صاف
“صاف” (sââf) — smooth, even in Persian. Adjective, level B1. Smooth to the touch, clean and straight at once: one word covers everything even. It lives in talk too: "say it straight". This paper is smooth, writing is easy, says the example. In a live sentence: “این کاغذ صاف است، راحت مینویسی” — This paper is smooth, writing is easy. Written with the characters ص, ا, ف. A word from the everyday Persian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Persian | صاف |
| Read in Latin letters | sââf |
| Translation | smooth, even |
| Part of speech | adjective |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Smooth to the touch, clean and straight at once: one word covers everything even. It lives in talk too: "say it straight". This paper is smooth, writing is easy, 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.
- این کاغذ صاف است، راحت مینویسیin kâghaz sââf ast, râhat mi-nevisiThis paper is smooth, writing is easy
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 “smooth, even” in Persian?
«صاف», read “sââf”. In a live sentence: “این کاغذ صاف است، راحت مینویسی” — This paper is smooth, writing is easy. Adjective, level B1; written with the characters ص, ا, ف.
How is “صاف” written in Latin letters?
sââf. 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?
Smooth to the touch, clean and straight at once: one word covers everything even. It lives in talk too: "say it straight". This paper is smooth, writing is easy, 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.