Persian Grammar

This is a book for reference and revision, aimed at those in the early stages
of studying the Persian language. It uses the official reformed spelling, and
covers handwriting, educated standard and educated colloquial pronuncia-
tion, as well as the important polite forms. The grammar is explained with
numerous examples that are given in both Persian script and Roman tran-
scription. Grammatical themes are grouped logically, and there are
cross-references, appendices and a subject index to facilitate the search for
the right form.

John Mace has worked in the Diplomatic Service, as a British Council

lectur~r in Iran, as a personnel officer in the Middle East and as a European
Commission Delegate. He has written Persian, Arabic and German
language manuals, and a verse translation of Russian poetry.
PERSIAN GRAMMAR
For reference and revision

John Mace
 First published 2003
by RoutledgeCurzon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY l0001
RoutledgeCur=on is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
~ 2003 John Mace
Prepared and typeset by John Mace
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical. or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Dara
A catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publirntiun Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-700-71694-7 (hhk)

ISBN 0 700 71695 5 (pbkJ
 Contents

Introduction page 1
1 Writing 3
1 General 3
2-24 Alphabet and non-alphabetical signs 3
25 JJ•; ,,i nasta'liq script 19
26 Standard handwritten forms 21
27 ~ Jekastehandwriting 24
28 Persian transcription 26
2 Pronunciation 27
1 Transcription 27
2 Long and short vowels; diphthongs 27
3 Consonants 27
4 Doubled letters 30
5 Stress 31
-
6 Colloquial pronunciation 34
7 Arabic forms 36
3 Nouns and adjectives 37
1 Nouns - general 37
2 Definite and indefinite nouns 37
3 Definite direct-object suffix I..,rii 39
4 Plural of nouns 40
5 .uW:,Iezafewith nouns 44
6 Adjectives - general 47
7 Adjective used as complement 48
8 Attributive adjectives 48
9 Comparative adjectives 50
10 Superlative adjectives 53
11 Possessive adjectives 54
12 Demonstrative adjectives 58
13 Interrogative adjectives 59
V
 Contents

14 Distributive adjectives 62
4 Pronouns 65
1 General 65
2 Subject pronouns 65
3 Direct-object pronouns 66
4 Prepositions with pronouns 68
5 Possessive pronouns 69
6 Demonstrative pronouns 69
7 Interrogative pronouns 70
8 ~..J>XOd 71
9 Reciprocal pronouns 72
10 Distributive pronouns 72
5 Verbs 77
1 General 77
2 Infinitive n
3 Position of the verb 78
4 Agreement 78
5 Simple and compound verbs 79
6 Government: subject, complement and object 80
7 Tenses 81
8 Forming the past tense 82
9 Using the past tense 85
10 Forming the present tense 87
11 Forming the present tense: •to be' 95
12 Using the present tense 99
13 Forming the imperfect tense 100
14 Using the imperfect tense 101
15 Colloquial continuous tenses 102
16 Forming the present subjunctive tense 103
17 Using the present subjunctive tense 106
18 Imperative 107
19 Auxiliary verbs 109
vi
 Contents
20 Participles 115
21 Forming the perfect tense 117
22 Using the perfect tense 118
23 Forming the perfect subjunctive tense 119
24 Using the perfect subjunctive tense 121
25 Forming the pluperfect tense 121
26 Using the pluperfect tense 122
27 Forming the future tense 122
28 Using the future tense 123
29 Compound verbs 124
30 Passive voice 128
6 Prepositions 133
1 General 133
2 Basic prepositions 133
3 Prepositions with .uW:,Iezafe 134
4 Prepositions and conjunctions 135
5 Prepositions governing other expressions 136
6 Omission of 4,tbe 137
7 Adverbs 139
1 General 139
2 Forming adverbs 139
3 Comparative and superlative of adverbs 143
4 Interrogative adverbs 143
5 Order of adverbs 144
6 Adverbial participles 144
8 Syntax 145
1 General 145
2 Questions 145
3 Indirect speech 147
4 Clauses - general 149
5 Noun clauses 150
6 Relative clauses 152
vii
 Contents
7 Clauses of purpose 156
8 Clauses of result 156
9 Clauses of time 157
10 Clauses of reason 159
11 Conditional clauses 160
12 Clauses of concession 163
13 Clauses of manner 165
14 Topic and comment 165
15 Quasi-impersonal structures 166
16 Wishes and exclamations 167
9 Numbers 169
1 Numerals 169
2 Cardinal numbers 169
3 Ordinal numbers 172
4 Other numerical expressions 173
5 Fractions and percentage 174
6 Other adjectival forms, and adverbial forms 174
7 ~labjad 175
8 Measurement 175
9 Calculation 176
10 Clock 176
11 Calendar 178
12 Age 180
10 Arabic forms 181
1 General 181
2 Participles 181
3 Verbal nouns 183
4 Word-ending i ... -al-at 186
5 ~ uqii.beleand _,r.:i-
qeire 187
6 Definite article 187
11 Wordbuilding 189
1 General 189
viii
 Contents
2 Derived and compound nouns 189
3 Derived and compound adjectives 197
4 Derived verbs 200
12 Polite forms 203
1 General 203
2 Pronouns 203
3 Plural for singular 204
4 Verbs 204
5 Prepositions 206
6 Requesting and thanking 206
Appendix I Irregular present stems of verbs 209
Appendix II .uW=.I
ezafe 213
1 General 213
2 Writing and pronunciation 213
3 Use 214
Appendix III Suffix ,.; ... -i 215
1 General 215
2 Group 1 215
3 Indefinite ,.; ... -i 215
4 Relative ,.; ... -i 216
5 Group2 217
6 Noun,.; ... -i 218
7 Adjective ,.; ... -i 218
Appendix IV Definite direct-object suffix I_;rd 219
1 General 219
2 Writing and pronunciation 219
3 Use 220
Index 223

