zaban-senas linguist ax? lahje accentpit 6: Aniving in Tehran 85 ot Sirin sweet we ali excellent wi es short for 1 ast ‘is’ lin Estahani accent] aus mosanas specific, known p35 kodum which culil eqamat residence eqamat kardan (kon) to stay/eside x08 happy; pleasant xo8 umadid welcome mamnun grateful, obliged xelli mamnun much obliged negahdar protector jhyS las xoda negahdar Goodbye [lit May God be your protector] Language and culture notes Q Future simple tense The literary form of this tense is explained in the Reference grammar at the end of this book. In colloquial Persian, the present simple tense (see U5SD1) is also used to refer to a future act or fact. Therefore, the Sentence: Sasigegee lal gf Sy ee cand vaqt tu iran mimunid? Can have any of these meanings: ‘How long do you stay in Iran?’ OR: ‘How long will you stay in Iran?” OR even: ‘How long will you be staying in Iran? To make the verb negative, we add the prefix + ne- 94 50) ob ziad nemimunam. | won't stay long.Unit 6: Vorud be tohtan Here is another sentence from the above dialogue using a Simi structure: ‘" -J® py4¢ 'miram hotel. I'll go to a hotel, You will note that this is a reduced version of: ‘Pos? S@ & Ge man be hotel miram. (See ‘Reduction’ in U4D1.) Exercise 1 With the help cf the English translations, fill in each blank with the appropriate form of a verb from the box below The first one has been done for you. (GS) 59,5 _ kardan (kon) to do (G52) (8350 mundan (mun) to stay (on); to remain (65) 53,5 LsL.3 tamaéa kardan (kon) to watch G) 93) raftan to go GS) 0,8 ja safar kardan (kon) _ to travel (SS) 99,5 clé! eqamat kardan (kon) to stay (reside) (0,5) 245, bar gastan (gard) to return 1 What are you (or: will you be) doing next weekend? $ Wax cas] gaia 2] Gxar-e hafte-ye ayande ce-kar ? Example: SaaS ga Sax oars! scan 73! axar-e hafte-ye ayance ce-kar mikonid? 2 Nothing! I'll stay at home and watch TV. 15 one 9 ____ i? PG hicci! tu xune © televizion 3 I'll go to Paris for shopping. a] oa & a SF baraye xarid be parisnit 6 Arriving In Tehran ont 4 How will you travel? ? — el ba ci —_—' Who will you travel with? a ba ki 2 Where will you stay in Paris? o dar paris, koja _? How long will you stay in Paris? = cand vaqt dar paris 2? co When will you return to London? kei be landan 2 Exercise 2 & More practice with the verb (1) ¢,deg! umadan (4) ‘to come’. Can you say the following to a Persian-speaker? See U5SD2 for help with this verb. 1 Will you come with me? 2 I'll come with you. 3 She'll come with us. 4 We'll come with you. 5 They'll come with me. 5 I'll come to your office tomorrow. 7 Will you come to my party next weekend? Present continuous How to say ‘I’m eating lunch.’ rsian uses the same You will be delighted to know that colloquial Pe in USD!) to 6XPFOSS Structure (Le. the present simple tense, introdu all these forms:88 Unit 6: vorud be tohnin | eat present simple Vil eat future simple I'm eating = present continuous (Who said Persian was a difficult language?!) The verb needed is my favourite one: (95) 43995 xordan (eon ‘to eat’. -Pxgeqee Jab nhar mixoram. I'm eating lunch. To emphasise the fact that we are in the middle of doing somethi we add the vert (,|s) gusls daStan (dar) ‘to have’ (see U3D2) purely as an auxiliary verb: pou Jb exis dram nahar mixoram. | am (in the middle of) eating lunch. Note: The object ,lel nahar ‘lunch’ is sandwiched between the aux- iliary verb plo daram and the main verb p y9> <2 mixoram. This can happen with adverbs, too: fedige Joe plo dram bidar migam! I'm waking up! [I’m beginning to wake up] Verdes sin eS pF e|2 daram kam-kam bidar migam! I'm gradually waking up! More examples: FasS ge Wz v9 GY! an darid ce-kar mikonid? What are you doing right now? w5ge lS Sp p9li pj)o GY! al’n daram televizion tama$a mikonam. I'm watching TV right now. oS ge IS aslo GY! al'Bn daram kar mikonam. I'm working right now. 5 g4 IS silaiel sand 59) 0,2 daram ru-ye lahje-ye esfahani kar mikonam. I'm working on the Esfahani accent. we I Slytel 1 Gard is) p> d&ram ru-ye lahje-ye Sirin-e esfahadni kar mikonam. I'm working on the sweet Esfahani accent. (This example appears in Dialogue 1 above.)rriving in Tehran une Amning 0 9 exercise 3 lish translations, complete the folk nthe hep of the En lowing sentences " gutting appropriate numbers and letters in the boxes. Each sentence needs one item from each of the columns below to become complete. The first one has been done for you. (1) 4b dare (@) a25.5645;4 b&zi mikonand @) ao dard ) Se Mmikoni @) ¢o daram () 45.42 mikone (4) x2 darand @ exes mica 6) 2 darim (2) sage mixorid © ss dari () neiS yells tam&8& mikonim @ oly. mid 1 I'm going to the office. 5 We're watching a film. wejbl| d |] 3 wld 3 || d | edare. film C]. 2 He/she’s coming here. 6 Are you eating dinner? Leal {eu inja. gam} |? 3 What are you doing? 7 They're playing tennis. Wax L | ce-kar [_} tenis [_} 4 He/she's swimming. OeO L_| ena [Unit 6: vorud be Exercise 4 Put these jumbied sentences in order, and then translate them English. ro 1 apy = Gam esl page mixoram - daram - man - sup. 2 dem Sligd— mjb~ oS ie Gil bazi mikonim - darim - futbal - ma. 3 dags!— aio aS go Lt 8end mikonand - darand - unha. 4 9 = gl) See Bo & be - gu mikonam - radio - daram. 5 quyld— plas o,!o — 09,50 (19 dars mide - dare — mo‘allem - farsi. 6 Saige GS ghey ~ ofl dare - piano - ki- mizane? 7 plo— peed — pS ge Cys dorost mikonim - darim - 6m. B Saujbo— aS go Ke — gigile fees! emeilhatun-o - cek mikonid - darid? © pO — gd jb ~ pyptige miguram - zarfha-ro - daram. 10 .aiy5co— pyalys — ols ~ aabiy, ruznaéme - dare - xaharam - mixune.6; Amving in Tehran unit exercise 5 can you sy these In Persian? 91 & 4 How long will you stay here? 9 Nothing, I'l stay at home. 2 I'ii'stay here for a month. 10 I'll go to Iran next year. 3 Where will you stay? 11 He/she’s looking at you 4 Vilrent a flat. 12 Are you writing a letter? 5 What are you doing right 13 They're dancing. now? 14 I'm buying a ticket/clothes. 