# Persian/Lesson 5

| | فارسی (‹fârsi›, “Persian”) Learn the Persian language Contents • Introduction Persian Alphabet lessons: 1 ( ۱ ) • 2 ( ۲ ) • 3 ( ۳ ) • 4 ( ۴ ) Elementary grammar: 5 ( ۵ ) • 6 ( ۶ ) • 7 ( ۷ ) • 8 ( ۸ ) • 9 ( ۹ ) 10 ( ۱۰ ) • 11 ( ۱۱ ) • 12 ( ۱۲ ) • 13 ( ۱۳ ) • 14 ( ۱۴ ) • 15 ( ۱۵ ) Intermediate: 16 ( ۱۶ ) • 17 ( ۱۷ ) • 18 ( ۱۸ ) • 19 ( ۱۹ ) • 20 ( ۲۰ ) 21 ( ۲۱ ) • 22 ( ۲۲ ) • 23 ( ۲۳ ) • 24 ( ۲۴ ) • 25 ( ۲۵ ) • 26 ( ۲۶ ) Advanced: Appendix: Alphabet • Glossary • Handwriting |
| To continue, your computer must display Persian. The box below should show these Persian letters on the far right: 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 If they are different or in the wrong order, see Persian Computing. |||
In lessons 1 through 4, you learned some greetings and how to read, write, and pronounce Persian words.
In this lesson, you will learn about Persian verbs: their agreement with the subject, their location in a sentence, and how to conjugate the most common one, بودن ‹budan› (“to be”), in the simple present tense.

## Dialogue: شما کجایی هستید؟ ‹šomâ kojâi hastid?›

Reza and Shirin have just met:
| Shirin: | ‹xošvaqtam, âqâ rezâ. šomâ kojâi hastid? › “Nice to meet you, Reza. Where are you from?” | خوشوقتم، آقا رضا. شما کجایی هستید؟ Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice. | شيرين: |
| Reza: | ‹man irâniyam. az mašhad hastam. šomâ cetor?› “I’m Iranian. I’m from Mashhad. How about you?” | من ایرانیم. از مشهد هستم. شما چطور؟ Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice. | رضا: |
| Shirin: | ‹man az tehrân hastam.› “I’m from Tehran.” | من از تهران هستم. Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice. | شيرين: |
| Reza: | ‹va âqâ-ye esmit? engelisi-st?› “And Mr. Smith? Is he English?” | و آقای اسمیت؟ انگلیسی است؟ Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice. | رضا: |
| Shirin: | ‹xeyr, u âmrikâiy-st.› “No, he’s American.” | خیر، او آمریکایی است. Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice. | شيرين: |
| If you intend to help complete this dialogue, please see #Exercises and Persian/Planning#Dialogue for suggestions that emphasize this lesson's topic: simple present tense forms of بودن . ||||
Explanation
    Shirin and Reza have just met.
    While "âqâ" is an honorific used in Persian before Male given names, it is not translated to "Mr." in English.
Vocabulary
* کجایی ‹kojâi› — “from where?”
* ایرانیم ‹irâniyam› — “(I) am Iranian.”
* او ‹u› /uː/ — “he, she, it”
* انگلیسی ‹engelisiy› — “English”
* خیر ‹xeyr› — “no”
* آمریکایی ‹âmrikâiy› — “American”
* ما ‹mâ› /mɒː/ — “we, us”
* آنها ‹ânhâ› /ɒːnˈhɒː/ — “they”

