زبان مادری
“زبان مادری” (zâbâne mâdari) — native language, mother tongue in Persian. Noun, level A2. Literally "the mother’s language", from the mother you know. The tongue in the mouth is the same word: organ and speech here are one, as at home. Mine is the language of this course, says the example. In a live sentence: “زبان مادری من فارسی است” — My native language is Persian. Written with the characters ز, ب, ا, ن, م, ا, د, ر, ی.
In short
| Written in Persian | زبان مادری |
| Read in Latin letters | zâbâne mâdari |
| Translation | native language, mother tongue |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "the mother’s language", from the mother you know. The tongue in the mouth is the same word: organ and speech here are one, as at home. Mine is the language of this course, 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.
- زبان مادری من فارسی استzâbâne mâdari man fârsi astMy native language is Persian
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 “native language, mother tongue” in Persian?
«زبان مادری», read “zâbâne mâdari”. In a live sentence: “زبان مادری من فارسی است” — My native language is Persian. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ز, ب, ا, ن, م, ا, د, ر, ی.
How is “زبان مادری” written in Latin letters?
zâbâne mâdari. 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?
Literally "the mother’s language", from the mother you know. The tongue in the mouth is the same word: organ and speech here are one, as at home. Mine is the language of this course, 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.