6 I'm listening to the news. 15 I'm shopping for tha New 7 I'm reading a newspaper. Year. 8 What will you be dcing this 16 Mahnaz is taking her son weekend? to school. I I Going through customs (cp1; 53) Participants: customs officer (0) + passenger (P). ale jae 9) 4a Ne gigigder Spe pe gzip Gx! Lid a wage py Say pb ee prod 9 ye it 9° fab ae SNe pes o goS tates play g old pba pel nel ee fy oly tesla bl . 5 gS ce gly Sano cde eile > wit ae po tp ayy ig ler tS G*oOVERVEUEBCS ° 0 36QRQRE Q RBQORQOROQAO RQRORQRNE __Unit 6 vorud be tehra ta camedunetun-o bezarid ru miz, lotfan. in sak-dasti-ro ham bezaram? bale, lotfan. befarmayid. cand nafarid? do nafar: man o xanomam. ci darid? ciz-e xassi nadarim. bi$tar lebas 0 vasayel-e Saxsie. kami ham souqat. baraye man? qabeli nadare! xahes mikonam. xob, lavazem-e barqi darid? fagat yek rig-taraé daam. ; ~mot(a)Sakkeram. befarmayid. xo§ begzare. Put your suitcase on the table, please. Shall | put down this holdall as well? Yes, please. Here you are. How many of you are there (together)? Two people: My wife and I. What have you got (to declare)? We haven't got anything special. It's mostly clothes and personal belongings. Also a few souvenirs. : Forme? Be my guest (lit It's not worthy [of you].) No, thanks (lit please). OK, do you have any electric appliances? J only have a shaver. Thank you. Please go ahead. Have a nice time. opieg camedun suitcase ogg4ez Camedunetun —_your suitcase u,ly bezarid (please) put eoSls sik-dasti holdall pyle bezram shall | puti Tehran pote Anvngin Tenens az eand how many yb nafar Person/people (when counting) jee eit thing ! ee xass special | pie bistar mostly; more | (pe) lebas clothes | Jiby vasayel means; things wot Saxsi personal [pats ley VasByel-© Saxsi personal effects/belongings | oS kam little | oe kami a little i Sly» souqat souvenir bl qabel worth; worthy i qabeli afany worth als xBhes request Sgt Gish xBhes mikonam | request (you not to say such things) pill lavazem appliances iy bargi electrical) Lis fagat only sy 8 beard vljue, rié-tarad snaver eA Gigs x08 begzare. —_ Fave a nice time. Language and culture notes Q Imperative How to say ‘Put it on the table, please.’ The verb we need is: (,15) ¢u8liS gozastan (zai) to put Here is the formula: Prefix _, be- + present stem of verb Note: The — be- prefix carries the word stress.94 Unit 6: verug Od be tohran Here is the result: hy bez@r = Putt... This form is used when asking a close frienc to do somethi in a more formal request, we add the suffix a. -id: 9. For su, bezarid Put... Now a more complete picture of the sentence: slik jee 9, ahs bezarid ru miz, lotfan. Put (it) on the table, please. Now the sentence used in the dialogue: ied jee 9 ay jlde pigagaee camedunetun-o bezarid ru miz, lotfan. Put your suitcase on the table, please. To make the verb negative, we replace the . be- prefix with na-. . Note: As always, the negative prefix carries the word stress. Nadel sje 9 2 155 yigBigueg camedunetun-o nazarid ru miz, lotfan. Don't put your suitcase on the table, please. More examples: (25) git neSastan (sin) to sit (down) Lax! lid lotfan inja beSinid. Please sit here. weints body! LiL! lotfan unja naginid, Please don't sit there. (a4) Go bastan (band) to close tin 9,9 lab! lotfan dar-o Please close the bebandid. door ais 4,0 lab! lotfan dar-o Please don't close nabandid. the door. G}) 99) zadan (zan) to play si sily (05 lik) lotfan kami piano Please play the bezanid. piano a little.. in Tehran unit 6: Amiving 95 special cases itis al about the ‘Present stem’ (PS for short). Some PSes are not colloquialised at all, while others are to varying degrees. Here are the verbs exemplified in the table on p. 96: Note: PSes normally appear in (...). Where there is a difference between the colloquial PS and the full literary PS, the latter is placed in. + (ay) gin bastan (band) to close 2 (Gx) ge didan (bin) to see 3 (3) Ow xordan (xor) to eat 4 L [a8] G1) G5 gozastan (241) [gozar] to put 5 [,$] CS) «+38 gottan (9) [gu] to tel/say 6 [oa] Leo] (2) gob dadan (d) [dah] [deh] to give 7 [sil Lag] G) o43) rattan (F) [rav] [rou] to go @ [ysl [25] (2) G24 a2) boland Sodan (8) [Sav] [Sou] to get up © (4b) (au) Gog budan (hast) (baa) to be 10 (Lb axtly) (jlo) itl dastan (dar) (daste bas) to have Verbs 1 and 2: Such verbs are the easiest to learn as their PSes are not colloquialised. Verb 3: The PS is not colloquialised, but the be- prefix is. Verb 4: The PS loses its first syllable. Verb 5: The PS loses its vowal. Verb 6: Has two literary PSes: (a) 2 dah Generic: This is colloquialised as: 2 d (b) 00 deh Used with imperative informal ‘you’. Colloquialised. It is not Verb 7: Has two literary PSes: (@) 4, rav Generic: This is colloquialised as: , ¥ sine 1b) 5, rou Used with imperative informal ‘you’. Itis rot colloquialised, but note the vowel change in the prefix! Verb 8: Has two literary PSes: (a) 4 Bay Gonoric: This is colloquialised as: — 89% Unit 6: vorua be teh, a) (b) $2 Sou Used with imperative informal ‘your, colloquialised. Note: With compound verbs, the — be- prefix is often * ar See below. OPDed, Ut is gg Verb 9: Has two stems: (a) 1.» hast (generic) (b) SL baé (used with all imperative forms) Verb 10: Has two stems: (a) ,l> dar Generic) (b) SL axsb daéte bas (used with all imperative forms) No Literary Colloauial Meaning Formal Informal Formal Informal To uote oe ate ee Close! bebandid — beband bebandid —_beband 2 seis ont cee on ‘See/Look! bebinid bebin bebinid bebin 3 ay a sud wt Eat! bexorid bexor boxorid boxor 4 aS gas ee he Put! begozarid begozar ~—bezairid bezar 5 sash & aS Tel/Sayl beguyid begu begid 6 ty eas ow Give! bedahid bedeh bedid 7 sor a ay Got beravid borou berid borou Baugh woh yooh abob ybab Get up! boland gavid boland Sou boland sid —_boland Sou 9 wat ath Bel baéid basid val andl acl Heiving in Tehran examples for gand 10: 2 ab sabur ba: i laeth | eh yee bas/basid! Be patient! (nti) aL) ab sb yo sabr daéte taedl | oe Have