coLLoaulAL

PE S R IANLeila Moshiri

GontentsIntroduction Abbreviations The PersianAlphabet 1 3 4

6 Pronunciation Vowels; Diphthongs; Alterand Intonation; Consonants; Stress ation of Vowel Soundsin Colloquial Speech;Capital Letters and Functuation

11 Lesson 1 Articles; Gender; -elast, hast, nist; Word Order; Plurals; lnterrogatives;And; Phrasesand Expressions19 Lesson2 SubjectPronouns;T\e ezfe;Adjectives; Comparisonof Adjecand Expressions tives; Demonstratives;Phrases 7 Lesson 3 formed from the past stem- simple Verbs I: the infinitive; tenses past, imperfect and past participle; The Verb 'to be'; Phrases and Expressions 38 Lesson4 presenttense' Verbs II: tensesformed from the present stem subjunctive, imperative, Noun of the Agent; Phrases and Expressions 49 Lesson5 Compound TensesUse of the Particle r; Compound Verbs; and Phrases perfect, pluperfect,future, pastsubjunctive,passive; Endings Summaryof Verb Expressions;

Lcsson 6 Ot phrascsand Adverbsand Adverbial E:rpressions; Prepositions; Expressions ksson 7 Numben; Phrases Expressions andLesson 8 79 The Calendar; The Seasons; The Days of the Week; The points of the Compass; Telling the Time; Currency; Expressions of Time Lesson9 97 Pronouns - possessive ponouns, interrogative ponouns, indefinite pronouns, khod, colloquial use of pronominal suffixes; Colloquial Use of the ezfe; Conjunctions; phrases and Expressions Lesson 10 96 Subordinate Clauses - relative clauses, indirect statements, wishes and commands, result clauses, conditional sentences, possibility; Impenonal Constructions; phrasesand Expressions

I*sson 11 Word Fornation Irsson 12 Polite Phrases Conventions; and Other Expressions Situational Phrases Conversations: and 110 113

At the Airport; At the Travel Agent; Shopping;Asking the Way; The Telephone Appendix Numbers; Currency; The Calendar Exercise key English-Persianglossary Persian-Englishglossary

t20

r23 r29185

;j

lntroductionThe country is lran, its people are lranians, but things and the language are Persian. The Iranians themselves refer to their whereasthe country as a whole derived languageas frsi because its name from the Aryan peoples who first migrated there, the predominant tongue came to be that of the people of Fars, the province which held Persepolis,the capital of the Persianempire yearsago. of two thousand Persian is an Indo-European language,which means that it is related to the languages Western Europe (when you come to of them, you may like to compare the words for father, rnother, daughter, brother, with English or German). After the Islamic conquest of lran, Arabic became for a time the language of officialdom and learning with the result that Persianitself came to be written with the Arabic alphabet and there was an enormous in Arabic influenceon the language terms of vocabulary,though hardly any in terms of its oasic structure which retained its own for equivalent mostrabic identity.Thereis usuallya pure Persian borrowings, but one or the other has tended to becomedominant and more normally used.This is rather like the French borrowings in English after the Norman conquest. In the 1960sand 1970sa conscious effort was made to reducethe use of Arabic words, but that with the return to an Islamic societyand the greateremphasis is now placed on the teaching of Arabic and the learning of the Koran in schools,this trend hasbeenreversed.It is probablyworth noting, however,that many words of Arabic origin usedin modern Persian have acquired a different meaning or shade of meaning from that of present-dayArabic. of and converColloquial Persianis the language ordinary speech sation. It is not written down, exceptnowadaysin informal correspondencebetween young people. The main difference between the spoken word and the written languageis in the alteration of vowel sounds, the contractionsthat occur in many forms of the