ix
 Introduction

This is a revision and reference grammar book whose purpose

is to act as support for any course of Persian, and especially to
help students in their early and intermediate stages.
It is not a course book. Each paragraph makes as few
assumptions as possible about previous knowledge of the theme
being studied. The book does not claim to examine every point in
the language, merely to cover the most practical ones.
Maximum advantage has been taken of the fact that Persian
has an Indo-European grammatical structure, familiar to most
Europeans.
Although the book follows modern spelling, it indicates also
those older forms of spelling still found today.
The transcription accompanying the Persian script is an
accurate reflection of the pronunciation. Educated colloquial
variants of the standard pronunciation are shown and explained;
this colloquial pronunciation is socially completely 'correct', and
you are recommended to use it whenever you are not rea~ aloud
or quoting from a written text. Standard pronunciation is always
acceptable; but without a knowledge of colloquial pronunciation
you will miss much of what is said to you; and your own spoken
Persian will never 'take off' without at least some use of it.
Colloquial forms are shown in angular quotation marks < > in the
transcription.
Grammar books sometimes separate much information into
morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure).
Many students find this distinction unnecessary. In this book,
points of syntax are, as far as possible, studied together with the
appropriate parts of speech. The syntax chapter examines only
those points which cannot be so studied.
Reference numbers in the text relate to chapter number/
1
 Introduction
paragraph number. Roman numbers refer to the appendices.
The index supplements the references quoted in the chapters
and appendices, and should, like them, be fully used in the search
for the right structure.
I take this opportunity to express my thanks to Goly Foroughi,
Sharare Atabaki Nosratifard and Mahmoud I<hanchezzar for their
help in checking the examples, to Jeannine and Paul Tys for
permission to include their photographs, and to Marilyn Moore for
her help in proof-reading. Any remaining shortcomings are my
responsibility.

2
 1. Writing
1. General
In other chapters of this book each paragraph is discrete; in other
words, as far as possible it does not assume that the student has
studied any other paragraphs.
1his chapter, on the other hand, is of necessity continuous; that is,
each paragraph assumes knowledge of all previous paragraphs in
the chapter.
Paragraphs 1/3 to 25 below give the printed forms of the
alphabetical letters and other signs. Many forms look different
when handwritten; 1/26 and 27 below show handwritten forms.
The writing of the numerals is examined in 9 /1.
Chapter 2 shows the pronunciation of the letters and their
transcription used in this book.

2 . Alphabet and spelling

Persian is written with a modified Arabic alphabet. The general
principles of this alphabet are:
• The writing runs from right to left ~ .
• There are no capital letters.
• Short vowels (there are three, which we transcribe as a, o, e)
are mostly not written, but inferred from the outline and
context. There is a means of marking these vowels but it is
hardly ever seen outside school textbooks.
• Most letters are joined to the letter following them in the
same word, i.e. to the left. These are joined letters. Almost
all of these have a short form when joined to the following
letter, and a full form when not so joined.
• A few letters, called disjoinedletters, are never joined to the
following letter. They have only one form.
1his book uses the modem reformed spelling. Some older spellings
3
 1 - Writing
are, however, still encountered, and these are also shown where
appropriate.

3.