pati * baS/basid! tint Sneel fer the negative, the prefix na- is used: ; naband Don't close naxor Don't eat nazar Don't put nagu Don't tell/say nadeh Don't give 3p Narou Don't go (inf) boland nagou —_Don't get up negaran nabas Don't worry (lit Don’t be worried) Note what happens to the — be- prefix when the present stem of the verb begins with the vowel | a: (I) goes! umadan (a) to come GD S2y3! | avordan (r) to bring Ly bid Come (inf) ly bidid Come (f) gle blar Bring (inf) ly blarid Bring (/) Also note the negative forms: Ls maya Don’t come (inf) ul3 mayaid Don't come (f) jl) nay Don't bring (inf) 24,3 mayarid Don't oring (f) Some compound verbs find it more convenient to drop the — be- Prefix. Among them are (jo) Ck» bar daStan (dar) ‘to pick up’; (955) nS, bar gastan (gard) ‘to return’; and those formed with the help of the verbs (5) (0,5 kardan (kon) ‘to do’ and C4) ot Sodan (8) ‘to become’: Wy gy otigh iabJ lotfan guéi-ro bar darid. lotfan bar gardid. lotfan telefon konid. lotfan baz konid. lotfan sabr konit * & lotfan boland Sid. sted Jay lab! totfan bidar Sid. Please pick up the receiver/phone. Please return. Please telephone. Please open. Please wait. Please get uP- Please wake UP-98 Unit 6: vorud be. tohran For the negative, we add the prefix — na-: We ;)5 9.5596 lil lotfan guéi-ro Please don't pick up . bar nadarid. the receiver/phong, 42953, abd lotfan bar nagardid. Please don't retum iS (05 Lab! lotfan telefon Please don't nakonid. telephone. dS ;L Lad lotfan baz nakonid. Please don't open, -Jei sil Lib! lotfan boland naégid. Please don't get up, ( ) Also note these interesting cases: (CD1; 55) Informal/singular 3934 giSYLsslédet-o boxor. (Intonation: low fall) Eat your salad. (Request/order) g,95u gi0L.salidet-o boxoril (Intonation: high fall) Eat your salad! (Don't forget! Make sure you do!) QS jb 9,9 dar-o baz nakon. (Intonation: low fall) Don't open the door. (Request/pleading) 585 jl 9)2 dao baz nakoni! (Intonation: high fall Don't open the door! (Warning! Be careful not to!) Formal/plural wa 93u 93g0YLe slidetun-o boxorid. (Intonation: low fall) Eat your salad. (Request/order) !ayj93u 9igi0YL saladetun-o boxorid! (Intonation: high fall Eat your salad! (Don't forget! Make sure you dol) sti jb 9,9 dar-o baz nakonid. (Intonation: low fall) Don't open the door. (Request/pleading) !an5% jb 5 dar-o baz nakonid! (Intonation: high fall) Don't open the door! (Warning! Be carefu' not As in English, when we are asking someone to do us @ favour, itis perhaps more polite to use a question form (rather than the impere tive). Compare:rit 6: Arriving in Tehran Glade eee 9° cg! un dar-o mibandid, Will you Close that lotfan? / door, please? Lala) ween 99° Lgl UN dar-o bebandid, Close that door, lotfan. please, Exercise 6 YL Win the help of the English translations, fill in each blank with the cor- & tect verb form. 1. Please sit here. (f) Les! Li Iotfan i Example: wueinty Ley! Libd lotfan inj besinid. 2 Please close the window. (inf) 9°24 lala! lotfan panjara-ro o Please play the vialin a little. (f) olse9 (aS Lal! lotfan kami violon a Please tell (me) your name. (f) gigzew! ALJ lotfan esmetun-o Please give (me) your telephone number. (f) gab ol Lb) lotfan Somare telefonetun-o a o Please go to Room 10. (f) 0d gb iL! lotfan otaq-e dah. ~ Please go out! (inf) an aunt Sogn lab) lotfan birun! 8 Please get up. (f) st Lab! lotfan boland _——— 9 Please come here. (f) a doy aL lotfan inja. 10 Please bring some water. (f) _ 1 -oS labd lotfan kami 4b —__—— ol100 Unit 6: vorud be tens a 11 Please open the door. (inf) 9) Lal) lotfan dar-o 12 Please wait a moment. (f) aod S abd lotfan yek lahze Exercise 7 Make the sentences in Exercise 6 negative. The first one has been dong for you. 1 Please don't sit here. (#) sdgiets Lex,| lad lotfan inja naginid. Exercise 8 Change the requests made in Exercise 6 into question forms. The new requests will be more polite! The first one has been done ‘or you. 1 Will you sit here, please? (f) labs wird go lex! inja miginid, lotfan? A polite ‘go ahead’ signal The verb used is (Le,3) 4950, farmudan (farma) which originally meant ‘to command/order’. Put in the imperative form, tnis is how it looks: dayle pay befarmayid. In modern Persian, this conveys the meaning ‘please go ahead'' and is used in various situations including: when answering the phone, offering a seat or food to a guest, hand- ing something to someone, asking someone to come in, or go in/out first, inviting others to say what they wish to say, etc. Naturally, this is often accompanied by an appropriate gesture. How to say ‘Let's go.’ The imperative form can be extended to first and third persons PY adding the appropriate personal ending: my berim. Let's go. ‘4ig> i berand xune. —_Let them go home.unit 6: Arriving in Tehran ; 01 POS ARIST yuo AB59 a> cand daqige sabr konand, zud bar migardam. Let them (or: ask them to) wait a few minutes, "ll return soon. The same form can be used for consultation Or suggestion: Seep berim? Slate ey del emsab berim Shall we go to the sinema? cinema tonight? Spates 2 dar-o bebandam? Shall | close the door? Spe cus yo 0525 qahve dorost Shall | make (some) konam? coffee? Spyle ogee mive bidram? Shall | bring (you some) fruit? Sexy Gle cai berizam? Shall | pour (you some) tea? (25) Gee, rixtan (riz) to pour Sepp Xo gle SS yek cai-e dige Shall | pour (you) ‘ berizam? another (cup of) tea? Exercise 9 & What proposals (or consultations) are being made? Vocabulary you may need: > “ 8 to turn on/off (HS) GF ogals /Ep59, rousan/xamu! Esa loro kardan (kon) xabidan (xb) __ to (go to) sleap hala naw Shall we go? Clg) Srelge Po vo Sp sgeu els sam boxorim? Obey tal om Sex Gls a5 kodum ret ne Oe) P9 We Spe 59) gig jg televizion-o 919 Ge Op jeg peter debi pS LS priegtt (ga Vo hala kami te konim. emus Konem? . + televizion-o xamus ri i ‘ns yl 2 ab teowson a lab iim o bebinim Soe oe S52 UL praten 3 baba bozorg ci migand. 