2 ntnoouctrox verbs and the colloquial useof the many suffixes. It is quite difficult to draw a definite line between the conversationallanguageand more formal speech, not becausethe two forms are interchangeable, but becauseboth forms ll be heard, depending on the circumstances in which you may find yourself. Native speakers alwaysaddresseach other in colloquial Persian,but since they do not $'rite as they speak, anything being read, such as the radio or television news, official reports, etc, will be in the correct forms which would sound stilted if used in conversaon.It is partly for this reason that the languagecannot be learnt properly without some basic knowledge of the correct forms which are then altered in speech. I have tried, however, not to err too much in this direction. It may be of interest to note that a number of other languages are 5poken in the different regionsof [ran, chief amongwhich are Turkish in the north-western province of Azarbaijan and an Arabic dialect in the South. There are also Kurdish and Baluchi, and the dialect of the Caspian pronce of Gilan. There is a sizeable Armenian minority in the country, chiefly in Tehran and Isphan. People who are native speakersof any of these languageswill tend to have varying degreesof accent when speaking Persian and this has little to do with the degree of education of the speaker. The standard pronunciation is that of Tehran which is used in this book. A cassettehas been produced to accompany this book so that you can hear Percianspoken by native speakers.All material on the cassette marked by a I in the text. is

AbbreviationsThe following abbreviationshave been used in this book:

The Persian AlphabetAs a matter of interest, the Persian alphabet is set out below, togetherwith the transcriptionusedin this book. [t is important to realisethat the letters changetheir shapeaccordingto the position they occupy in the word, and for the sake of simplicity only the initial forms and the final, unjoined forms of the letters are shown here. Name alef be pe te se jim che hezt

Final, unjoined form I

Initialform

Transcriptionarareroru

t

b p t s j ch>

;

e c) ) .) ) )

\:-

h kh d z r z

!!edl zl re ze zhe sin shin sd zd

)

)

)

s sh s z

, ,-f

t

.t'.b

J,

t :

zen n fe f kf gf lm mim nun vv he ye

v0

L

Lj j

gEf

o

s[k E I m nvrolv

"td

J

.J Itc

t

tI

hY ' l r l

{s

PronunciationIt is very difficult to render the pronunciationin transliteration of any language not written with the Roman alphabet.I have tried to keep the following guide as simple and accurateas possible,but correct pronunciation can really only be achievedby hearing and imitating native speech and for this purpose the accompanying cassette will be found to be extremelyvaluable, if not essential.

STRESSAI\ID INTONATION As a generalrule the stressin Persianfalls on the last syllable of the word. The main exceptions this are in words with the various to verb endings and some sufffrxes, which will be indicated as they occur, and words with the negativeprefixes.persian makes intensive use of prefixesand suffixes,but in generalwords tend to retain their basic stess pattern even when the number of syablesis altered by such additions: e.g. ketb - *etUi - kettsm - tette send. Intonation is also used a great deal to give variety of expression, but apart from mentioning the interrogative tone used for questions, the rest can really only be learnt by ear. r 1. CONSONANTS (a) Pronouncedas in English: b d f g - hard as in ge h j k I m n p s*asinsit t v

vz

PRONUNCIATION 7

(b) r kh sh ch zh g! -

trilled, try sayingbrrrr as in the Scots/oclr as in sheep as in chat, chap like the j in the Frenchje there is no correspondingEnglish sound; pronunciation of this letter should be learnt from native speakers.You can achievean approximation by sticking the very back of your tongueto the roof of your mouth and then letting go, letting breath and sound out at the sametime. Where any of the aboveletters appearwithout the joining line underneath,each will have its own value as a consonant.

