او
“او” (u) — he / she in Persian. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. One word for he and she: no gender in the pronoun at all. Who exactly is meant, the sentence around it has to tell. In a live sentence: “او از شیراز است” — He is from Shiraz. Written with the characters ا, و. One of 26 words in the set “pronouns” in the Persian course.
In short
| Written in Persian | او |
| Read in Latin letters | u |
| Translation | he / she |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
One word for he and she: no gender in the pronoun at all. Who exactly is meant, the sentence around it has to tell
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.
- او از شیراز استu az Shiraz astHe is from Shiraz
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- منmanIAlmost never dropped: the verb ending already says who acts, so man stays when you press the point — I, personally
- توtâyou (singular)For close friends, family and children only. To a stranger it jumps straight to shoma, the polite you, from the first sentence
- شماshâmâyou (polite)The respectful you, and it serves one respected person too — the same move as French vous. Its verb goes plural
- ماmâweA plain we with no room for nuance: no separate "we including you" versus "we without you"
- شماهاshâmâhâyou (all)The polite plural you: the everyday speech covers "you all" with shomâ plus -hâ. The verb agrees in second person: shomâhâ hastid
- آنانânântheyThe bookish aanan, colloquial oonâ. The verb agrees in third person: ânhâ hastand
- مال منmâle manmineThe ownership formula: mal is property, so male man is "of me". The word that answers "whose?" every time
- مال توmâle tâyoursProperty of you: mal + the pronoun. For the polite you it becomes male shoma without changing shape
- مال ماmâle mâoursThe same mal, "property", with we inside: male ma. A flat formula — the pronoun is the only thing that ever moves
- مال شماmâle shâmâyours (polite)Ownership aimed respectfully: mal-e shoma. Shopkeepers say it handing you your change
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “he / she” in Persian?
One word for he and she: no gender in the pronoun at all. Who exactly is meant, the sentence around it has to tell
- How do you say “mine” in Persian?
The ownership formula: mal is property, so male man is "of me". The word that answers "whose?" every time
- How do you say “you (polite)” in Persian?
The respectful you, and it serves one respected person too — the same move as French vous. Its verb goes plural
- How do you say “yours (polite)” in Persian?
Ownership aimed respectfully: mal-e shoma. Shopkeepers say it handing you your change
- How do you say “they” in Persian?
The bookish aanan, colloquial oonâ. The verb agrees in third person: ânhâ hastand
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 “he / she” in Persian?
«او», read “u”. In a live sentence: “او از شیراز است” — He is from Shiraz. Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters ا, و.
How is “او” written in Latin letters?
u. 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?
One word for he and she: no gender in the pronoun at all. Who exactly is meant, the sentence around it has to tell. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.