9 lyse Yo hala bexabim. berim resturan. sturan berim? rougan konam? in ci dare. televirio jevizion tamasa ennans 2 ~Unit 6: vorud be a How to say ‘Have a nice time- Vocabulary needed: bys x08 pleasanttly) GSS) g3SSS_ gozaétan (gozar) (for something, 2.9. time) to pass The pattern ist |»,3S (9 x08 begozare! recuced to x08 begzare! It literally means: ‘Let (or) may (the time) pass pleasantly (to you, Or simply: ‘Have a nice time!’ This can be used in various contexts ‘such as: 0K fe Lbs tatilat x0S Have a nice begzare. toliday, 03K Gbgs acie 51 axar-e hafte xoS Have a nice begzare. weekend. 1038s Ob95 (ayy! Gigage mehmuni/parti Have a nice (time xo§ begzare. at the) party, 03K bse Gly! itdin xo8 begzare. Have a nice time in Iran. A common reply is: pb oret eo Led sigiee mamnun, Soma — Thanks, you too. ham hamintour. Exercise 10 Ask a Persian speaking friend: To eat (some) fruit. To come and sit next to you. To pass (lit give) the salad/salt. To bring (you) some water. To close/open the door/window. To make (some) tea. To turn on/aff the light. To pick up their book. To put their pen in their pocket. To (go to) sleep! To wake up! ZSSeaernansona. aiving in Tehran ya nS ts sequencing ote this sequencing difference between English and Persian: man o piter Peter and | (lit | and Peter) mano dustam — my friend and | (lit | and my friend) man o Souharam my husband and | (it | and _ my husband) pale 908 man o xanomam = my wife and | (/it | and my wife) pea ep eur pp 9 oF Be my guest! When the customs officer jokingly asks if the souvenirs are for him, the passenger replies: !5 1.5 xa Verb 2: [1 G) o#8) raftan (0 [ray] to. go singe the reduced colloquial” full literary/weitten the following The formula is similar to the above. However, Y Spoken form of Verb 1 is slightly different from its fu a first let us familiarise ourselves with both in tl le,110 Unit 3: Literary (written) Colloquia (spoken) Meaning palysige Misxdhtam plyeiee mix: | want alee Misxaht else Mixai you want (formal aalysige mitxahtad aly ge mixad he/she/it wants otlys ge mi+xah+im malsSige mixaim we want ualys ge Mitxahsid leg mixaid you want (‘ormal/plray aualsiee Misxaheand = al,5,y. mixdind they want = oO ey plgdige o2 man mixam beram. | want to go. «Sx Glee 9 to mixai beri, You (inf) want to go. .oy Ig <2 3 mixdd bere. He/she wants to go.” oy welg ise ema mixaim berim. We want to go. wey delys ge lad Soma mixaid berid. You want to go. wiyy dilg> c2 lagygl_ nha mixand berand. They want to go * You wil have naticed that different personal endings have been used for the two verbs. Here is an explanation. When the present stem of Verb 1 is colloquiaised, it lases the letter » h, leaving a present stem which ends in a vowel. In such instances, colloquial Persian uses the literary ending s' -ad with the initial vowel dropped. (Compare with the verb (i) :,1»3! umadan (8) ‘to come’ in USD2.) To make the above sentences negative, we add i ne- before .,« mis 62 Pl9e (ge Ge ©=man nemixam beram. —_| don't want to go. Compare these literary forms with their colloquial counterparts above: +32 plo 5° 2 man mixaham beravam. | want to 90. “597 slg> 0 gi to mixAhi beravi. You want to 90 (inf) 9971 dal53 62 9! u mixadhad beravad. He/she wants to go. Note the following examples where the subject of the second verb is a different person:fen wher? mixaid beram? Do you want me to go? Space 274 vulg>s¢ _ mixaid panjara-ro bebandam? Do you ‘want me to close the window? important: The verbs 425: Budan ‘to be’ and (251s dastan ‘to rave’, have their own special subjunctive stems, sl bag and ob anil daste baé respectively. * geil lel 9 i929 Aloe ee mixam nouruz dar iran basam. [want to be in Iran (on) New Year's Day. “ash anl> cpedle U 99 los c0 mixad do ta ma8in daste base. He/she wants to have two cars. ‘A verb occurring after these special verbs and verb forms normally takes the subjunctive form. Also note their negative forms. Vocabulary used: .L bayad must, should; 3, Sayad maybe, perhaps, might; ¢,Ss.« momken possible; «ii. momkene it's possible, may; 2, behtar better; o 79> behtare it's better. ez ub bayad beram. | must/should go. ¢yx ls nabayad beram. | mustn’t/shouldn't go. ty wl — Sayad beram. | might go. tp uls — gayad naram. | might not go. ty 4Se2 — momkene beram. — | may go. *y4:Sne momkene naram. — | may not go. ‘troy — behtare beram. I'd better go. ‘top — behtare naram. I'd better not go. More examples: dL digo LS Sayad xune They might be bagand. (at) home. SUL aig Ls Sayad xune They might not be : nabagand. (at) home. “cals etl aSe0o momkene magin He/she may - daste base. have a om SMOG atle aKe5 momkene masin Hefene may nada&te base.112 Unit 7; dar tra, Exercise _1 Write the correct form of the verb in the blanks. 1 Do you want to go? G) oy & oulye go mixaid 2 raftan (1) Example: fy») lg ,2 mixaid berid? 2 Can we go to a restaurant tonight? G) 3) Sobss posi hl eméab mitunim resturan? raftan (r) 3 | must sit down. (ed) gts wl bayad . negastan (sin) 4 I'd better close the window. (22) Chm - 5297 OR behtare panjara-ro . bastan (band) 5 Do you want me to open the window? (5) 9,5 5 S___ 50, 2x4, Sage mixaid panjara-ro ? baz kardan (kon) 6 Can you be here early morning tomorrow? ~ o (AL) oy $____ bul 05) tne bod asigivge mitunid farda sobh-e zud inja budan (bas) He might know her name. (32) Grmigo pero! OLS Sayad esmes-o . dunestan (dun) Do you want to see a film? Gr) ors © pol Ss che mixal yek film ? didan (bin) | might have his phone number. Cab tls) gidlo. gad oles ald Sayad Somére telefones-o . dastan (daste bas) He may not have time. (db axle) Gatls . 5g Ane momkene vagt____. daStan (daSte bas)yot in te? —_——____ ig be tired. 41 He may _ (3b) 338 —— Ahan AS momkene xaste __. budan (baé) ay not be at home. 42 He mi e (Ab) ore» Aigo Ane momkene xune __- budan (baé) ercise 2 ExemCisS < use one of these worcs in each sentence and make the necessary changes. Follow the example. ae fad = must/should nabayad = musi | yls sayad = might shouldn't ome behtare it’s better «See momkene may pete her! ab jgyel— wince ger gyal o\ 1 emruz ahmad-o mibinam. > emruz bayad ahmad-o bebinam. Iwill see Ahmad today. > | must see Ahmad today. ppg gai els el -¥ 2 emSab 4m nemixoram. > | won't eat dinner tcnight. — I'd better not eat dinner tonight. aoyb gab -T 3 telefon dare. > He/she has a telephone. > He/she must have a tele} o whi ort -¥ phone. 4 magin nadarand. > They don't have a car. > They may not have a caf. & pb oe de> 5 pul-e xord daram. > ____ Ihave (some) small change. —* ! might have {some} small change. sol -F en tbh 8 Adreses-o daram. > Ihave his address. > | may have his address:114 Unit eS lasy 7 Soma negaran hastid. > You are worried. + You mustn't be worried. es Jia la Ss ~ 8 unha dar manzel nistand. > ost A They are not at home. -> They may not be at home. Ae Fe by bo 54 9 farda hava behtar mige. > __ ‘Tomorrow the weather will become better. + Tomorrow the weather might become better. How to say ‘I, you, etc, want to come.’ It has already been mentioned that verbs whese present stem ends in a vowel need more attention. We have met two such verbs so far: (I) eq! umadan (€) ‘to come’ and (Ig) ctulys xdetan (xd) ‘to want’. They are now brought together in the box below. Please pay particular attention to the way in which the ~ be- prefix is slightly modi- fied when it is connected to the present stem of the verb ‘to come’. ple ply> ico Ge man mixdm bim, —_ | want to come. «ke Sloe ge gf to mixdi Dial. You want to come. (inf) sly oIg3 c0 glu mixdd blad, He/she wants to come. pile: pilys co le ma mixdim bisim. We want fo come. whys a led Soma mixaiid blald. You want to come. wily ilys co Layg!unha mixaind bland. They want to come.7 In an, 115 Un exercise 3 / in the planks with the appropriate form of (1) sy! umadan (a) a core Follow the example. 4 man mixam ba to ____+ . Bb pledge ge-l want to come: with you. Example: man mixdm ba to biam. ple Fb plosage ge 2 mixaid ba man 2 © ak daly ga -¥ Do you want to come with me? gumixad bama . Lb ols age sl -¥ She wants to come with us. 4 ma mixaim ba Soma - LoS L alg cge Le -F ‘We want to come with you. 5 unha mixaind ba man + ob ails ge boys! -0 They want to come with me Exercise 4 &? —_—__ Jan you say these in Persian? 1 Can | see the news? By all means. 2 Must you see this film right now? No, I can see (it) tomorrow. 3 'Ne'd better not sit here. 4 I might have his phone number/address. 5 You must/should have patience. 8 You must be very happy.0 Checking into a hotel (cp1; 60) Mr Gowhari (G) booked a room when he telephoned the hotel last week. He has just arrived at the hotel where he is greeted by the receptionist (A). The porter is Parviz (P). is ple | Bl pe G 4 wetli ains | R G wdyyle dy desl SESS 9 9055 Cll si ho ay tay tn oie tok OY - PS 995) EP a co OPE eagles gd ayo tly iF lS g cdo ands ojle! * ALYab 3 glaoper or! af Label «So» wetten pKa ig Poh yo gal lecgner Lill Sle nop Gi ay on wap GTA sesled ol Nab Sak ol 1ST ale gie oP ASE25 LS Blo jets ASL & 5, A355 979 Lad Cass 09 Siw ayer 6 AS oo lad ps oP sce Let lS Cpl ale 6 Fa salam xanom. salam qa. ; xaste nabasid. 2 RaQRe Pe PQ QRAwe : befarmayid aq, az in tarat lotfan. . * Allow me to have a look in the book. Yes. : salamat bagid. befarmayid. ; man gouhari hastam. hafte-ye pi be daftaretun telefon kardam va yek otaq baraye panj ruz rezerv kardam. : ejaze bedid daftar-o nega(h) konam. bale, doroste gorban. Somare-ye otagetun si o haste. ; mot(ajSakkeram. bebaxSid, momkene lotfan begid in camedunha-ro biarand bala? bale qorban. parviz jan, lotfan camedunha-ye 4qa-ro bebar otaq-e si o hast. ..in ham Somére-ye si 0 haSt. otaq-e xubie. ru be parke. manzaraé xeili qagange. camedunha sangin bud. dast-e Soma dard nakone. sat-e §oma dard nakone. : befarmayid, in qabel-e Soma nist. * xeili mamnun. : Hello madam. Hello sir lit] May you not be tired (Small talk). : il] May you be in health [Small talk]. What can ! do for you? and booked & I'm Gowhan. Last week | telephoned your office Tom for five dé aes: that's right si Your room number is 38.118 __Untt 7: dar Wn @: Thank you. Excuse me, could you please ask someone t0 bring the suitcases upstairs? rR: Yes sir. Dear Parviz, please take the gentleman's suitcases to room 38. P: Let's go sir, this way please. . . . Here's number 38. It's a good room, It's facing the park. It has a very nice view, G: The suitcases were heavy. Thank you. P: You're welcome. @: Here you are, this (tip) is not worthy of you. P; Much obliged. <> xaste tired apSls nabasid may you not be cate salimat heatth sh batid may you be cin hatte woek ae pid last, ago yuo dattar office; book (5) 69,8 cali telefon kardan (kon) to telephone Gel otaq room G5) 49,5 yy}, rezerv kardan (kon) — to book/reserve ajo! ejaze permiasion (2) gale ol! ejaze dadan (d) to allow (iit to give permission) (5) g9,8 aS negah kardan (kon) to look 1,9 dorost correct, right chs qorban Sir (used by a Junior In rank addressing a senior) Se. ~momken possible “See momkene is it possible +S: begid (for you to) tell/ask le bidrand (for them to) bring GD oxy) avordan (ary to bring Yu bala up, upstairs7 bebar take/carry (ape bordan (bar) to take/cany woo! in ham here's (iit this also) 43, Tube facing oe manzare view _p,aee manzaras its view oop ee dast-e Som dard = Thank you. nakone. eSiop las » sare Soma dard You're welcome. nakone. J abel worthy Language and culture notes Q Small talk aA atl u5 xaste nabagid. May you not be tired. & tl cud. salimat basid. May you be in health. This is one of the most common mini dialogues used by Persian speakers in various social as well as work situations. 