(c) ' - the glottal stop: The closest to this in English is in the cockney bo'Ie, fot 'bottle'. This soundis not asstrongin Persianasit is in Arabic. them: Between two vowels' really only separates (obedience) s'at (watch, time), etl'at It is slightly stronger between a vowel and a consonant: ta'mir (repair), fe'lan (for the time being) likewise after a consonantat the end of a word: rob' (quarter) (d) Double consonants(called tadid in Persian): The sound of the consonant is reinforced, so that each consonant is almost pronounced separately,rather like the English word boo/c-case: nqiir (carpenter) It is rather like coming down on the first letter then taking off again from the second.

r 2. volvEls - as in wash,or the o in on r-asinhat e-asinend i - as in deedbb (daddy) bad (bad) lhne (house), esm (name) in (this)

8 rnonuxcrenon o - asin the Frenchrzot u - asin oalr r 3. I'TPHTHONGSnek (spectactes) mowz (banana) Where two vowels appear togethe in the text with no connecting line on top, each vowel will have its own value and must be pronouncedseparately.

bororg (big), do!!t r (girl) faulu(peach)

- as in raid orv- asin mow

I Pnonunciatbn Exerciscs a e i lu (plum); b (water); rd (flour); bt (up); bad (wind) ast (is); abru (eyebrow); namak (salt); bad (bad) esm (name); emr (building); nefrat (hate); negh (look); !!!ne (house); rnende (driver); entezr (waiting) in (this); iqie (here); imm (faith); bebin (took!); bidr (awake); bimr (ill); abi (blue); zendegiQife) oftd (he fell); otgh (room); bozorg (big); d@tar (grrl) un (that); hulu (peach);utu (iron); rezu (wish) nok (spe^ctacles);rven (verandah, balcony); maen (square); brne(between)

o uel

r 4. aLTERATTON OF VOWAL SOITNDSIN COLLOQTIAL SPEBCH (a) The vowel almost always becomes u before an n and frequently also before an m: lhne (house) becomeskhune, nn (bread) becomesnun, mad (he came) can becomeumad. () Vowels followed by two consonants the end of a word are at lengthened,as in hast (there is); goft (he said); nist (there isn't); seft (hard). In general,throughout this book, the first time a word is used, it will be shown thus: colloquial or usual spokenform/literary o correct form. Thereafter the colloquial form will generally be usedunlessthe style or sentence rendersit necessary do to

PRONUNCIATION 9

otherwise. By correct or literary is meant the form as it is written down and which will not normally be usedin ordinary speech,but which one will hear if things are being read out, on radio and television ne\trs,for example.[n explanationsof grammaticalpoints, the correct forms will also be used' The glossaries will show the correct form.

I Pronunciation Exercise r rst (right); dorost (correct); rh (way); bardar (brother) kh khhar (sister);khar (last); kkh (palace);nimrokh (profile); ekhtiyar (will) sh shahr (town); qleno (swimming); shotor (camel); sh (broth) ch gler (why?); glatr (umbrella); chr (spanner);mgh (kiss); nuch (sticky) zh neghd(race); moghe(eyelash);Zhle (a girl's name) gh gharb (west); taghriban (approximately); oghb (eagle); aghrab (scorpion);meghdr(quantity); dorugh (lie); mag$ub (defeated);glad (height); nghadr (that much) s'at (time); et'at (obedience); ' ta'mir (repair); fe'lan (for the time being); jor'at (courage) e'terz (protest); e'tebr (credit); rob' (quarter) zh ezhr (statement) sh eshg! (Isaac); esht(dianhoea)

honunciation Exercise: Doubled Consonants pp ii tt chch w rr yy tappe (hill); lappe (yellow split peas) nqijr (carpenter) ettegh(happening);ettehd(unity) baghche(child) dowom (second) kharrt (woodcarver) tailor) $ayyt (dressmaker,

10 ProNUNcrATroN CAPITAL LDTTERS AIID PI,JNCTUATION Persianis written from right to left using the Arabic script. The Persianalphabet has four additional letters that representsounds that do not exist in Arabic. In transcriptiontheseare p, , g and zh. The letters of the alphabetchangetheir shapeaccordingto the position they occupy in the word, but capitalisationas such does not occur. The transcriptionusedin this book, therefore, doesnot use capital letters either. Exception has been made in the caseof proper nounsin the readingpassages it is felt that this will make as things easierfor the student. Punctuationmarks were not traditionally used in Persianas the sentence structure really renders them unnecessary.They are, however,now taught in schools and usedin modernPersian,though in a much more limited way than in English, and this has been incorporatedin the transcription.

