دست به کار شدن
“دست به کار شدن” (dest be kâr shâdan) — to set to work, get started in Persian. Verb, level B1. Literally "the hand to the work became": roll up the sleeves and begin. The liveliest verb of starting work — after breakfast, straight to it. After breakfast we set to work, says the example. In a live sentence: “بعد صبحانه دست به کار شدیم” — After breakfast we set to work. A word from the everyday Persian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Persian | دست به کار شدن |
| Read in Latin letters | dest be kâr shâdan |
| Translation | to set to work, get started |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "the hand to the work became": roll up the sleeves and begin. The liveliest verb of starting work — after breakfast, straight to it. After breakfast we set to work, says the example
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.
- بعد صبحانه دست به کار شدیمba'd sâbhâne dest be kâr shâdimAfter breakfast we set to work
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 timesKim & 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 timesAdesope, 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 timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “to set to work, get started” in Persian?
«دست به کار شدن», read “dest be kâr shâdan”. In a live sentence: “بعد صبحانه دست به کار شدیم” — After breakfast we set to work. Verb, level B1; written with the characters د, س, ت, ب, ه, ک, ا, ر, ش, د, ن.
How is “دست به کار شدن” written in Latin letters?
dest be kâr shâdan. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "the hand to the work became": roll up the sleeves and begin. The liveliest verb of starting work — after breakfast, straight to it. After breakfast we set to work, says the example. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.