## Subjects

In both English and Persian, sentences have subjects and verbs. In a sentence that expresses an action, the subject is usually the main actor or agent. In a sentence that makes a comment about a topic, the subject is usually that topic. A verb is a word like talk that expresses an action, or one like is that links the subject to the words that comment about it:
| Sentence | Subject | Verb |
| “I am a student.” | “I” | “am” |
| “Did you complete the assignment?” | “you” | “Did complete” |
| “Study this grammar topic!” | “(you)” | “Study” |
Each sentence above, like all complete sentences in English and Persian, has a subject and a verb, even if the subject is only implied. Subjects have grammatical “number” and “person”:
* First, second, or third person: indicates whether the speaker or addressee is included
* Singular or plural number: indicates how many people or things are included
Grammatical person and number may be represented by the following pronouns:
| Grammatical number and person | Number | Number |
| Grammatical number and person | Singular (one) | Plural (more than one) |
| First person (the speaker) | من | ما |
| First person (the speaker) | ‹man› | ‹mâ› |
| First person (the speaker) | “I” | “we” |
| Second person (the addressee) | تو | شما |
| Second person (the addressee) | ‹to› | ‹šomâ› |
| Second person (the addressee) | “you” | “you” |
| Third person (someone else) | او | آنها |
| Third person (someone else) | ‹u› | ‹ânhâ› |
| Third person (someone else) | “he/she/it” | “they” |

## Present tense forms of بودن ‹budan› (“to be”)

| بودن ‹budan› (“to be”) Simple present tense, “full” form Stem: هست‍ ‹hast-› | Number | Number |
| بودن ‹budan› (“to be”) Simple present tense, “full” form Stem: هست‍ ‹hast-› | Singular | Plural |
| First person | (من) هستم | (ما) هستیم |
| First person | (‹man›) ‹hastam› | (‹mâ›) ‹hastim› |
| First person | “(I) am” | “(we) are” |
| Second person | (تو) هستی | (شما) هستید |
| Second person | (‹to›) ‹hasti› | (‹šomâ›) ‹hastin› |
| Second person | “(you) are” | “(you) are” |
| Third person | (او) هست | (آنها) هستند |
| Third person | (‹u›) ‹hast› | (‹ânhâ›) ‹hastan› |
| Third person | “(he/she/it) is” | “(they) are” |
Persian verbs are conjugated by adding suffixes, similar to the way English verbs like talk take the suffixes -s, -ed, and -ing to make verb forms like talks , talked , and talking . In Persian, though, the verb’s suffix clearly indicates its grammatical person and number. For example, the table on the right shows the simple present tense “full” forms of the Persian verb بودن ‹budan› (“to be”), consisting of the stem هست‍ ‹hast-› and various suffixes to indicate the person and number:
The full simple present tense of بودن ‹budan› appeared as هستید ‹hastin› and هستم ‹hastam› in the first and third lines of the dialogue above.
بودن ‹budan› also appears in abbreviated form above, once as the word است ‹e› and once as the suffix ‍م ‹-am› following ایرانی ‹irâniy› (“Iranian”). That's because the verb بودن ‹budan› has both a full form using the stem هست‍ ‹hast-› and a short form. The long form is a bit more formal in tone and often carries the sense of “exists”.
The short form is used more often than the long form, especially in casual speech. As shown below, most of the short form is written as suffixes (technically clitics since they attach to phrases rather than just words) like ‍ید ‹-in› in چطورید ‹cetorin› (“how are you”), but the third person singular form is written as a separate word: است ‹e› (“is”):
| بودن ‹budan› (“to be”) Simple present tense, short form | Number | Number |
| بودن ‹budan› (“to be”) Simple present tense, short form | Singular | Plural |
| First person | ... + ‍م | ... + ‍یم |
| First person | ‹...am› | ‹...im› |
| First person | “(I) am” | “(we) are” |
| Second person | ... + ‍ی | ... + ‍ید |
| Second person | ‹...i› | ‹...id›, ‹...in› |
| Second person | “(you) are” | “(you) are” |
| Third person | است | ... + ‍ند |
| Third person | ‹ast›, ‹...e›, ‹...s› | ‹...+an› |
| Third person | “(he/she/it) is” | “(they) are” |
است ‹ast› can be used with singular or plural subjects to express existence, like "there is" or "there are" in English.
For plural “animate” subjects (one that refers to multiple people or to a thing that might be thought to behave figuratively like multiple people), existence can also be expressed with the plural form هستند ‹hastan› .
Some sources disagree with this and say است is only used as a copula, never used for existence.
Colloquially, هستند ‹hastand› may be a suffix pronounced ‹an› after consonant or ‹n› after vowel.

