راه افتادن
“راه افتادن” (rah âftâdan) — to set off in Persian. Verb, level A1. Literally "to fall onto the way": rah the road + oftadan to fall. Setting off here is tripping into the road. In a live sentence: “بعد صبحانه راه میافتیم” — After breakfast we set off. Written with the characters ر, ا, ه, ا, ف, ت, ا, د, ن. A word from the everyday Persian course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Persian | راه افتادن |
| Read in Latin letters | rah âftâdan |
| Translation | to set off |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "to fall onto the way": rah the road + oftadan to fall. Setting off here is tripping into the road
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 راه میافتیمba'd sâbhâne rah mi-âftimAfter breakfast we set off
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 off” in Persian?
«راه افتادن», read “rah âftâdan”. In a live sentence: “بعد صبحانه راه میافتیم” — After breakfast we set off. Verb, level A1; written with the characters ر, ا, ه, ا, ف, ت, ا, د, ن.
How is “راه افتادن” written in Latin letters?
rah âftâdan. 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 "to fall onto the way": rah the road + oftadan to fall. Setting off here is tripping into the road. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.