Welcome to the sixth episode of the Persian Learning Alphabet Series. In this lesson, you will learn how to write “h” and “o.” This lesson is relatively difficult since the “h” has four different shapes and the “o” sound can sometimes be written as “u.” The good news is that there will be no dots in this lesson. Moreover, “h” is a beautiful letter in the Farsi script. You will enjoy writing it.

Some letters in the Farsi script have four different shapes, and “h” is the first one you are learning. “h” in the beginning is written as follows:

هـ

The second form of “h” is needed when it comes in the middle and connects to its previous and next letters. It is written as follows:

ـهـ

The important note to remember is that this “h” in the middle connects to both sides. So if  “h” is in the middle of a word but it comes after letters such as, “â,” or “r” it cannot connect to them. How to write it then? Do not worry. You can simply use the first “h”. Take “Mâhân” as an example. “â” does not connect to any letter after, so you cannot use “ﻬ.” But some Farsi learners mistakenly write this word as “ماﻬان” while the correct written form is “ماهان.”

The last two “h” always come at the end of a word. The first one is connected to its previous letter, and it is written as follows:

ـه

The last “h’ does not connect to any letter before or after, and it is written as:

ه

Writing “h” needs some practice; therefore, watching the video a couple of times is recommended. In this video, Sina perfectly shows how to master writing this pretty letter. Follow his hand and try to copy him.

Writing “o” is not difficult. Like the other short vowels, it needs the vowel sign, “ا” when it comes in the beginning. You need to put ﹸ on top of the vowel sign or any consonant it comes with. For example, “Rose” is written as “رُز” in Farsi.

But there is a general rule for short vowels at the end of a word. As you may remember, we usually do not show the short vowels in the Farsi script. But when “e,” “a,” and “o” come at the end of a word, we have to show them in some ways. For “o” at the end, you need to use “u.” For instance, imagine you want to write “to” which means “you.” You may write it as “تُ” which is wrong. The correct form is “تو.”

Moreover, this “o” sound is sometimes written as “u” even in the middle of a word. For example, “moz” is written as “موز.” Unfortunately, FarsiMonde’s tutors have no explanation for this. You have to accept it as an irregularity in the Persian script and memorize it as it is.

اُ        ُ       و

In this lesson, you learned how to write “h” which means you can now write one of the most frequent Persian verbs, “hastam.” It is time to introduce yourself in Farsi. So do not hesitate and write some sentences in the comment. You can use the following short text as an example.

1. man Mahsâ hastam. = I am Mahsa.

I     Mahsa    am

2. man Tehrâni nistam. = I am not from Tehran.

I   from.Tehran  am.not

3. mâ mahâbâdi hastim. = We are from Mahabad.

We  from.Mahabad  are

4. man do dust-e Tehrâni dâram. = I have two Friends from Tehran.

I  two friend  of  Tehran  have.1SG

5. esm-e dust-e man Omid ast. = My friend’s name is Omid.

name of  friend of me  Omid is

6. man in mâh mehmân-e Omid hastam. = I am Omid’s guest this month.

I   this  month  guest of  Omid   am

7. mâ har šab bâ ham šâm mipazim. = We cook together every night.

we every night with each.other dinner cook.1PL

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  bellow to start the quick sixth lesson quiz.