## Word order

As the previous dialogues have shown, the verb usually comes last in a simple Persian sentence. For example, the last word in each Persian sentence below is a form of the verb بودن ‹budan› (“to be”):
| | | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” | “I am fine.” |
| | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. | من خوب هستم. |
| | من | خوب | هستم | | | | | | | |
| ← | ‹man› | ‹xub› | ‹hastam› | | | | | | | |
| ← | “I” | “fine” | “am” | | | | | | | |
| | | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” | “You are a student.” |
| | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. | تو دانشجو هستی. |
| | تو | دانشجو | هستی | | | | | | | |
| ← | ‹to› | ‹danešju› | ‹hasti› | | | | | | | |
| ← | “you” | “student” | “are” | | | | | | | |
| | | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” | “The university is big.” |
| | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. | دانشگاه بزرگ است. |
| | دانشگاه | بزرگ | است | | | | | | | |
| ← | ‹dânešgâh› | ‹bozorg› | ‹e› | | | | | | | |
| ← | “university” | “big” | “is” | | | | | | | |
Grammatically, subjects are optional in Persian. Since the suffix of a conjugated verb clearly indicates the number and person of the subject, subject pronouns are often omitted from Persian sentences, except when used for emphasis.

## Review

In this lesson, you learned how to conjugate two sets of simple present tense forms of the Persian verb بودن ‹budan› (“to be”)....
| Core vocabulary: کجایی ‹kojâi› — “from where?” ایرانیم ‹irâniyam› — “(I) am Iranian.” او ‹u› /uː/ — “he, she, it” آمریکایی ‹âmrikâiy› — “American” ما ‹mâ› /mɒː/ — “we, us” آنها ‹ânhâ› /ɒːnˈhɒː/ — “they” | ...s: ابپثت ‹abepesete› — “lorem ipsum dolor...” | ... words: ابپثت ‹abepesete› — “lorem ipsum dolor...” |

## Notes

* ↑ The word “you” does not usually appear in English commands, but the grammatical subject “you” is implied.
* 1 2 The grammatical number may be different from the semantic number. E.g., in “These scissors are dull”, the subject and verb are grammatically plural but semantically indicate a single item. In Persian, there are similar constructions, and both plural pronouns and plural verb forms are often used as a polite version of the singular. More about this will be explained in later lessons.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Note: The Persian script here uses formal spelling, but the transcriptions in angle brackets shows typical colloquial pronunciation. In colloquial speech, for example, the ending ‍ید ‹-id› is often pronounced as ‹-in› and the word است ‹ast› (“is”) is pronounced as ‹e› after a consonant or as ‹s› after a vowel. Other differences between spoken and written Persian will be given in the lessons that follow.

## Next: Lesson 6 ( ۶ ), Noun phrases, ezâfe

Continue to Lesson 6 ( ۶ ), Noun phrases, ezâfe >>
* Contents • Introduction
* Persian Alphabet lessons: 1 ( ۱ ) • 2 ( ۲ ) • 3 ( ۳ ) • 4 ( ۴ )
* Elementary grammar: 5 ( ۵ ) • 6 ( ۶ ) • 7 ( ۷ ) • 8 ( ۸ ) • 9 ( ۹ )
* 10 ( ۱۰ ) • 11 ( ۱۱ ) • 12 ( ۱۲ ) • 13 ( ۱۳ ) • 14 ( ۱۴ ) • 15 ( ۱۵ )
* Intermediate: 16 ( ۱۶ ) • 17 ( ۱۷ ) • 18 ( ۱۸ ) • 19 ( ۱۹ ) • 20 ( ۲۰ )
* 21 ( ۲۱ ) • 22 ( ۲۲ ) • 23 ( ۲۳ ) • 24 ( ۲۴ ) • 25 ( ۲۵ ) • 26 ( ۲۶ )
* Advanced:
* Appendix: Alphabet • Glossary • Handwriting
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