Lesson One (darse awal)Read aloud:

11 .

drr br-c/bz r poqferc bsst-ast/b6tc ast hev garm.e/gnnmact b sord.clsrrd a$ nuuhin ttu-ltt'p mdsr mehrabm-e/mehrabn ast 7. pedar llpst-ast/lchaste ast 8. peaa*ozorg pir.e/pir st 9. zan Javuo-e{avn ast 10. mdarbozory marlz.e/msiz ast 1 1 .pesar g!tun*/snten sst t2. d@tar kugbik*/tnlak ast bozorg-e/ast 13.!!ud!!ne 14. b sad nist 15. hav garm nist 1. mard pir nist 1 7 . gLaz khub-elast 18. otobus por-e/ast 19. otg! kh-e/ast zfr.otgh tamiz nist

) 3. 4. 5. 6.

The doo'r is open The window is closed The weather is hot The water is cold The bread is frestr The mother is loving The father is tired The grandfather is old The woman is young The grandmother is ill The boy is mischievous The girl is small The house is big The water is not cold The weather isn't hot The man is not old The food is good The bus is full The room is empty The room isn't clean

Vocabulary: water eb is -e/astbad baste bz bozorg cher chp

bad closed open big vhy what?

der d@tar garm ghlz hav javun/ javn khtli

@

thing door girVdaughter wann food weather young empty

12 rnssoxoxs:tired !haste khune/hhne house khub good koj where? kuchik/huchak small mdar mother mard man mariz iil mehrabun/ loving, kind mehrabn min table nun/nn bread nist is not, isn't olva and ot. otobus paqiere pedar psar pir sard sandali shtun/ rht" ta,e y yek zan room bus window father boy/son old cold chair mischievous fresh or one woman

Notc:

but:

mdar pedar bozorg madrbozorg pedarbomrg nave

mother father big grandmother grandfather grandson/granddaughter

ARTICLES Persianhas no articles as such: khune - house,the house pedar - father, the father In a sentence,the noun on its own generallyconveysthe meaning of the definite article: \hune bozorg-e - The house is big pedar pir-e - The father is old The indefinite is expressed the addition of an unaccentedi at by the end of the noun exceptwhere the noun endswith an i, in which caseno distinction is made: khunei - a house pedari - a father BUT sandali - the chair/a chair

LESONONE 13 In colloquial usage, this l is largely replaced by the use of -ycl ('one') before the noun: yck $une - a house (one house) yck tends to get futhr shortened in speechto ye, so you will hear: yekhune -ahouse yeterU -abook yeogh -aroom yctksi -ataxi ye miz - a table yesandali -achair yemrgas -afly ye nafar - a person (someone) GENDER As in English, nouns in Persian do not have a specific gender beyond that indicated in their meaning: pesar ltun-e - The boy is mischievous - The girl is good dolhtar khub-e pedarbomrg pir-e - The grandfather is old rndarbozorg mariz-e - The grandmother is ill sandali bozorg-e - The chair is big miz bozorg-e - The table is big - The room is big otg! bozorg-e .E/AST; HAST; NIST -elast = is hast = there is

The third personsingularof the short form of the verb 'to be' (see LessonThree) is ast or hast. In spoken Persianast is shortenedto e after a word ending in a consonant,and is transcribedas -e in this book to help distinguish it from other e endings. After a vowel, ast is shortenedto st and transcribed-st. Where a such as baste(closed), word endsin e after a congonant,hotrrever, (fresh), then ast is not shortened.The e of the word is elided tze insteadand will be shown by a hyphen: dar bast-ast (dar basteas) - The door is closed nun tz-ast (nun tdze ast) - The bread is fresh

14 r,BssoN oNs Ast and hast are not interchangeable their correct use will best and be learnt by examplesand observation. As a generalrule, hast (a) conveys idea of ,thereis', or () is the more emphaticthan ast, dependingon the context: hotel khub-e/khub ast - The hotel is good nun hast - There rs bread hrst will also be used to ask 'is there?' (any bread, a room etc.): nun hast? - Is there any bread? (See'Interrogatives' below) The negativeof both ast and hast is nist - see sentence14 at the beginningof this lesson.

