Learning Persian Alphabet 01 

Learning Farsi alfabet 01 - Learning Persian Alphabet (01)

Welcome to the first episode of the Persian Learning Alphabet Series. In this video, you will learn to write two vowels and three consonants of the Persian Alphabet: “â, a, b, m, and n.” These are among the most frequent Persian letters, so you can start writing some simple Farsi words by learning them. But before jumping into practice, reading the following notes can be helpful.

  • In the introductory video, we mentioned that Farsi is written from right to left. If you are not used to this writing system, you may find adapting to it challenging. So, if possible, buy a notebook designed for Persian or Arabic script. If not, start from the back of your notebook to get used to the right-to-left system.
  • For most Farsi learners pronouncing “â” and distinguishing it from “a” and sometimes “o” is problematic. Remember that “a” is a short back vowel, “â” is a long front vowel, while “o” is a short front vowel, pronounced with rounder lips. The following pattern shows the Persian vowels’ place of articulation[1].

[1] Note that the pattern is based on IPA symbols, which we simplified to make learning the Persian alphabet easier for you. To learn more about Farsimonde’s transcription protocol, refer to https://farsimonde.com/farsi-phonetics/.

vowels in Farsi - Learning Persian Alphabet (01)
  • We mentioned the importance of the dots in the Persian letters a couple of times, but our ten years of Farsi teaching experience are making us repeat it: “take the number and the place of the dots seriously.” The Persian alphabet has six letters with the same written shape as “b”: ٮـ ٮ The only thing that distinguishes them is the number and position of the dots. If it is difficult to remember, try to find a code for the place of the dots, such as “b” below and “n” not below.
b shape in Farsi - Learning Persian Alphabet (01)
  • The only thing that distinguishes them is the number and position of the dots. If it is difficult to remember, try to find a code for the place of the dots, such as “b” below and “n” not below.
  • There is no upper and lower case in the Farsi script. But the shapes of the letters usually differ according to their place and whether they can connect to the letter before or after them. In the first Persian Alphabet Lesson, the only letter that cannot connect to the letter after, among the five you have learned, is “â.” So letters after “â” are written in the same form as at the beginning of the words. For example, “âbân” is written as “آبان” in Farsi since “b” and “n” cannot connect to the “â” before them. Letters at the end of the word are either longer, like “ب,” or below the line, like “ن.” While watching the video, take notice of the letters’ proportions at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.
  • In this video, you learn a short vowel, “a.” When short vowels are in the middle of the word, they are written over or below the letter they are connected to. Take “man” [I / me in Farsi] as an example. You need to put “ َ ” on top of “م” and write it as “مَن.” But we usually do not show the short vowels in the middle, so later, you will learn to write the word as “من.” When the short vowels are at the beginning of a word, we need to use the vowel sign “ا”. For instance, “amn” is written as “اَمن”.
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  • One of the common mistakes for Iranian kids in the first grade and Farsi learners is writing the words backward. For instance, “bâbâ” starts with “b,” followed by “â.” Therefore, the correct written form of it is “بابا.” But many learners put “â” first and connect “b” to it and mistakenly write This may happen just the first couple of times, so do not worry. Your brain will fall into the new habit quickly.
shape of baabaa in farsi - Learning Persian Alphabet (01)

FarsiMonde’s tutors attempt to make learning the Persian Alphabet simple and easy; therefore, we designed writing exercises you can work on at the end of each video. Refer to blow the page, to do a quick alphabet quiz of lesson 01.

Learning Farsi Alphabet Quiz 01 

Learning Farsi Alphabet Quiz 01 

If you still need help with reading and writing in Farsi after the videos and test, you can always count on our online Persian courses.