Introduction to Learning Persian

Apr 24, 2019 - New Lessons

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INTRODUCTION

Persian is one of the languages that uses a variant of Arabic script. Arabic-based writing systems have the following features:

Words are written and read from right to left; however, like Latin-based scripts, numbers are written and read from left to right.
Letters represent consonants and long vowels; short vowels do not appear in writing but are represented as diacritics in careful writing.
The shape of letters changes as they appear initially, medially or finally.
Letters making up a word are often joined. There are only a few letters that do not join their following letters in a word.

This section aims to introduce Persian alphabet, writing system, and pronunciation. By following our lessons, you will learn (i) the standards of writing the letters of the alphabet; (ii) the use of these letters to write words; and (iii) the way these letters are pronounced.

Letters in Arabic script consists of either a base form, or a base form plus one to three dots that are placed above or under the base form. Some letters share the same base form but differ in the place and number of dots, e.g. ث، ت، پ، ب. Our lessons in this section have been organized in terms of base forms: the letters that share the same base form are introduced in one lesson. Also, the sounds represented by the same letter are introduced in one lesson.

As you learn a letter, you also learn how to join it to the letters you have learned before. In addition to exercise sheets for practicing the isolated shapes of letters, we also provide you with an exercise sheet for practicing how to join letters together to form words. In doing so, we introduce each letter with words in which that letter is used in different positions.

Here is a list of the lessons we provide in this section: