A right-to-left alphabet of 32 letters
Persian is written in a modified Arabic script, from right to left. There are no capital letters. Most letters join to the next letter, so a letter changes shape depending on where it stands in the word. Numbers are the exception: they are written left to right even inside a Persian sentence (سال ۱۴۰۳, sāl-e 1403).
The 32 letters: ا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح خ د ذ ر ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن و ه ی
Four of them do not exist in Arabic and were added for Persian sounds: پ (p), چ (ch), ژ (zh, as in "measure") and گ (g).
| Letter | Alone | Start | Middle | End | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| be | ب | بـ | ـبـ | ـب | b |
| sin | س | سـ | ـسـ | ـس | s |
| he | ه | هـ | ـهـ | ـه | h, or e at the end of a word |
| dāl | د | د | ـد | ـد | d (never joins forward) |
Letters that never join forward
Seven letters connect to the letter before them but never to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز ژ و. After one of them the word continues with a start form, which is why a single word can look like several pieces:
- دوست (dust) — friend: د and و stand alone, then ست joins.
- روز (ruz) — day: three unjoined letters.
- زندگی (zendegi) — life.
Several letters, one sound
Persian borrowed many Arabic words and kept their spelling, but not their pronunciation. The spelling of these words has to be learned word by word.
| Sound | Letters | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| t | ت ط | تو (to, you), طلا (talā, gold) |
| s | س ث ص | سال (sāl, year), صبح (sobh, morning) |
| z | ز ذ ض ظ | زن (zan, woman), ظهر (zohr, noon) |
| h | ه ح | هوا (havā, air), حال (hāl, state) |
| gh | غ ق | غذا (ghazā, food), قند (ghand, sugar cube) |
Vowels
Long vowels are written: ا/آ (ā), و (u), ی (i). The three short vowels a, e, o are normally not written. They exist as small marks (َ zebar = a, ِ zir = e, ُ pish = o) used in textbooks and where a word would be ambiguous:
- گُل (gol) — flower
- گِل (gel) — mud
In ordinary text both are just گل, and context decides. A final ه after a consonant is usually the vowel e: خانه (khāne, house).
Two keyboard details: ی, ک and the half-space
Persian ی has no dots at the end of a word, and Persian ک has a straight top stroke. Arabic keyboards produce different characters (Unicode 064A and 0643) that look similar but break search and spell-checking. Always use a Persian keyboard layout.
The zero-width non-joiner (نیمفاصله, half-space) keeps two parts of a word apart without a real space. On most Persian layouts it is Shift+Space.
- میروم (miravam) — I go
- کتابها (ketābhā) — books
Watch out as an English speaker
- You expect every vowel to be written. کرد can be کَرد (kard, did) or کُرد (kord, Kurd). Learn new words with their pronunciation, not only their spelling.
- A normal space or no space instead of the half-space: می روم and میروم are common, but the standard spelling is میروم.
- One sound, one letter is an English-reader assumption that fails here: ✗ سبح / ✓ صبح (sobh, morning).
- Arabic-layout ya and kaf look almost identical on screen. If Persian text copied from your device will not match in a search, the keyboard is the cause.
Example dialogue
این کلمه چیست؟ — What is this word?
گُل است. — It is "gol" (flower).
گُل یا گِل؟ — Gol or gel (mud)?
گُل. در باغ است. — Gol. It is in the garden.