یک سوم
“یک سوم” (yek sevvâm) — a third, one-third in Persian. Noun, level B1. Fractions are assembled from the one plus the ordinal: one third, one fourth. After the fraction comes the linking vowel: a third of what. A third of the class was ill, says the example. In a live sentence: “یک سوم کلاس بیمار بود” — A third of the class was ill. Written with the characters ی, ک, س, و, م. A word from the everyday Persian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Persian | یک سوم |
| Read in Latin letters | yek sevvâm |
| Translation | a third, one-third |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Fractions are assembled from the one plus the ordinal: one third, one fourth. After the fraction comes the linking vowel: a third of what. A third of the class was ill, 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.
- یک سوم کلاس بیمار بودyek sevvâme kâlâs bimâr budA third of the class was ill
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 “a third, one-third” in Persian?
«یک سوم», read “yek sevvâm”. In a live sentence: “یک سوم کلاس بیمار بود” — A third of the class was ill. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ی, ک, س, و, م.
How is “یک سوم” written in Latin letters?
yek sevvâm. 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?
Fractions are assembled from the one plus the ordinal: one third, one fourth. After the fraction comes the linking vowel: a third of what. A third of the class was ill, 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.