Welcome to the fifth episode of the Persian Learning Alphabet Series. In this lesson, you will learn how to write “š” and “z.” This lesson does not have anything new, except for the number and place of the dots. Do you remember how to write “r” and “s” in Farsi? In this lesson, you only need to add dots on top of them to create new letters.

“š” in Persian alphabet

The written forms of “s” and “š” are very similar. To write “š” just add three dots, on top of “s.” All the notes about “ﺴ” and “ﺲ” apply to “š.” The only extra note about “š” is the way you can put them on top of “ﺲ.” For beginners, we clearly show the dots separately as follows:

ﺶ        شــ

But when you get familiar with all letters in the Persian alphabet, you will see that Iranians do not usually put the dots one by one. You can easily put a small line to show two dots together or a round line to show three dots. You can use this technique whenever you have more than one dote as in “p,” “t,” or “i.”

“z” in Persian alphabet

The “z” sound does not exist in some languages, so some Farsi learners face a problem in pronouncing it. But as mentioned in the video, you can try to make a bee’s sound to practice pronouncing “z.” Moreover, “s” and “z” are both alveolar consonants, meaning they share the same place of articulation. Therefore, sometimes distinguishing between these two sounds is difficult, especially when they come at the end of the words. FarsiMonde tutors have designed some listening-writing exercises with Persian minimal pairs for you. While doing the quiz, you will come across them. Try to pay full attention when you go through them.

How do we write “z” in Farsi? Very easy. Write “ﺮ” and put a dot on top. As you may remember, “r” does not connect to any letter after and has only one shape, and so does “z.”

Farsi Sentences to Practice

After finishing lesson five of the Persian Alphabet Series and completing the exercises, you can write a new Farsi verb in present; “mipušam” which means “I wear.” Now you can write more complicated sentences in the Farsi script. If you are ready, try writing the following sentences in Farsi in the comments. Our Farsi tutors will check them for you. 

1. Šimâ tišert-e zard nemipušad. = Shima is not wearing a yellow t-shirt.

Shima t-shirt  yellow wear.NEG.3SG

2. dust pesar-e Šâdi zest ast. = Shadi’s boyfriend is ugly.

Friend  boy of Shadi ugly be.3SG

3. esm-e dust-e man Bašir ast. = My friend’s name is Bashir.

name of friend of  I  Bashir be.3SG

4. man dar zemestân dâman mipušam. = I wear a skirt in winter.

I       in       winter      skirt    wearing.1SG

FarsiMonde’s tutors attempt to make learning the Persian Alphabet simple and enjoyable; therefore, we designed writing exercises you can work on at the end of each video. Click on the play sign bellow to start the quick fifth lesson’s quiz.