Persian Lesson 3 – Letters from /alef/ to /he/

Persian Letters from /alef/ to /he/

In this lesson we learn Persian letters from /alef/ to /he/. I hope you are enjoying these lessons. I will be thankful if you let me know about your suggestions

Last week, we studied long vowels with the help of three letters , , and . I hope you remember the previous lessons. Don’t worry if you are not so fluent at this stage.

As you know, Rome was not built in one day! Remember that where there is a will, there is a way. All I can say is that you will not be able to find an online method to learn Persian, which is easier than this. Keep practicing, and you will see your progress in near future.

Now, let’s begin.

So far, we have learned some letters that helped us a lot with learning vowels. To do this, I had to introduce some end letters like  and  at the very beginning and it was inevitable. To explain the long vowels, we needed these letters. Now that we are familiar with the short and long vowels, which are the most important part of our job at this stage, it will not be difficult to learn and pronounce all letters (alphabets) from the very beginning with the help of those vowels. In learning Persian alphabets, sometimes, it is possible to find the English equivalents for them. Nevertheless, not all Persian letters necessarily have an English equivalent. Therefore, during these lessons, for further explanation we try to find the English and sometimes, other languages equivalents to make it easier to understand.

As you know, Persian language is built on 32 letters. Let’s try them one by one.

Note: each letter has a name, which may not necessarily be the same as its pronunciation. In one word, each letter has a name and can potentially have six pronunciations when combined with the vowels.

1- –  this is called Alef /ælef/. You know the explanation of this letter.  this one comes at the beginning of the words and pronounced as /a:/ only. Do you remember it? Perfect!  this one appears anywhere in the words: beginning, middle, and end and accepts all six vowels. Please pronounce it again with both short and long vowels. You will say:  Need help? Click here.

2-  –  this is called /be/ as in bed. When combined, it may be pronounced as:

3-  –  this is called /pe/ as in pet. When combined, it may be pronounced as:

4-  –  this is called /te/ as in ten. When combined, it may be pronounced as:

Now that we have reviewed the letters from the beginning, it is easy for us to learn the rest of the letters. Today, we will learn some more letters.

5-  –  this is called /se/ as in set. When combined, it may be pronounced as:

. Need help? Click here.

6-  –  this one is called /Jim/. When combined, it may be pronounced as: . Need help? Click here.

7-  –  this is called /che/ as in chess. When combined, it may be pronounced as: . Click here to listen.

8-  –  this is called /he/ as in hen. When combined, it may be pronounced as: .

All right. If you need to know how these letters’ names are pronounced, click here.