4's sentence is an expression of appreciation of B's hard work — in the office, or in the kitchen preparing delicious meals for guests. Something functionally Smilar is used in English when a guest says to his host: “You must be exhausted going to all this trouble (preparing all this food for us)!" So there is a shared raference to ‘fatigue’ in both cases, as @ mark of appreciation. Structured infinitive Hew to say ‘to telephone someone’ erb pattern sentence, with each el i .. , ives all the A structured infinitive (SI for short) is a v that g ment elements needed to construct a120 Unit 7: day ian a, shown in its appropriate place. For instance ‘to telephone Sor is an SI in English, on which basis you can make a senten, ‘I telephoned Peter.’ If we have the Persian equivalent of thi should be able to make a similar sentence in Persian, with eq Here it is: Meng! CE likey 'S Sl, we Wal easel CS) 99,8 al ‘someone’ 4, be ‘someone’ telefon kardan (kon) to telephone ‘someone’ Based on the above Persian SI, let us make a sentence. POS Gali a & be piter telefon kardam. | telephoned Peter. You will note that the above Persian SI needs a preposition, « be ‘to’, while its English equivalent does not. This is what makes the notion of SI all the more important, since bilingual dicticnaries often provide little structural help on what other elements, if any, are needed, and where to put them. They may give an equivalent for the word ‘happy’ in Persian, but that is where the learner is ‘abandoned’. If the learner wanted to say, for example, ‘I'm happy with my car/flat/job, etc.’, he would have no idea as to what preposition is used in Persian, if any, and where to put it. However, if we have the Persian equivalent of ‘to be happy with X', we should have little difficulty in producing the above sentence in Persian. This and twe further examples are given below. (Amd) 599 Sl, XG az ‘YX’ razi budan (hast) to be happy with °x’ (md) 99) gileae x’ jI az ‘X’ asabani budan (hast) to be angry with ‘X’ (4x) oresy ‘someone’ j! (Jiu Si) (yek so’Al) az ‘someone’ porsidan (pors) to ask ‘someone’ (a question) Examples: 2) pm 521; mile | ce man az magin razi hastam. \'m happy with the car,fran oe eae ot js Soma az man asabani hastid? hyo angry with me? Sy, 202 jt Si Ze @ vt rok so'al az ahmad porsidam. | asked Ahmad a question. o) you will note that in all the Persian examples above, the prepos tion 4 az is used, which is a dictionary equivalent for the English word fom’. tn (a) and (0), English uses the preposition ‘with’, and in (c), none. A dictionary equivalent for ‘with’ in Persian is L ba. A typical mistake made by English speakers learning Persian is when they use | ba instead of ;| az in (a) and (b) above. If it is any consolation, ranian learners of English make a similar mistake when they say: ‘!m satisfied from [instead of with] my job!’ Obviously, both are influenced by their respective mother tongues. Here is another useful SI: (nd) G29 jee ~montazer-e... to be waiting budan (hast) for... § gam S jets montazer-e ki hasti? —_ Who are you waiting for? poor! kz montazer-e ahmadam. I'm waiting for Anmad. Sno ge jie montazer-e ci hasti? What are you waiting for? -pj45! ize montazer-e axbaram. I'm waiting for the news. Exer &Y un each blank with a preposition from the list below ming: Please do not be influenced by English structurel Jaz from 4 ba with 4 be w| poy ali I> ee rl) 1 emru; eo Thi 2 Sobh___xanomam telefon kardam. 'S Morning | phoned my wife.122 Unit 2: g LT es al Can gly S15 2u kareé razi nist. dr She is not happy with her job. pty 3 cand so‘al u porsidam. | asked her some questions. le see oy OH sine oy 4u man asabani bud. She was angry with me. p58) lates pools ond 5 man xanomam ‘sinema raftam. | went to the cinema with my wife. An idiom for ‘thank you’ The expression 4:53 5,9 LoS Cus> dast-e Soma dard nakone ‘thank you' (lit May your hand not achel) is used to thank someone for something they have done for us, particularly with the use of their hands - e.g. handing something to us, or cooking a delicious meal for us, etc. An echo reply is normally 4:53 2,9 Las po sare Soma dard nakone ‘you're welcome’ (lit May your head not achel) Other versions of this exchange would be: .4:55 39 Qo dastetun dard nakone. Thank you. 155 959 G33» Saretun dard nakone. You're welcome. 14:5 959 Ccws dastet dard nakone. — Thank you: (inf) 4:55 39 Sy saret dard nakone. You're welcome. (if) Exercise 6 At the dinner table, an Iranian friend has passed you the salt. 1 How do you thank them? 2 How would they respond?peri ig we expressions used to book a hotel (coz: 1) abe se hotel-e panj setare five-star hotel 0 cube a % Bll otaq-e yek-nafare Do you have a darid? single room? oii go GL! otdiq-e do-nafare a double room ao 5 Gb! otaq-e do-taxte a twin room Souiz (g Sabi cande? How much is it for . each night? 74 » Sle baraye har nafar for each person 6S ge Jad Gabsel 5 | Se cek/kart-e e'tebari qabul mikonid? Do you accept cheques/credit cards? phe Gabi! cles | pla | 99 L bl otaq-e ba du8/hammam/tualet/telefon mixam. | want a room with a shower/bathroom/toilet/telephone. Sadge ple | jal | ale pls ond geimat SAmel-e sobhdne/nahar/8am mise? Does the price include breakfast/lunch/dinner? G aa g JL 52 G92 2p BR panj nafarim: do ta bozorg-sal va se ta bacce. We're five: two adults and three children. Exercise 7 &Y? Can you translate the following sentences into English? abel eS 935) 99 b end 99 GEIS ply -! 1 mixam yek otaq-e do-nafare ba dus rezerv konam, lotfan. apeelg ge Ost see be -Y 2 hotel-e car-setare mixaim. ak we Se eee 3 tarjihan tu markaz-e Sahr baSe. fone go SH al = 4 in otaq Sabi cande? cage gh ab WE ad 5 in geimat samel-e nahar ham mise?124 Unit 7: dar ig A tr ay Expressions used to complain abo Q (cb2; 2) P Mt a hotel Spi Curec Jim pte Leigh ge elie bebax8id, mitunam ba modir-e hotel sohbat konam? Excuse me, can | speak with the hotel manager? 44.25 lnaddl. malafehd kasife. The sheets are dirty, XS 505 IS 5A telefon kar The telephone is not nemikone. working. 4d ALS jen! ol get! Sty | omg | Saeed kampiuter/televizion/du8/Sir-e ab/periz-0 ri8-tar&é xarabe, The computer/television/shower/water tap/shaver socket is out of order. Exercise 8 Can you say these in Persian? 1 | want a single room with a shower for two weeks. 2 Doss the price incluce dinner, too? No, that's separate. 