Persian/Lesson 9

In this lesson, you will learn how to create and use plurals of nouns in Persian.

Dialogue: ... ‹...›

... and... are talking....

X:	‹...› “...”	... Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice.	...:
Y:	‹...› “...”	... Missing audio. If you are fluent in Persian, record and upload your voice.	...:

Explanation

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Vocabulary

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درس9

امروز – vandaag (today)

د يروز – gisteren (yesterday)

د بستان – basisschool

بودن – zijn (be)

آمدن – komen (come)

اسم – naam (name)

باريد ن – regenen,sneeuwen

من - ik (I)

نام – naam

نادر – Nader (jongensnaam) (boys name)

كتاب – boek (book)

امين – Amin (jongensnaam) (boys name)

پس دادن – teruggeven

پس داد – hij geeft, zij geeft

امروز باران باريد – vandaag regent het (today it rains)

من از دبستان آمدم - ik kom uit school (I come from school)

من از د بستان تند آمدم – ik kom snel uit school (I come fast from school)

Plural nouns

کتاب‌ها	←	کتاب‌	‌ها				←	کتاب‌ها
‹ketâbhâ›		‹ketâb›	‹hâ›

The usual way to make a plural in Persian is to add the suffix ها ‹ha› to the noun. The suffix is written immediately after the noun with no intervening space, but it is not normally joined to the last letter in the noun.

Colloquially, ها is pronounced ‹â›.

Many words have an alternative plural form that may be used instead of the normal Persian form. In most cases, the alternative plural form comes from Arabic. For example, animate nouns (those that denote humans or things with human-like characteristics) and nouns that denote paired body parts (e.g. eyes, ears, and hands) have an alternative plural form made with the suffix ان ‹ân› :

پسر ‹pesar› (“boy”) + ان ‹-an› (“-s”)
چشم ‹cešm› (“eye”) + ان ‹-an› (“-s”)

Many Arabic words have different plural forms that may be used in Persian. Some are created by adding suffixes:

باغ ‹bâq› (“garden”) + ت ‹-at› = باغت ‹bâqat› (“gardens”)
معلّم ‹mo’allem› (“teacher”) + ین ‹-in› = معلّمین ‹mo’allemin› (“teachers”)

Others are called “broken plurals”:

كِتاب ‹ketâb› (“book”), كُتُب ‹kotob› (“books”),کتاب
وِقْت ‹vaqt› (“time”), اوقات ‹owqat› (“times”)
طَرَف (“side, direction”), اَطْراف (“sides, directions”)
شَخْس (“person”), اَشْخاس (“persons”)
مُقَدَّمِه (“preliminary”), مُقّدَّمات (“preliminaries”)
علم (“science”), عُلوم (“sciences”)
وزير (“minister”), وُزَراء (“ministers”) (govt.)
لغت (“word”), لُغات (“words”)
شاعر (“poet”), شُعَرا (“poets”)
عَرَب (“Arab”), اَعْراب (“Arabs”)

		“these books”
	این کتاب‌ها
	این	کتاب	ها
←	‹in›	‹ketâb›	‹-hâ›
←	“this, these”	“book”	“-s”

To make a noun phrase plural, only the main noun is changed. Adjectives and demonstrative adjectives are not, as shown on the right.

Numbers

		“twenty-one (21)”
	بیست و یک
	بیست	و	یک
←	‹bist›	‹o›	‹yek›
←	“twenty”	“and”	“one”

After 20, Persian numbers use و ‹o› (“and”) between digit, as shown in the example on the right.

		“three thousand four hundred fifty-six (3,456)”
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	{{{1}}}
←	‹{{{2}}}›
←	“{{{3}}}”

Exercises

Plurals:

(To check your answers, click “[show ▼]”.)

Translate the following phrases into Persian.

the books

کتاب‌ها ‹ketâbhâ›

those girls

Using the regular Persian plural, آن دخترها ‹ân doxtarhâ› (“those girls, those daughters”)
Bonus points: The alternative plural from Arabic is آن دختران ‹ân doxtarân›

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