در وسط

In short

Why it looks that way

Dar, in, + vasat the middle: the place of the dinner table and of the roundabout

A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.

In a live sentence

A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.

• میز در وسط اتاق است.

  miz dar vâsate âtâg ast.

  The table is in the middle of the room.

Nearby words: asking the way

Right, left, straight on, how far. You ask the way rarely — and always at the moment when there is no time to work it out.

• کجاست؟

  kâdzhâst؟

  where is?

  Koja where + ast is — melted into one word. The question that ends half the street conversations of the course
• اینجا

  indzhâ

  here

  Here, at the speaker. Ask rasturan inja-ye? — is the restaurant here? — and point
• آنجا

  ândzhâ

  there

  There, away from us — the -un- is the far hand. Bank unja-ye: the bank is over there
• راست

  râst

  right (direction)

  Right — the direction and the truth share this word, as in "the right answer". Raast bero: go right
• چپ

  chap

  left (direction)

  Left, one syllable. In street speech baad chap bero — then go left — is the second half of every direction
• مستقیم

  mâstaghim

  straight

  From the root of "straightness" in law too — a straight line and a just one. Mostaghim bero: go straight
• نزدیک

  nazdik

  close

  Close, near — a shop can be nazdik and a person too: nazdike man, close to me. The -i of nazdaki turns it into a spot
• دور

  dur

  far

  Far — and the same dur serves as "away" and "around". Istgah dour ast? — is the station far?
• چطور برم

  châtâr beram

  how do I get there?

  Chetor how + beram shall-I-go: the question that replaces every map. Point somewhere and ask it
• برسیدن

  beresidan

  to arrive (get somewhere)

  The reaching verb of journeys: ba otoboos key beresim? — when do we get there by bus?

Test yourself

Five questions from the same set — “asking the way”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.

How not to forget this word

Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.

• This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many times
  Kim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
• Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many times
  Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
• An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many times
  Bertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.

Next

• Asking the way18 words on the topic
• پیچ بعدی — next turnread “piche ba'di”
• سر راه — on the wayread “sâre râh”
• توقف — stop (bus)read “tavagâf”
• مسافر — passengerread “mâsafer”
• All Persian wordsIndex by topic
• Why a word list doesn't sticka note