WORD ORDER Look again at the examplesunder the headingGENDER. Notice that the verb (-e) is at the end of the sentence phrase.The usual or word order in Persianis: subject- object (direct, then indirect) verb. The verb normally comesat the end of the sentence, e.g.: verb mtu bozorg + (ast) - The table is big pcsar sntun 4 (ast) - The boy is naulhty d@tar (ast) - The girl is good !!ub -e PLURAT,S l. As a general rule and particularly in colloquial use, the plural of nouns is formed by the addition of the suffix -h, which then carriesthe stress: (table, tables) miz - mirh (chair, chairs) sandali - sandalih * paqjereh paqjere (window, windows) (bus, buses) otobus - otobush (taxi, taxis) tksi - tksih Nate: ln colloquial usage,in fact in speechin general,as opposed to the written word, the h of -ha is often not pronounced exceptwhen the word itself endsin the sound e: otobus tksi sur paqiereh

LESTPN ONE 15

2. The sufftx -ln is used to form the plural of nouns denoting people, animals, birds etc. For euphony, suchnouns ending in o or u will also add v, those in s n'ill add y and those in e will add g before the suffix: (man, men) msrd - mrrdtn (woman, women) ,tn - ztnln pedar (father, fathen) - pdrfn (gentleman,gentlemen) ghr - rgliyin shenrvande -glcnavandegin (listener, listeners) gudand (one sheep,sheep) - gundrn (chicken, chickens) norx!, - morg!n poranAcgfn (bird, birds) Fmnde The plural suffix -ln is not interchangeablewith -h, but most words, such as mldrr, pcd.r, for which the correct, grammatical plurals are midartn, pedrrin, do in fact take -hn to form the plural in colloquial usage: ndrrhr (cotJ. nffarf) pedsrfl (pdt) pcrerf . dollterl This is the form we will us most in this book, but do not expec't even this to be entirely consistent. A common example of the inconsistenciesthat you will en@unter is in the phras 'ladiee and gentlemen'- khnumhl va g[tytn, whi shona the ttpo different forms of the plural which are in use. $lnum is the everyday word for 'lady' or 'Mrs', and is always [nmunhl in the plural, whereasqfyln is the correct grammatical plural of

@.3. The Arabic plural sufx -it is also used, but not colloquially: bg! - bglr (garden, gardens) A form of broken plural is also used: nrrnzl - qrrrl (house, hOuses) But for both theseexamplesand rnanyotherslike them, bh and menzrlhl are more common in colloquial usage.The orher forms are mentioned so that you may recognize them for what they are should you encounter them.

16 Lessox.oxs. 4. Use of tlre singular and plurall , . . There ae tvo points of differehce to be noted,here between Persianand English: (a) Persian usel the singular when considering the noun collectively or in a general sense: Ifies are dirty - magaskasif-e Books are good - ketb khub-e () The singular is also used after ttum-6ersand after the word and'how many?': five books - panj ketb six boys - shish pesar how many books? - chand ketb? INTERROGATTVES Questions are asked either lvith the use of interrogative words which are usually placed immediately before the verb or the noun to which they refer, or, in the absence any interrogative word, of by raising the tone of the voice towards the end of the sentenceto indicate a question. The chief interrogative words are: koj where? ku where? i what? che what? gler why? ju" how? e ki who? chand how many? (+ kudunr/hodm which? noun tn smguk when? lar) chetowr how? I hava etowr+? hotel koj-st? (koj ast) kudum hotel? ki-e Qtronounced kiy e\? nun hast? What's the weather like? Where is the hotel? Which hotel? Who is it? (e.9. when answering the door, though it is more polite to say btle) Is there any bread?

