Contents

Grammatical gender and definite article

In Persian, the nouns have no gender designation and no definite article:

zan

the woman

mard

the man

daftar

the magazine

Plural building

The plural is built for the majority of nouns by the suffix “-hâ”. The suffix “-ân” can also be used for living objects and body parts:

miz	table	mizhâ	the tables
irani	the Iranians	Irânihâ / Iranian	Iranians
ceŝm	the eye	ceŝmhâ / ceŝmân	the eyes

If a living object ends with â or u, then a “y” is inserted. For those living objects ending with e, a “g” is inserted. If a living object end with u, then sometimes u is shifted into o and a “v” is inserted:

eĵdehâ	the dragon	eĵdehâyân	the dragons
dâneŝju	the student	dâneŝjuyân	the students
nevisande	the author	nevisandegân	the authors
bânu	the lady	bânovân	the ladies

For some Arabic loanwords Arabic plural forms are used, as well. These forms are usually made by either “ât” or “in”:

nazar	opinion	nazarhâ / nazarât	the opinions
mo’allem	the teacher	mo’allemhâ / mo’allemin	the teachers

If a word ends with e or i, then a “j” is inserted before “ât”. If a word ends with i, then “-in” is shifted into “-un”:

sabzi	vegetable	sabzijât	the vegetables
mive	the fruit	mivejât	fruits
enqelâbi	the revolutionary	enqelâbiun	the revolutionaries

There are also Arab irregular plural forms:

hadaf	the goal	hadafhâ / ahdâf	the goals
mas’ale	the problem	mas’alehâ / masâ’el	the problems

Adjectives as nouns

Adjectives / participles can also be interpreted as nouns:

		xoŝgel	beautiful / the Beautiful	xoŝgelân	the beautiful ones
mordan	die	morde	died / the dead	mordegân	the dead ones

Mutual derivation of nouns and adjectives

Nouns and adjectives can usually be derived mutually by the addition of the suffix “-i”:

bozorg

great

bozorgi

greatness

cub

the wood

cubi

wooden

If a word ends with â, o or u, then a “y” is inserted. If a word ends with e, then a “g” is inserted for resulting nouns. If the result is an adjective, then “g” is inserted in a few exceptional cases, such as haftegi (weekly) and xânegi (domestic):

zibâ	beautiful	zibâyi	the beauty
radio	the radio	radioyi	radio-
jâdu	the magic	jâduyi	magical
zende	alive	zendegi	life

Description of nouns (ezâfé)

Nouns can be described/specified using the bound conjunction “e”. This construction, also known as ezâfé has several applications.One of the applications corresponds to the English of and thus forms the genitive:

ketâb e pedar

the book of the father

The same construction is used to describe a noun by a following adjective:

doxar e zibâ

the beautiful girl

doxtarân e zibâ

the beautiful girls

A noun can also be further specified by another noun:

keŝvar e Iran

the country of  Iran

mâŝin e camanzani

the mower

The construction may include several nouns and adjectives:

dust e pedar e man

my father’s friend

doxtar e qaŝanq e mehrabân

the beautiful kind girl

Another application of this construction is the connection of a preceding form of address to a last name:

Xânom e Panâhju

Ms. Panhahju

Âqây e Âzâd

Mr. Azad

Although often pronounced, the construction may not appear between first and last names:

Navid Xeradmand

Âzitâ Nâmju

If a noun ends with a vowel (except i), a “y” is inserted:

sedâ ye boland	the loud voice	xâne ye pedar	the father’s house
metro ye Tehran	the Tehran Metro	dâneŝju ye irâni	the Iranian student

Definiteness and indefiniteness

The indefiniteness of a noun can be expressed either by preceding yek (one) or the following of the postposition “i”. One can also combine both methods:

yek ketâb

ketâb i

yek ketâb i

a book / any book

If a word ends with â, o or u, then a “y” is inserted:

sedâ yi

a voice

râdio yi

a radio

jâdu yi

a magic

If the noun is described by an adjective, then the adjective can take the indefiniteness marker instead of the noun, as well:

havâ yi xub

beautiful weather

havâ ye xub i

beautiful weather

If a noun takes the position of a definite direct object, then the postposition râ is used:

Man ketâb i xândam.

