ع — ayn
«ayn» is a consonant of the Persian script, read as “ʿ (barely a sound)”. Almost silent here: at the start of a word a broken-off vowel (عصر reads asr), in the middle often nothing at all. The squeezed throat of the source has gone quiet. For example, in the word “عصر” — evening. The Persian alphabet has 32 letters in total. A little crust with a tail. In عصر "evening" it still opens the word; elsewhere it often just occupies space. It appears, for example, in the word “عالی” — great.
In short
| Character | ع |
| Name | ayn |
| Sound | ʿ (barely a sound) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 25th of 33: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ظ and غ, appears in 317 words of this site.
How to type ع
- On a phone: add the Persian keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0639 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0639.
- Unicode code point: U+0639. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Almost silent here: at the start of a word a broken-off vowel (عصر reads asr), in the middle often nothing at all. The squeezed throat of the source has gone quiet
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| initial | عـ | — |
| medial | ـعـ | — |
| final | ـع | — |
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- عصرasrevening
The character in the “ع غ ق — the throat and the depth” group
Ayn here has almost gone mute: it reads as a broken-off vowel or not at all. Ghayn went the other way and found a voice — a deep gargled g. And ق is a sound made down in the throat, between "k" and "g"; the transcription writes it as "g".
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «ayn» it is “ʿ (barely a sound)”, as in the word “عصر”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 32 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Persian character ع read?
As “ʿ (barely a sound)” — it is a consonant of the Persian script. Almost silent here: at the start of a word a broken-off vowel (عصر reads asr), in the middle often nothing at all. The squeezed throat of the source has gone quiet. For example, in the word “عصر” — evening.
What is the letter ع called?
Ayn. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Persian script: it is called “ayn” and reads as “ʿ (barely a sound)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.