3 I'd like to book two seats for Mashhad. 4 May | ask you a question? Go ahead. 5 May | have a word with the manager? 6 The lights in the bathroom are not working/broken. 7 The shower has no water. 8 I'll phone you tomorrow. 9 Who/what are you waiting for? 10 I'm waiting for the news. 41. Pm waiting for my friand. 42 Are you angry with me? 43 Are you happy with your income? 14 Yes, but I'm not happy with my boss!in Wan, comprehension (cb2: 3) Q Listen to this conversation between a guest (a) and the hotel manager (M)- spread ott Wel fom ol il oye lel» Sobyd ae Joa ob Se GUIS LB I p25 555) Fy Soydi 59 LIK Gye ce peas oly 9 PUD & BEI pe ailal CAS Se Lolo be ay AS cod IS om GUI Ab wu slo Gsgel Gbllas F jy Ge phige GUI Ss tal plore 5 Lely oly cs Syhee fie om po Lad & gBEl ys! igi ge topes IE ph Siw Sy 259 pl L Lal pages Aim ds patil wad ttl, 26 9S ceale: GE Glaggete nl & Aes ed 39 weaigal wLo $LdL FOTLs pF SL bos Sagien g8bl abe Geb aaj Jae Lam 3 oppo pigs Ao eels Sy piled | gab hte GY! speek 3 o = = G: &qa man az in hotel aslan razi nistam. M: moégkel cie qorban? G: man yek otaq-e do-nafare-ye bozorg rezerv kardam, amma Soma yek otaq-e yek-nafare be ma dadid ba yok taxt-e ezafe. man otaq-e ba hammam o van xastam, Soma otaq-e ba dus dadid. telefon-e otaq ham kar nemikone. M: jeddan ma'zerat mixam. vage'an Sarmandie)at ot&q-e do-nafare-ye bozorg xali mise. mitunam un Soma bedam. &: raste$ qasd daétim se hatte bemt hafte ham Sayad namunim. dar z! Mehmunha-ye otaq-e pahluyi begid Sabha y bagand? hatman, meil darid ba man biaid otaq" aan montazer-e telefon az engelestanam. Y° miam daftaretun. Mba ' base, montazeram. ee ee m. emgab yek otaq-o te unim, amma ba in vaz’ yek emn, momkene be in ek kam sakettar bebinid? « saat-e dige126 Unit $1? ory Noasona What three complaints does the guest make in his initial o, How does the manager respond to this? What remedy does the manager propose? What change of plan is the guest considering and wry? What is the guest’s fourth complaint? What does the manager offer towards the end? Why does the guest decline the offer at the time? UtburstyUnit Eight BULS coh QraF goft-o-gu-ye xiGbani Street talk in this unit we will look at how to: Q * ask and tell the time * ask for and give directions * ask a Persian speaker to speak more slowly anc clearly * describe location with reference to the points of compass + talk about journey time and distance + enquire about the availability of facilities in the area Dialogue 1 yd Asking directions (cp2; 4) Julie ()) is looking for the home address of an Iranian friend in Tehran. She has difficulty reading the address. She asks a passer-by (P) for help. Soares Cele wetcer lil se 9g Spay Ogidy aBio Seam} SS pwigi ge wet pice sage yy poiS go tily> eevee128 Unit 8: gott-o-gu.ye Xi in| $a eye ge ply bales igi sai tials aatigs esi slay bie SH bee MS ise on TowlS 50.6 ee Cad dere righ Sp ol lem Sb oo : tlie gil Cal aad us gh 5 9 pain gS Se Lib aSne a 95 3bj amd ute, POS Cusco es, Soh ojb99 gbdom Sol jain Ses aly we Gay praltine aly p J: @qa@ bebaxsid, saat cande? P: hast o nim. J: mot(a)Sakkeram. bebaxgid, mitunam yek zahmat-e dige be(hjetun bedam? P: xaheS mikcnam, befarmayid. J: in dres-e custame. mota’assefane nemitunam bexunames. baram mixunideS, lotfan? P: sa’y mikonam. xiaban-e sina, pelak-e hastad. vu: xiabun-e sina midunic kojast? P: mostagim berid ta yek car-rah-e bozorg. unja, bepicid dast-e cap. xiabun-e sevvom dast-e rast xiabun-e sinast. J: bebaxgid, farsim ziad xub nist. momkene lotfan yek kam ahestetar va Somordetar sohbat konid? yani az awal hamas-o dobare begam? age momkene. P: bale, mostaqim berid ta... 2 Excuse me sir, what time is it? Halt past eight. Thank you. Sorry, can | give you one more trouble? By all means, go ahead. i i This is my triena’s address. Unfortunately | can’t reed it. Wi! you read it for me, please? P: I'll try. Sina Street, no. 80. SR®S2BSUnit 8: Street talk 129 Do you know where Sina Street is? Go straight up to @ big cross-roads. There, turn left. The third road on the right is Sina Street. I'm sorry, my Persian isn’t that good. Would you please speak a bit more slowly and clearly? You mean | should say all of it again? If possible. Yes, go straight up to... cel. sat w= cand Seay cele saat cande? ps nim aS dige os befhjetun (Gs) gig xundan (xun) iy bexunam (psigy bexunames ly bara mixunides ‘sa‘y kardan (kon) xiaban xiabun co! for ols xiaban Adee 5S) 995 rw obls one oie mostagim b ta carrah bys) uni sezeq: bepicid dast <= cap rast bp time, hour, clock how mach What time is it? halt other; more to you to read (for me to) read (for me to) read it short for ly, baréyam for me will you read it to try street (iterary/reading style) ‘street straight up to; as far as cross-roads; intersection there turn hand left right130 Unit 8: goft-o-gu-ye XiGban, TTT TTT ob; ziad much; many axl aheste slow(ly) oo,e4 Somorde clearily) (GS) 39,5 cuxue sohbat kardan (kon) to speak we yeni ie; you mean a2 hame all i4as hamas all of it yi4en hamaé-o all of it (plus ra) ojbgo dobare again e% begam (for me to) say 451 age if -P Language and culture notes Object endings The possessive endings (introduced in U2D2) can also be used as objects after verbs, prepositions or ezafe (see U2D2). Examples: After a verb: (@) p05 g2ugulw sAndevic-o xordam. | ate the sandwich. (D) .p2)g> gig! UN-0 xordam. | ate it. (c) . eo yg3 xordame’. | ate it. Note: Comparing (b) and (c) you will note two changes in (c): 1 The object ending is placed after the verb. 2 The odject marker (ra, oF its colloquial form -ro/-o) is omitted. Object endings are often sandwiched between the two elements of @ compound verb (see U4D2): (@) 9,5 59) 4 5gnp0l8 kmpiuter-o rougan kardam. | turned 0° the computer. (b) 2,5 55, gig! un-o rougan kardam. | tumed it on. (©) .pd,5 suusg, rouSane§ kardam. | turned it on. After a preposition, (see USD1)Unit 8: Street talk 131 Note the changes between (b) and (c) in each set below: (a) 5° »23 zir-e miz under the table (b) <3! 