-

Note that koj ast (where is?) is alwayscontractedto koj-st and ki ast (who is?) is alwaysshortenedto ki-st (coll. ki-e, pronounced ki-ye).

LESSON ONE I7

In colloquial use, the noun following th interrogative word gle takes the indefinite sufx "l and as well as just 'what', cte can also mean'what so of': I che ketibi? - What sort of book?lVhat book? The word yl, which is placed at the beginning of a sentence, is used to indicate that a question follows, but this is not colloquial and is seldom used in ordinary speech.

AID The word for'and'is va, usuallyshortenedin speechto o (vo after a word ending in a vowel): zen o mord - man and woman pir o javun - young and old pcsrr o dolltsr - boy and girl pcElrf vo Slterl - boys and girls b@org o k!$ - big and little nrmrl o lefd - salt and pepper (Note the order in the first two phraseswhich is different from that used in English).

I PHRASES AND EXPRESSIONS salim (oa more formal and Icssuniversar, salim alkum) Hello, How do you do?, general greet@ - used where we would say either good morning, g@d afternoon or good anening. Thc simple arutwerro salm is also salm. You will also hear alkum assallm. How are you? I am well, thank you Good morning (/esscolloquial, than just salm) Goodbye (lit. God, the Keeper) Good night (on gotng to bed, or also used in conjunction with

u uq1"

hle glom gleowr.e? khubam, mersi

khodefez/lod hfez ttr"U t"Hi"

18 LD,ssoN oNE

bale na khrr

ii*t,t I!.!"0

!!od hezon taking leave,of someone night) at Yes No No (moreformal) Emphatic no, i.e. certainly not All right, O.K. (Properly speaking this ir !! khub - very good)

EXERCISES A. Put into Persian: 1. The food is good 2. T}lc \ilate is hot 3. The window is not open 4. Hello 5. How are you? 6. I am well, thank you 7. Goodbve 8. a house,a chair, a man 9. Where is the hotel? 10. Which hotel? The Esteghlal 11. Five books t2. The bread is fresh 13. Is the girl small? 14. The weather is not warm 15. The houseisn't big 1. The water is cold 17. The mother isn't bad 18. fathers,windows,boys 19. young and old 20. Is the room clean? B. Read aloud and translate: l. nun tze nist 2. hav gam-c 3. hav garm ast 4. pesar bozorg-e 5. miz koj-st? 6. dar bz-e 7. panjere bast-ast? 8. kudum panjere? 9. dokhtar shtun nist 10. mdarbozorgmanz-e 11. magaskasif-e 12. hav chetowr-e?

Lesson Two (darse dowom)I Read aloud: 1. in otgbeman-e 2. forudghe Tehrn bozorg-e 3. bgle m ghaqhang-e 4. bilite havprmkhli gerun-e/gernast 5. behtarin hotele shahr koj-st? 6. istgheotobuse Shemrun/Shemrn koj-st? z. vtryam az Fte;; khli-6ozorgtar-e 8. in chameduneshom-st? 9. na, un chamedunmle man-e 10. ketbe man kuchiktar az ketbe Hasan-e kuchiktarin ketbamruye miz-e ast 11. frsi az ingilisi suntar-e/sntar Tehrn bozorgtaringhahrelrn-e 12. mshineman az mshineHasan behtar-e mshineHosein az hame behtar-e 13. lebseFteme az lebseMaryam tamiztar-e lebseZahr az hame tamizta-e 1.4.nune emruz tzetar az nune diruz-e Akbar gh-st tzetarin nun mle maghzeye 15. Maryam az Ali bozorgtar-e Hasan az hame bozorgtar-e 16. in nun azuntzela-e 17. in kaf az in yeki bozorgtar-e

