Persian grammar, explained simply

Free bite-size Persian grammar lessons: articles, word order, verbs and more. Read the lesson, then practise it with spaced repetition on Langrit.

• The Persian script and sounds (الفبای فارسی) A1 · A righttoleft alphabet of 32 letters Persian is written in a modified Arabic script, from right to left. There
• Personal pronouns (ضمیرهای شخصی) A1 · The six persons Persian has one subject pronoun for each of the six persons. There is no grammatical gender an
• The verb "to be" (است and personal endings) A1 · Two ways to say "am, are, is" Persian has a full verb هستم، هستی، است... and a set of short endings that attac
• Basic word order (subject-object-verb) A1 · The verb comes last English puts the verb in the middle (subjectverbobject). Persian puts it at the end (subje
• Ezafe (اضافه, the linking -e) A1 · What the ezafe does When a noun is followed by a word that describes or owns it, Persian links the two with a
• Indefiniteness: یک and the suffix ـی (no word for "the") A1 · No word for "the" Persian has no definite article. A bare noun is understood as "the ..." when speaker and lis
• Plural nouns (ـها and ـان) A1 · Two plural suffixes Persian nouns have no gender, and almost every noun forms its plural with one of two suffi
• Possessive suffixes (ضمیرهای ملکی متصل) A1 · Two ways to say "my book" Persian can show the owner with a pronoun linked by ezafe, or with a short suffix on
• Demonstratives این and آن (this and that) A1 · Near and far Persian has two demonstratives: این (in) for something near, آن (ān) for something farther away.
• Questions and question words (کلمات پرسشی) A1 · Yes/no questions A statement becomes a question just by rising intonation and a question mark. Nothing moves a
• The present tense (مضارع اخباری) A1 · How it is built Every Persian verb has two stems, a past stem and a present stem. The present tense is: می‌ +
• Negation (منفی کردن) A1 · One prefix does everything Persian has no helper verb like English "do not". Negation is a prefix on the verb
• Numbers, time and dates (عدد و زمان) A1 · Digits and the numbers 120 Persian text uses its own digits, written left to right inside the righttoleft line
• Prepositions (حرف اضافه) A1 · Simple prepositions Like English, a Persian preposition stands before its noun. The whole phrase stays in fron
• داشتن (to have) A1 · A present tense without می‌ داشتن is one of the two verbs that build their present tense without می‌ (the othe
• The object marker را A1 · What را does را stands after a direct object to say that the object is a particular, known one. English does t
• The simple past (ماضی ساده) A2 · The easiest tense in Persian Take the infinitive, cut off the final ـن, and you have the past stem. Add the en
• Present and past stems (بن فعل) A2 · Two stems, and what each one builds Every Persian verb has a past stem and a present stem. Learn both with the
• Compound verbs (فعل مرکب) A2 · Most Persian verbs are two words Persian has stopped making new simple verbs. Instead it combines a noun or an
• The imperative (امر) A2 · بـ plus the present stem A command is built on the present stem with the prefix بـ. The singular has no ending
• The present subjunctive (مضارع التزامی) A2 · The form Take the imperative and add the personal endings. It is the present tense with بـ instead of می‌. Per
• Talking about the future (آینده) A2 · The everyday future is the present tense In conversation Persian almost always uses the present, with a time w
• Progressive with داشتن (مضارع مستمر) A2 · Two verbs, one action To say that something is happening at this very moment, put داشتن in front of the ordina
• Comparatives and superlatives (صفت تفضیلی و عالی) A2 · One ending, every adjective Persian does not compare adjectives with a separate word for "more". The comparati
• Pronoun suffixes as objects (ضمیر متصل مفعولی) A2 · The same suffixes, a new job The endings you learned as possessives (کتابم — my book) also work as object pron
• The present perfect (ماضی نقلی) B1 · Participle plus the short "to be" Add ـه to the past stem and you have the participle: رفت → رفته, خورد → خورد
• The past continuous and habitual past (ماضی استمراری) B1 · می‌ plus the simple past Take the simple past and put می‌ in front of it. That is the whole rule. Person Simpl
• The past perfect (ماضی بعید) B1 · Participle plus بودم The same participle as in the present perfect, followed by the simple past of بودن. The p
• Relative clauses with که B1 · Noun + ـی + که Persian has one relative word, که, for "who", "which", "that" and "where". The noun it describe
• Conditional sentences (جملهٔ شرطی) B1 · Three patterns اگر means "if". What follows it decides whether the condition is possible or imaginary. Type اگ
• The passive voice (مجهول) B1 · Participle plus شدن The passive is the past participle followed by شدن (to become), conjugated in whatever ten
• The past subjunctive (ماضی التزامی) B2 · Participle plus باشم The past subjunctive is the past participle followed by the subjunctive of بودن. It talks
• Spoken and written Persian (زبان گفتاری و نوشتاری) B2 · Two registers, one language Iranians write one form of Persian and speak another. The difference is not slang:
• Reported speech (نقل قول) B2 · The tense does not move This is the good news: Persian keeps the speaker's original tense. Only the pronouns c