23 zie un under it (©) up) zires under it (@) le g 40>! yx bein-e ahmad o ali between Ahmad and Ali (b) lay3! G2 bein-e unha between them (©) sw beinesun between them (a) 4,LIS co, ru-ye kanape on the sofa ©) wal esa) Turye un on it (©) (493) rus on it (@) as>l cl baraye ahmad for Ahmad (6) 9) sly Baraye u for him (©) Gly bara for him Sometimes a ‘linking’ or ‘intrusive’ _» h comes between the preposi- tion and the suffix: (@) 92 42/4) be ahmad goftam | said to Ahmad (or: | told Ahmad) (6) 2S 9! 4 be u goftam | said to him (©) =F (24) be(h)es goftam I said to him (@) Large gid) de>l lb ba ahmad raftam sinema. | went to the cinema with Ahmad. (b) Loins @2d, 5! b ba u raftam sinema. | went to the cinema with him. (0) Lares 2d, slab, /, tol bahes/bahAs raftam sinema. | went to the cinema with him. In casual speech eu bam with me cl bat with you (inf) ol bas with him/her/it Gb bamun with us osl —-batun with you oxb — bagun with them132 Unit 8: goft-o-guye Xlabany After ezAfe: (see U2D2) (a) Gn nai nesf-e sib half of (an/the) apple (b) 53! Hai nesf-e un halt of it (c) tai nesfes half of it (2) oy) ge hame-ye xarboze all (or: the whole) of the Melon (0) (33! see hame-ye un all of it (c) ase hamaé all of it In the light of the above explanations, the following sentences from Dialogue 1 above should now be slightly easier to decipher! ~omoigze pigigoi _ nemitunam bexunames. | can’t read it. Lpasige go ply bara mixunides? Will you read it for me? Spa yeh io Com; Ss eigi ge mitunam yek zahmat-e dige be(h)etun bedam? Can | give you one more trouble? More examples: pykie montazeram. I'm waiting. point gi jt» montazer-e to hastam. | am waiting for you pent &kc:. montazeret hastam. —_|_am waiting for you. -~5 42s montazeretam. I'm waiting for you. spo gle Soma-ro didam. | saw you. “O25 didametun. | saw you. Exercise 1 Can you provide the shorter version of each of thase sentences? Folow the example, 1 .poy9> g ll anar-o xordam. _| ate the pomegranate. Can you say: | ate it, Example: 99> xordames, | ate it. 2 pro gaesl — ahmad-o didam. | saw Ahmad. Can you say: | saw him.Unit 8: Street talk 133 3 poS Agel gignvgli — televizion-o xamus kardam. | turned off the TV. Can you say: | turned it off. 4 SiS Agald gcl,> — ceraq-o xAmus konam? Shall | turn off the light? Can you say: Shall | turn it off? 5 .OS ged gi,I5 — karet-o tamum kon. Finish your work Can you say: Finish it. o Sojue 9) 013 qalamet ru mize? _Is your pe on the desk? Can you say: No, it’s under it! 7 piiS lad, 4, be baccehd goftam. _| told the children. Can you say: | told them. 8 SiS Cree fom nro b wigiice mitunam ba modir-e hotel sohbat konam? Can | speak with the hotel manager? Can you say: Can | speak with him? (f) © P94 igi gd 93 gta Show hame-ye bastani-ro nemitunam boxoram. | can't eat all of the ice cream. Can you say: | can’t eat all of it. I'll eat half of it. How to ask: ‘What's the matter (or: wrong) with... ?? Here's the formula: —_— 42 ce what + object endirg + oe is Saaz ceme? What's the matter with me? Saiz cete? What's the matter with you? (inf) fac> cese? What's the matter with him/her/it? {aig0% cemune? — What's the matter with us? faigt> cetune? What's the matter with you? Saigd> cegune? What's the matter with them? cuss} eae hiccim nist. Nothing's wrong with me. (See double negative in U9D1,)134 Unit 8: Got-o-guve wing ini Exercise 2 Match a number with a letter. The first one has been done for you, 1 .digh> (eig.,¢ midunam cetune. [e] 2 ALS pigdg¢ midunam ceée. [] 3 .Aiga> yeigd.¢ midunam cemune. [ ] 4 40> @igd<¢ midunam ceme. {] 5 43 go.4¢ midunam cegune. [ ] 6 A> pgd,4¢ midunam cete. {1 (a) | know what's wrong with me. (b) | know what's wrong with you. (inf) (©) | know what's wrong with him/her/it. (d) | know what's wrong with us. (e) | know what’s wrong with you. (f/p!) (f) | know what's wrong with them. Exercise 3 A Persian-speaking relative (F) has received a posteard from his Australian friend, but can’t read the handwriting. Can you translate this dialogue into Persian? R: Excuse me, can you read this postcard for me, please. You: Certainly. Who is it fom? R:; From my Australian friend. [after you have read the postcard] R: Thank you very much. You: Pleasure. Asking and telling the time (cb2; 5) Souie cele saat cande? What time is it? (lit How much is the hour?) Aude cel, saat haste. It's 8 o'clock. (lit The haur is eight.)Unit 8: Street talk 135 Here are some other expressions of time: ce ely saat-e hast {at) 8 o'clock (lit the hour of eight) pgm hasto nim half past 8 (it eight and half) &)gcbe hast o rob" a quarter past 8 (lit eight and quarter) bdo Gg cuie hast o panj da(qjige 5 past 8 (lit 8 and § minutes) che 4 Ss —-ye(k) rob’ be hast a quarter to eight More ‘streetwise’ expressions Sabo Cele weice bebaxsid, saat dard? Excuse me, have you got the time (lit a watch)? Spy dab yb pgs jl Fog, wetses bebaxéid, forudgah az kodum taraf bayad beram? Excuse me, which way do | go to the airport? Seal al, yaig olSo9,8 U Leia! jl igo .ce midunid az inja 8 forudgah ceqadr rah ast (co! rast)? Do you know how far it is from here to the airport? Sats ge Sole phir gre | wgigil gatle b ba magin/otobus/metro ceqadr tul mikege? How long will it take by car/bus/metro? (AS) gat Jol — tul keSidan (kes) to take (time) AEBS 09 Gyuble l sels SL cole pidde ye(k) saat; ba magin dah da(qige. One hour on foot; ten minutes by car. Sp pS aul LS 3) Gegegil Cols belit-e otobus az koja bayad begiram? (lit) From where should | get a bus ticket?Unit 8: gofhoguiye xi north south east west north-east south-west ‘on the corner on the north-west corner of the cross-roads/intersection 136 Jlos somal y= jonub by Sara Sy garb Gp Jes — Somal-e Sarq wt vee — Jonub-e garb US sare nabs hy jke oye Jd AS sar-e nabs-e Somial-e qarb-e car-rah Exercise 4 Look at the folowing local map. Can you give directions to: [A] the post office; [B] the telecom centre; [C] the supermarket