7 Tips to Help Your Persian Sound More Natural

Updated: 8 July 2019

One of the struggles of learning Persian is the same as teaching it: written vs spoken form. As a learner, you spend your precious time studying, memorizing, and practicing vocabulary, verb conjugations, and grammatical structures only to find out that nobody speaks that way. As teachers, we’re always on the fence between teaching what’s technically correct and how it’s actually said. I feel like there’s an exception for everything. “Well, it’s technically like this, buuut….”. I’ve noticed that some Persian listening resources aren’t always consistent, and even I’ve been torn about how to write the Persian vs the transliteration on my blog because I wanted it to be correct yet practical. And while Iranians are super supportive and appreciative of whatever Persian you speak- be it a lot or just a few words to get by- they generally think that learners speak “ketâbi,” that is, the formal, written way [as it might be written in a ketâb, book]. With that in mind, I’ve come up with some tips to help your Persian sound more natural in the informal, spoken form.

Before we check out the tips, it’s important to know that the only place you’ll really hear that formal “ketâbi” Persian is on the news or maybe a formal speech/conference/etc. And as writing is always more formal than speaking, you’ll see it in newspapers, magazines, literature, poetry, etc. Although in the short stories I translate, there’s a mix. The story itself is the correct written form, but the dialogues are written in the spoken form, just as they might be in any other language. 

So these are some tips that you can slowly incorporate into your language study to help you sound more natural in Persian.

Never say ast 

This is the simplest thing you can do to speak Persian more naturally and understand it better: reduce ast (is) to sound like eh. Don’t say miz ast (It’s a table) but just miz-e. (In informal writing such as text messages, this is indicated with a ه, so it would look like میزه . Don’t confuse this with the ezâfe). The only time you might need part of ast is when the previous word ends in an -eh or -â sound. Take, for instance, khoshmazeh (delicious). It’s hard to say khoshmazeh-e (it’s delicious), so instead you would drop the “t” from ast and say khoshmazas. Or bâlâ ast (he/she is upstairs) would be bâlâs.

Words with –ân (ان-) sound like –oon

This is why jân is often pronounced joon. Nobody really says nân (bread) but rather noon. You didn’t go to a mehmâni (party) but a mehmooni. That exam wasn’t âsân (easy) but âsoon. Tehran is called Tehroon (which is where Cafe Tehroon gets its name), and the people are Tehrooni. And the most obvious, Iran, doesn’t usually change, but the Irâni people are often called Irooni. 

Drop âyâ in yes/no questions

I’ve heard آیا âyâ in Persian listening materials, but the fact is, nobody uses it when speaking. The question is implied in the intonation, so don’t use âyâ unless maybe you’re asking a rhetorical question.

Forget the present perfect tense

Nice! One less tense you have to learn. Ok, but maybe not really because it does serve its purpose (in writing at least). But in speaking, it all blends together and ends up sounding like the simple past, so just imagine that’s what you’re using.

For plural “you” verb endings, say -in not -id

The conjugation for shomâ is to add -id (ید) to the stem, but when Iranians speak, the “d” sounds like an “n”. So instead of ghazâ khordid? (Did you eat?), it would be ghazâ khordin?  

Learn the spoken form of the most common verbs

Some verbs are written one way- the correct way- and said in a totally different way in colloquial Persian. For example, mitavânam (I can) becomes mitunam in the spoken form. Or miravam (I go) is miram; miguyam (I say) is migam; bogzâr (let, put) is bezâr; mikhâham is mikhâm. Be aware of these as you study and make a note of the way they’re pronounced in informal, spoken Persian.

Particles that change pronunciation

The direct object marker râ (را‌) becomes ro, and more times than not, it’s just o. So instead of, for example, ketâb râ bede (Give me the book), say ketâb-o bede. 

The “h” in the plural marker –hâ (ها) is practically silent, i.e. pesarâ (boys), livâna (the cups). 

Similarly, the “h” in ham (also) is also silent. Manam [man ham] doost dâram. (I like it, too.)

And while we’re at it, the third person singular او oo (he/she) becomes اون oon. Oon [oo] goft! (He/she said it!)

Finally, don’t forget this list of simple words you can use to sound more fluent. I’ve actually updated the post with pinnable images that you can share on Pinterest! 

Depending on your current level and how much contact you have with Persian, it might take some time to get all of these. Remember that there’s nothing wrong with speaking the “ketâbi” way. It’s the correct way, after all. Not only will Iranians understand you, but it will also endear you to them simply because of your efforts to speak Persian. In the meantime, it’s enough to be aware of these changes so you aren’t totally thrown off guard or discouraged when native speakers are talking. 

I hope these tips will be useful for you, and if you have any others on ways to sound more natural in Persian or another foreign language, please share them in the comments below! 

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