The first and commonest letter of the alphabet is called alef. It is a

disjoined letter, never joined to the letter following it. It is
pronounced as follows:
• at the beginning of a word, it shows the presence of one of
the short vowels a, o, e (which are not themselves written)
• in the middle or at the end of a word, it represents the long
vowel a.

4.
IT alefmadde I
This variant of I ale/ is written at the beginning of a word to
represent the long vowel ii..

s. '-'-' be
• •
'-'-' pe
"I "I

u.J te
1. A
0..J se*

These four letters called be, pe, te and se all look alike except for
the dot(s) above or below them. They are of course written
leftwards~. They are pronounced respectively b, p, t ands. They
are all joined letters, i.e. joined to the next letter in the word.
Each one has a short form used at the beginning or in the middle of
a word, and a full form used at the end of a word or when
standing alone.

4
 1- Writing

Combined with I alef or Tale/ madde (1/3 and 4 above) they

appear as follows:
.
ui ab water (alefand alefmadde are not joined to
the next letter, in this case y be)
~ ba with } (the letters of the
L,
., pd foot be group are joined
l; tii until to the al~lfollowing them)
..
ul, bab chapter (of a book)
* O se occurs only in a very few words, of Arabic origin. The
commonest letter for s is shown in 1/ 12 below.
The letters of the y be group are called 'toothed' letters; their
short form without its dot(s) is .J, called a 'tooth'. There are other
toothed letters, studied below.

6.

The letter nun represents the sound n. This is a joined letter, and
has two forms: a short form used at the beginning or in the middle
of a word, and a full form used at the end of a word or when
standing alone. The short form is a tooth (see 1/5 above); the long
form is deeper.
~j an that ~l; nanbread

7.
I"'-! ye

The letter ye is a joined letter, with a toothed short form used as

are those of they be group (1/5 above). The long form, used at
the end of a word or when the letter stands alone, has no dots. It
swoops below the line of print. ye has the following pronunciation:
• at the beginning of a word: the consonant y
• in the middle of a word: the consonant y, or the long vowel
i, or (less often) the vowel-combination ei
5
 1 - Writing
• at the end of a word:
- after a consonant, the long vowel i, or (less often) the
vowel-combination ei; also, at the end of a very few
words taken from Arabic, a (an example of which is
given in 1/21 below)
- after a vowel, the syllable -ye;very rarely, i.
Ltya or c..r bi without
•

~ bein between ~Lt~payiin end

~~~ biiibiin desert ~Li niiyeb deputy
The combination iii is written "'-1...\ ..~I... (~Ibeginning a
word), the first of the two letters ye being silent:
'J:!~ pain low, down "'- ~ biai you may come
I tiin
See also 1/8, 21 and 24 below.
--
"1\!. custom

In a few words this combination is written with one ye: see 1I 13.

It is a rule that no vowel other than long ii can begin a word in

writing. Where a vowel other than ti is the first sound, it must be
introduced. The commonest letter for introducing a vowel is I alef:
vtl in this

8. .J \IQ\'

The letter vavis a disjoined letter with only one form, extending
below the line of print. vav is pronounced:
• at the beginning of a word: v
• in the middle or at the end of a word: v, or the long vowel u,
or (less often) the vowel-combination ou. At the end of a
very few words (all of which are important) it represents
the short vowel o
• in a few important words it is silent; see 1/13 below .
.J va, o* and ~~I eivtin porch

6
 1 - Writing
i...J__,3
'I'
tup ball ,.;..,Jtuye in
.,Li niivwarship ~ bu smell
_,; ,zou new ..,J to you
The combination -ui is written IJ"J···\---'J··· , the first of the two
letters ye being silent:
tJ'.J't bui a smell
See also 1/7, 21 and 24.

The rule given in 1/7 above concerning initial vowels applies here
also:
.JI u he, she
The word .J pronounced o 'and',marked * above, is an exception
to this rule.

9.
Ir..0 miml
The letter mim is a joined letter. It represents m. Its short and full
forms are used in the manner described in 1/5 above. The fuJI
form has a tail reaching straight down below the line of print.
i:,.o man I ~Lo~
mi miinim we stay
rLi niim name ~ nim half
An initial 'tooth' (see 1/5 above) preceding mim is often inverted
and raised. Initial mim is often also raised when followed by
another mim:
-r
Li tamiim complete ("!Li~ mi namayam I show
I .
~ ~ nemi iiim we do not come l)..,;l mammm grateful

10. .) diil
•
.) ziil

The disjoined letters called diil and :iii have only one form each,
identical but for the dot. These letters rest on the line of print.