# به
## Malay
### Etymology 1
#### Noun

به (plural به-به or به٢, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)
* Jawi spelling of bah (“flood”)‎

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

به (plural به-به or به٢, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)
* Jawi spelling of bah (“father”)‎

### Etymology 3
#### Noun

به (plural به-به or به٢, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)
* Jawi spelling of bah (“father”)‎

### Etymology 4
#### Noun

به (plural به-به or به٢, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)
* Jawi spelling of bah (“language”)‎

### Etymology 5
#### Preposition

به
* Jawi spelling of bah (“under, below”)‎

## Pashto
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ba/

### Particle

به • (ba)
* will (indicating future action)

## Persian
### Etymology 1

From Middle Persian 𐭯𐭥𐭭 (pʿn) / PWN (pad, “to, at, in, on”), from Old Persian 𐎱𐎫𐎡𐎹 (patiy), from Proto-Iranian *pati-.

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [ba]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [bä]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [bä]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [bä]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [bä]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [be]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [bä]
* Audio (Iran):(file)

#### Preposition

به • (be)
* Expresses the indirect object: to; for
    به من بگو. ― be man begu. ― Tell me.
    نصیحت من به شما این است.nasihat-e man be šomâ in ast.This is my advice to you.
* Expresses the direction of movement: to; towards; into
    راه‌های رسیدن به خوشحالیrâh-hâ-ye residan be xošhâliways to reach happiness
    وزیر خارجه ترکیه به تهران رفت.vazir-e xâreje-ye torkiye be tehrân raft.The Foreign Minister of Turkey went to Tehran.
* Forms adverbial phrases of manner: by, -ly
    به سرعت ― be sor'at ― quickly
    به زور ― be zur ― by force, forcibly
* Indicates the language of a text, speech, etc.: in
    به فارسی ― be fârsi ― in Persian
* Used to form vows: by, in
    به نام خدا ― be nâm-e xodâ ― in the name of God

##### Usage notes

(Orthography)
* Until the early 1900s, به (be) was almost always written joined to the next word:
    باو (be u)
    Instead of modern
       به او (be u)
    However, this is now done only for common adverbial constructions formed with به (be), and even that not consistently. In other cases, it is always written as a separate word. When older works are republished, به (be) is often edited to be separate.
(Use with inflectional enclitics)
* While in literary Persian inflectional endings are never attached to prepositions, in many spoken varieties of Persian this is not the case. In the dialect of Tehran, the preposition به (be) has a /h/ inserted before inflectional endings starting with a vowel, while the dialect of Mashhad has a /z/ instead. For example, while one may say "to him" as به او (be u) (or archaically بدو (bed-u)) in literary Iranian Persian, in spoken dialects one would instead typically attach the inflectional ending ـش (-aš, pronounced in most dialects as -eš), forming بهش (beheš) in Tehrani and بذش (bezeš) in Mashhadi. See the table below for other examples:
| English | Literary Persian | Tehran | Mashhad |
| "to me" | به من (be man) | بهم (beham) | بذم (bezem) |
| "to you" (singular) | به تو (be to) | بهت (behet) | بذت (bezet) |
| "to him/her" | به او (be u) بدو (bed-u) | بهش (beheš) | بذش (bezeš) |
| "to us" | به ما (be mâ) | بهمون (behemun) | بذمون (bezemun) |
| "to you" (plural) | به شما (be šomâ) | بهتون (behetun) | بذتون (bezetun) |
| "to them" | به ایشان (be išân) بدیشان (bed-išân) | بهشون (behešun) | بذشون (bezešun) |
* Note that this is not unique to به (be), and other prepositions such as با (bâ) and از (az) are also inflected in many spoken varieties of Persian.

##### Alternative forms

* بد (bed, bad), بذ (bez, baz) (archaic or dialectal, Mashhad)
* بم (bəm) (dialectal, Herati)

#### References

* ↑ Ela Filippone (2011) “The Language of the Qorʾān-e Qods and its Sistanic Dialectal Background”, in M. Maggi, P. Orsatti, editors, The Persian Language in History‎, Wiesbaden: Reichert, pages 179-235: “Mašh. bezem, bezet, bezeš, etc. for ‘to me, to you, to him/­her, etc.’ (= Prs. be man, be to, be u) have also been interpreted as from pad + suffix with z < d.”
* ↑ Miller, Corey, Livingston, Jace, Vinson, Mark, Triebwasser Prado, Thomas (2014) Persian Dialects: As Spoken in Iran‎, University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language, pages 89-90

#### Further reading

* MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “pad”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 62

### Etymology 2

From Middle Persian [script needed] (byh /⁠bēh⁠/, “quince”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

#### Alternative forms

* بهی (behi)
* بی (beyy) (in Isfahani dialect)

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [bih]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [be̞ʱ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [be̞ʱ]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [biː]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [bi]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [beʱ]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [beʱ]

#### Noun

به • (beh)
* quince

##### Descendants

* → Avar: бигь (bih)
* → Georgian: ბია (bia)
** → Abkhaz: а-биа (a-bja)
** → Laz: ბიჲა (biya) — Chkhala
** → Mingrelian: ბია (bia)
** → Ossetian: биа (bia) — Digor
* → Lak: бигь (bih)
* → Uzbek: behi
* → Uyghur: بېھى (bëhi)
* → Turkmen: behi

#### References

* MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “bēh”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 18

### Etymology 3

From Middle Persian [Term?] ŠPYL / wyh (weh, “better, good”), from Old Persian 𐎺𐎢 (vahu, “good”), from Proto-Iranian *Hwáhuš, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hwásuš, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wésus (“good”). Related to Old Armenian վեհ (veh, “sublime”), an Iranian borrowing.

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [bih]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [be̞ʱ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [be̞ʱ]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [be̞]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [bi]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [beʱ]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [beʱ]

#### Adjective

به • (beh)
* (archaic) good, excellent
    Synonym: خوب (xub)
* (archaic) better
    Synonym: بهتر (behtar)
** c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 2925:بَاغْبَان هَم دَانَد آن رَا دَر خَزَان / لیک دِیدِ یَک بِهْ اَز دِیدِ جَهَانbāğbān ham dānad ān rā dar xazān / lēk dīd-i yak bih az dīd-i jahānThe Gardener knows that (difference) even in autumn, but the One's sight is better than the world's sight.
* (archaic) elegant
* (archaic) safe, sound

##### Derived terms

* بهتر (behtar)
* بهدین (behdin)
* بهروز (behruz)
* بهشهر (behšahr)
* بهنام (behnâm)
* بهینه (behine)
* به‌آفرید (beh-âfarid)

#### References

* Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892) “به”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul
* MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “weh”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 89