Persian/Lesson 5

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Lessons: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • Contents • Introduction • Alphabet • Glossary • Handwriting •

Contents 1 In This Lesson 2 Greetings 3 Grammar 1: Simple sentence structure 4 Grammar 2: The Ezafe (linking element) 5 Possession 6 Adjectival Use 7 Exercises 8 Vocabulary

[edit] In This Lesson

• Basic greetings.

• Grammar: .

• Culture: haft sin.

• Exercises: forming basic sentences.

[edit] Greetings

Persian:

شیرین:سلام آرش:سلام::: شیرین

Pronunciation Guide:

Shirin: Salaam, Arash. Shoma chetorin? Arash: Salaam! Merci, man khoob hastam. Shoma chetorin? Shirin: Merci, man khoob hastam. Khoda hafez. Arash: Khoda hafez, Shirin!

English:

Shirin: Hello Arash. How are you? Arash: Hi, Thank you, I'm fine. And you? Shirin: Thank you, I'm doing fine. Goodbye. Arash: Goodbye Shirin!

Explanation

The word Khodâ means "God". Khodâ hafez means "Good-bye" and literally "May God be with you". It is similar to the Spanish word "adiós", which means both "Good-bye" and "to God".

[edit] Grammar 1: Simple sentence structure

Composing a simple sentence in Persian is not very difficult if you remember the following formula:

• Subject - Predicate - Verb

The main verb always comes last. Let's make a simple sentence, "The University is big":

Daneshgah-e bozorg ast.

This can be broken down: "daneshgah" is "University", "bozorg" means big and "ast" is the verb for "to be" in the present tense he/she/it form.

Another example is "She is a student":

U daneshju ast

U is "he/she it" (often omitted in sentences because the verb explains the subject), daneshju is student (gender neutral) and ast, as mentioned above is the "to be" verb in the present tense, he/she/it form.

Here is one more...: "Mr Shahidi is a professor".

Agha-ye Shahidi ustaad ast.

The words used were "agha" for Mr, "Shahidi" is the professors name and "ustaad" is Persian for Professor.

So, now you might be wondering about that odd little "-e" and "-ye" you are seeing. That is called a Ezafe in Persian, and is explained in the next section.

[edit] Grammar 2: The Ezafe (linking element)

One of the most important aspects of Persian (next to the basic sentence structure) is the handy little linking element called the Ezafe. The Ezafe is a short vowel pronounced like "e" in French (eh) and is never stressed.

Note that if the word the ezafe links to ends with a vowel; a,i u or o the ezafe must be pronounced as a "-ye". If the word the ezafe links to ends in a consonant, this is not the case and a simple "e" is used.

The Ezafe has 3 possible meanings. The two most common and basic are as follows...

[edit] Possession

• First and most common is it shows possession, i.e. "belonging to".

example: roosari-ye zan.

The women's(zan) scarf (roosari-ends with a vowel!). The ezafe (-e, -ye) shows that the women owns the scarf.

Another example:

mu-ye pesar

The boy's hair.

[edit] Adjectival Use

• Secondly, it can join a noun to a qualifying adjective, with the noun always coming first.

example: zan-e arabi.

Can you guess what it means? The Arabic woman.

another example, Daneshju-ye irani

The Iranian student, because the nationality of the student (Iranian) is the adjective and "student" is the noun.

[edit] Exercises

1.Translate the following sentences into English:

2.Using the vocabulary below make 5 simple sentences using the Ezafe:

Answers {{{1}}}

[edit] Vocabulary

Persian	Pronunciation	English
شیرین	Shirin	n Shirin (female given name)
سلام	salaam	hi, hello
آرش	Arash	Arash (male given name)
شما	shoma	you (singular, polite) and plural
مرسی	mersi	thank you
من	man	I, me
خوب	khub	adj. good
هستم	hastam	v (I) am
خدا حافظ	khoda hafez	goodbye

Lessons: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • Contents • Introduction • Alphabet • Glossary • Handwriting •