I read a book.

Man ketâb râ xândam.

I read the book.

Several adjectives describing a noun can also be connected with the bound conjunction “o” (and). The indefiniteness marker follows the last adjective. In expressions with definite nouns, the postposition râ succeeds the last adjective:

ketâb e jâleb e gerân	the interesting expensive book
ketâb e jâleb o gerân	the interesting and expensive book
Ketâb e jâleb e gerân i xaridam.	I bought an interesting expensive book.
Ketâb e jâleb o gerân i xaridam.	I bought an interesting and expensive book.
Ketâb e jâleb e gerân râ xaridam.	I bought the interesting expensive book.
Ketâb e jâleb o gerân râ xaridam.	I bought the interesting and expensive book.

If a word ends with a vowel (except i) before the bound conjunction “o”, then a “v” is inserted:

sedâ vo cehre	the voice and the face	xâne vo mâŝin	the house and the car
metro vo otobus	the metro and the bus	dâneŝju vo ostâd	the student and the professor

Comparative, superlative and comparison

The comparative and superlative of an adjective are each formed with the suffix “-tar” or “tarin”. Superlative adjectives precede a noun without the bound conjunction “e”:

doxtar e zibâ	the pretty girl
doxtar e zibâtar	the prettier girl
zibâtarin doxtar	the prettiest girl

There are a handful exceptions to this rule, such as xub (good), but behtar (better).

We use az (from, than) or less commonly tâ (until, than) for the comparison. Tâ follows a verb:

Nasrin az Âzitâ zibâtar ast.	Nasrin is prettier than Azita.
Âzitâ az hame bâhuŝtar ast.	Azita is smarter than everyone else.
In ketâb gerântar ast tâ ân ketâb.	This book is more expensive than that book.

The counterpart to the English “as … as ” is formed by harce (whatever). Here, the comparative form is used:

Xâne bâyad harce bozorgtar bâŝad.

The house must be as large as possible.

The preposition, followed by a corresponding derived noun and the bound conjunction “e” is usually used for the equality comparison as follows:

Nasrin be zibâyi e Âzitâ nist.	Nasrin is not as pretty as Âzitâ.
Âzitâ be bâhuŝi e Nasrin nist.	Azita is not as smart as Nasrin.
In Ketâb be gerâni e ân ketâb ast.	This book is as expensive as that book.

Demonstrative adjectives

The words in (this) and ân (that) are used in Persian before a noun as demonstrative adjectives. They always remain singular independently of the number of nouns, although they occur in plural as demonstrative pronouns inhâ (these) and ânhâ (those):

in ketâb	this book	ân Ketâb	that book
in ketâbhâ	these books	ân ketâbhâ	those books

An emphasis is achieved by the attachment of the particle ham:

hamin ketâb

just (exactly) this book

hamân ketâb

just (exactly) that book

Other demonstrative adjectives are conin and conân (such a). They require an indefinite noun:

Conin ketâb i tâ konun nadideam.	I have not yet seen such a book.
Conân kâr i xatarnâk ast.	Such an act is dangerous.

Interrogative adjectives

Interrogative adjectives precede a noun as well:

Kodâm ketâb?	Which book?
Cand nafar?	How many people?
Ceqadr âb?	How much water?

Some of them require the noun in the indefinite form:

Cejur ketâb i?

What for a book?

Distributive adjectives

Distributive adjectives precede a noun, too:

hame ye dâneŝâmuzân	all students
tamâm e dâstân	the full story
barxi / ba’zi dustân	some friends
cand ketâb	a few books
candin ŝahr	several cities
har kelâs (i)	each class

The distributive adjective hic (literally “nothing”) is often used with an indefinite noun and always with a negative verb:

Hic dâneŝju yi nayâmad.

No student came.