تومان
“تومان” (tumân) — toman in Persian. Numeral, level A0, topic — numbers and counting. The currency unit of daily speech, ten rials each. Prices are said in tomans straight away, no zeros spelled out. In a live sentence: “پنجاه تومان” — Fifty tomans. Written with the characters ت, و, م, ا, ن. One of 59 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Persian course.
In short
| Written in Persian | تومان |
| Read in Latin letters | tumân |
| Translation | toman |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
The currency unit of daily speech, ten rials each. Prices are said in tomans straight away, no zeros spelled out
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.
- پنجاه تومانpandzhâh tumânFifty tomans
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- یکyekoneThe counting one, and also "a certain": yek ruz — one day, once. Orders love it: yek cha — one tea
- دوdâtwoTwo of anything: do ta — two pieces. The old cousin of the same number in half of Europe, both from one ancient root
- سهsethreeThree. In the teens it returns as sizdah, and in thirty as si — one root wearing three faces
- چهارchâhârfourFour, alive in chaharshanbe, Wednesday — the fourth day. The r is tapped, not swallowed
- پنجpandzhfiveFive. Panjshanbe, Thursday, is the fifth day — the eve of the weekend here
- چندchandhow many?The number-word of shopping: chand?, how much? Chand ta?, how many? Works for prices, ages and counts alike
- ششsheshsixSix, the sh said twice and softly. Returns in shast, sixty, and sheshsad, six hundred
- هفتhâftsevenSeven — and the week itself: hafta, a week, is "the seven". English "heft", the weight of a thing, is a handy sound anchor for it
- هشتhâshteightEight. Hashtshanbe, Saturday, is not the eighth day but the first: the week here starts with it
- نُهnâhnineNine, the h breathed clearly. The written form carries a small vowel mark above the n to keep the oh from shrinking
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “toman” in Persian?
The currency unit of daily speech, ten rials each. Prices are said in tomans straight away, no zeros spelled out
- How do you say “six” in Persian?
Six, the sh said twice and softly. Returns in shast, sixty, and sheshsad, six hundred
- How do you say “three” in Persian?
Three. In the teens it returns as sizdah, and in thirty as si — one root wearing three faces
- How do you say “nine” in Persian?
Nine, the h breathed clearly. The written form carries a small vowel mark above the n to keep the oh from shrinking
- How do you say “how many?” in Persian?
The number-word of shopping: chand?, how much? Chand ta?, how many? Works for prices, ages and counts alike
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 “toman” in Persian?
«تومان», read “tumân”. In a live sentence: “پنجاه تومان” — Fifty tomans. Numeral, level A0, from the set “numbers and counting”; written with the characters ت, و, م, ا, ن.
How is “تومان” written in Latin letters?
tumân. 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?
The currency unit of daily speech, ten rials each. Prices are said in tomans straight away, no zeros spelled out. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.