How to read in Persian

Right to left, joined, and no short vowels

Three differences from English, and all of them are visible in the first word. First: the line runs right to left — the beginning of the word stands at the right edge, the end at the left. Second: the letters join into one continuous line; a word looks like a single stroke. Third: short vowels are not written at all. The script is an abjad: letters carry the consonants and the long vowels, and memory restores the short ones. That is why the course always runs with a transcription — without it the first weeks are a pattern, not text.

The letters of this step are among the most frequent in the language. ا is the long "aa" and the seat under any first vowel; آ the same letter with a madda stroke. ب is b, ت is t, م is m. In باب (baab, "gate") a long "aa" sits between the two b’s: b-aa-b, reading from the right.

Seven letters that refuse to join on

Most letters clasp their neighbours on both sides, but seven — ا د ذ ر ز ژ و — take a join only from the right. In دور (dur, "far") the word falls apart into three separate signs. That is not a rarity but a marker: it gives these letters away in any text. The angle د therefore has no initial or medial form — only the letter itself.

The new letters of the step: د is d, و is v — and after a consonant the long "uu" as well. Then ر, a short r in one tap of the tongue. And two more: ل, l with a long tail, ن, a circle with a dot on top.

ج ح خ — one skeleton, three sounds

The family that shows how the whole alphabet works: one skeleton, and the difference is the dots. A dot inside — ج, the j of "jam". No dot — ح, a breathy h: the throat consonant it came from has softened here into a plain breath. A dot on top — خ, a kh with a rough edge, deeper than usual.

In خبر (khabar, "news") no short "a" stands on the page: not one sign sits between kh and b. Yet a vowel sounds there — and that is every second word of the course. The consonant frame sits on the page; the vowels come out of memory. The tail of lam at the end of a word runs off to the left.

س ش — the three teeth, and ye with two jobs

س is the most conspicuous letter of the script: three teeth in a row. With no dot it is s; with three dots on top — ش, sh. A pair on one skeleton, like the corners of step two.

ی is the consonant y — and after a consonant also the long "ee". In شیر (shir, "milk") ye after sh reads as "ee": sh-ee-r. The three teeth and the dot on the tail are how you tell s and sh apart from across the page.

ص ض ط ظ — borrowed letters, and the deep ق

Four "heavy" consonants of another alphabet, on which the language built its whole bookish vocabulary. Their special pronunciation faded long ago: today ص reads s, ض reads z, ط reads t, ظ reads z. Telling them apart by ear is unnecessary; recognizing them on sight is mandatory — صبح, "morning", stands in every day of the week.

The last letter here is ق — a deep sound between k and g, made at the bottom of the throat. The transcription writes it as g. In قول (ghol, "word, promise") the first sound sinks down.

ع غ — the throat, and the native letters پ چ

ع is ayn: here it has almost gone mute. At the start of a word it still sounds as a broken-off vowel: عصر, asr, "evening". In the middle it often says nothing at all. غ is ghayn, the other way round: the mute borrowed throat found a voice. What came out is a deep gargled g straight from the bottom of the throat.

Beside them two letters the language invented itself. پ is p — the b skeleton plus three dots. چ is ch — the j skeleton plus three dots. In چای (chaay, "tea") the whole word is three signs — and it needs no translation.

The last letters: g, zh, and the bookish s and z

The rest of the alphabet. گ is g, the second native letter, on the k skeleton: without it you could not say gol ("flower") or bozorg ("big"). ژ is zh, the z skeleton with three dots. ف is f, ه a light breath — the third h of the script.

And three bookish letters on familiar skeletons. ث reads s — a historical th like in "think". ذ reads z — a historical th like in "this". ز is plain z. The language tells three signs for one z sound apart only by eye: in writing, in a dictionary, in a name.

What order to take the characters in

The writing course is split into 7 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 33 signs in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.

• Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many times
  Donovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
• It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many times
  Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.

Next

• Persian alphabetA reference of all the characters
• TransliterationThe table, both ways
• PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
• How to break down an unfamiliar scripta note