Vocabulary: iisun az bg!. bardar baraye

mister, sir easy than, from garden brother for

b behtar bilit amedun dir diruz

to better ticket suitcase late yesterday

20 ressox lvo emnu ffrsl forudglh today Persian airport lovely aeroplane this English here shoe dirty book sister very dress, clothes shop I, memlef mshln mcdfd

s[sEqnghavrprmf in hdlisi lqi hfsh ksdf ketib khlhrr lebs nagbfze mrn

ruye sorbz scfid shrhr shgjl' dh Shemrn/ Shemrunhrn|r

E!rt

tappe un/itr uqjqii

belonging to car pencil on soldier white tovm, city brave black name of the northern part of Tehran clean hill that there

*See LessonNine (l) Proper names: Boys: Mohammad, Hasan, Hosein, Akbar, Ali, Rez Girls: Maryam, Fteme, Zahr, Shirin SUBJECT PRONOTJNS The subject pronounsare as follows: singular man to u plural m shom ishn

0) (you) (he, she)

(we)

(vou)(they)

There are two points to be noted here: (a) the subject pronouns are only used for persons,therefore the 3rd person u, ishn (he, she, they) cannot be used to denote inanimate objects. 'It' is expressed by the demonstrative pronoun tn Qtlural unh) or not separatelyat all, as the verb ending will indicate the subject of the verb.

I,ESSGN TIVO

2I

() ghe 2nd person plural om (you) is generally used as the polite form of address between strangers,.when children addressadults, as a sign of respect,etc. The singularform to (you) is usedbetweenfriends, by children and young peopleamongthemselves, adultsaddressing by children or superiorsaddressing inferiors. The distinction here is similar to that betweentu and vous in French. It is best to use shom in all casesat first.

THE EZFE: C The ezfeis a final e sound,rather like a suffix, after a word ending in a consonant,or ye after a word endingin a vowel. It has several uses: (a) To express the possessive: khuneyepedar - the father's house(/it. house-of the father) bilite otobus - the bus ticket (ticket-of the bus) bardareMaryam - Mariam's brother khhare Hasan - Hassan'ssister dare khune - the door of the house gharlhe ma$in - the wheel of the car lebsemard - the man's clothes chdorezan - the woman'sveil Note the word order which is quite different from the English usageof 's which is what it conveys: khuneyemard - the house-ofthe man. It is the thing which is possessed which takes the ezfe, not the possessor, in English. as (b) Whenan adjective qualifiesa noun - again note the word order: noun + ezafe- adjective: hotele hhub - the good hotel lebsetamiz - the clean dress bardare bozorg - the big brother farghe bozorg - the big carpet nune tze - the fresh bread

r ' ! '

?2

LESSON TWO

the good restaurant the right hand (note: this can also rnean on the right) If the noun is qualified by more than one adjective,the 'qualifyng' ezfe is also added to each adjective except the final one: - the small white house lhuneye k$ke sefid nunc garne tze - the hot fresh bread rrgle boaorgegerun - the large expensivecarpet If the noun is plural, then the ezfe is added onto the plural ending and sincethis is generally-h, the ezfen'ilIbe ye and not e: - large houses $unehye boorg baghclehiye kuchik - small children (c) For possessive adjectives- there are no sepate possessive adjectives as such (my, your, their etc.) in Persian. The meaning'my book', 'your book'etc. is renderedexactly as the possessive (a) above, using the subject ponouns instead of in the noun: skgular: kettbe man my book (tr. book-of I) kcttbc 3o your book (fanilior\ ketbc u his/her book phtrol: k&e mr t& sooi Lalbc Mn our book your book (polite, their book

rcstorc khub daste rlst

Much more @mmon, however, especiallyin speech,is the use of the pronominal suffixee: .em qtn (ny) (colJ. -cmun) (our) .etin (colL +tun) (your) (your) -at GoA. 4) .orh (coll .!) @is/her/ {h.tn (cott.