شیر
“شیر” (shir) — milk in Persian. Noun, level A0, topic — food and drink. Same word as in shirini, pastry — sweetness and milk share a root of gentleness. Also lives in shir-mal, a soft milk roll. In a live sentence: “شیر میخواهم” — I want milk. Written with the characters ش, ی, ر. One of 176 words in the set “food and drink” in the Persian course.
In short
| Written in Persian | شیر |
| Read in Latin letters | shir |
| Translation | milk |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Same word as in shirini, pastry — sweetness and milk share a root of gentleness. Also lives in shir-mal, a soft milk roll
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.
- شیر میخواهمshir mi-khâhamI want milk
Nearby words: food and drink
A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.
- چایchayteaThe national drink, drunk in armchair glasses all day. The word travelled west with the leaf itself: chaay became the tea of half the world
- قهوهgâghvecoffeeCovers both the drink and the café where it is served — qahve-khane is a teahouse. The word is the ancestor of European "café"
- آبâbwaterOne syllable, and it opens half the compound words of food: ab-mive juice, ab-miondani mineral water. The a is long
- نانnânbreadFlat, baked fresh twice a day. Nun-e barbari and nun-e sangak are the names you meet at the bakery door
- نوشیدنnâshidanto drinkThe dictionary form. Speech uses the stem nush — mi-nusham, I drink. From the same root as nushidani, any drinkable thing
- غذاghazafoodThe general word for a meal and for a dish. Ghazaha-ye daryai — seafood — is the same word in the plural
- پنیرpanircheeseWhite brined cheese, the breakfast partner of bread. The pair nun o panir is one phrase, like "bread and butter"
- گوشتgushtmeatMeat in general; the animal names follow it: gusht-e morgh, chicken meat. The gh is deep, gargled
- ماهیmâhifishOne word for the animal and the food. Mahi-e sefid, the white fish of the north, is the festive one
- سالادsâlâdsaladThe international word, said exactly as at home. Salad-e Shirazi — cucumber, tomato, onion — is the house version
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “food and drink”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “milk” in Persian?
Same word as in shirini, pastry — sweetness and milk share a root of gentleness. Also lives in shir-mal, a soft milk roll
- How do you say “cheese” in Persian?
White brined cheese, the breakfast partner of bread. The pair nun o panir is one phrase, like "bread and butter"
- How do you say “water” in Persian?
One syllable, and it opens half the compound words of food: ab-mive juice, ab-miondani mineral water. The a is long
- How do you say “salad” in Persian?
The international word, said exactly as at home. Salad-e Shirazi — cucumber, tomato, onion — is the house version
- How do you say “food” in Persian?
The general word for a meal and for a dish. Ghazaha-ye daryai — seafood — is the same word in the plural
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 “milk” in Persian?
«شیر», read “shir”. In a live sentence: “شیر میخواهم” — I want milk. Noun, level A0, from the set “food and drink”; written with the characters ش, ی, ر.
How is “شیر” written in Latin letters?
shir. 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?
Same word as in shirini, pastry — sweetness and milk share a root of gentleness. Also lives in shir-mal, a soft milk roll. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.