Salam! Khosh amadid!
Before we start today, let me answer to some of your questions first.
1- Which Farsi / Persian are you teaching?
Well, I am teaching Persian/Farsi that is currently spoken in Iran! We may divide Persian/Farsi into Old and Modern Persian. Old Persian is no longer used among the common people in their daily conversations. We can also mention pre-Islam and post-Islam Persian in this category. The pre-Islam Persian was Persian originated, Persian based, and Persian oriented language. Lots of words in that era are considered obsolete in nowadays, as they are no longer used. Even lots of people who graduate from the universities are not able to understand the main part of that language. To understand that language clearly, you need to pass at least a two-year-term related to that particular subject in universities.
After the Arab invaded Iran, lots of things changed. Among them was the language. They imported lots of Arab-based words and structures into Persian language. This lingual invasion was improved by almost all scholars and literary leaders who wrote wonderful masterpieces during this period. From among them is Hafez who knew Quran by heart. Saadi, Rumi and many others are just few examples. Their languages, although closer to our Modern Persian, are difficult to understand as well.
Now, we have our Modern Persian, which is mixed with Arabic, French, English, even Turkish, and some others! It seems impossible to purify a language from imported foreign words at this period. Lots of things are changed. The communication is spreading all over the world. New technologies, new ways of communication, new social and political systems, and new affections towards foreign words, and lots of other things affect the structure of almost every language. We are approaching our world village utopia! Iran can not be an exception! The different kinds of social and political movements support their own way of importing or imposing foreign words such as Arabic, English, French, on Persian. Although a couple of great linguists have been trying hard to Persionize all importing words, little progress has been achieved by now. It has many reasons. One of the most important one, I think, is that they do not install a valid filter around the borders to Persionize the words that are coming into the country. They let people use the same foreign words for a long time and then ask some experts to look for the Persian equivalents for those words, whose main efforts turn into daily jokes among people! There are lots of other reasons which I can not explain due to lack of knowledge, etc.
For more technical explanation about Farsi language, you may read the article called ‘Pahlavi/ Farsi/ Dari’ on ‘Afghanistan Online’ website, which is available on ‘Links’ page.
2- Why do you write 
/khæva:ndæn/ and pronounce it as 
/kha:ndæn/? Why don’t you write /kha:ndæn/ instead?
I am not a linguist or a philologist to explain it technically. Philologically/linguistically speaking, words come from certain roots. As time changes, people might change the structure of the words or the way they are used. These changes might happen in either oral or written form, or both. Sometimes, words are changed in oral conversations, but not in writing. That is to say, the pronunciation of a word is changed but its spelling has remained unchanged. A good example here is the word /kha:ndæn/. This word had a slightly different pronunciation in the past. People have changed its pronunciation to make it easier to pronounce, but they haven’t changed its spelling. It has its own reasons. Sometimes, if we change the spelling of a word, we might get a different word which is already exist with a different meaning. And sometimes, this change will create a new word that can not be included or harmonized in the main body of that language. The pronunciation of the old version of /kha:ndæn/ was something like this.
It seems a little difficult to pronounce, isn’t it?
Another example is the word ‘sister’, which is written in this way: 
/kha:hær/. This one has the same explanation as the previous one. The way it was pronounced in the past was something like this.
I think you agree with me that the old pronunciations of such words are acceptably difficult!
As far as I remember now, the combination of 
/va:v/ and 
/khe/ gives us such a different pronunciation in many words (if not all), not other letters.
3- How do we recognize different /h/ sounds or /z/ sounds in different words? For example, why do we say 
/bæd æz zohr/ (afternoon) and not 
/ bæd æz zohr/? Or why do we say 
/hæm.ma:l/ (Porter: A person employed to carry travelers’ bags, luggage, especially at railway stations, airports, etc.), and not 
/hæm.ma:l/?
I think I just explained it. Some words come from different roots, which refer to that particular action. We cannot write 
/zohr/ for 
/zohr/. If we do, we have written a different word with a different pronunciation and meaning. It will be pronounced as /zæhr/ which means ‘poison’.
/hæm.ma:l/ has the same problem. It comes from 
/hæml/, which means ‘carrying something from one place to another’. We cannot write it like this 
/hæml/ or /hæm.ma:l/, which do not exist in Persian.
After all, don’t call somebody /hæm.ma:l/ , or he will get really angry with you!! (Even if you are calling a real porter). This is a ‘Taboo!’ word, which is almost removed from normal daily conversations. But, it’s ok if your father gets angry with you and calls you /hæm.ma:l/!! Don’t take it serious!
/sobh/ has the same story. This 
/sobh/ or this one 
/sobh/ do not exist in Persian. So, if we simply see /sobh/ with this spelling, we will normally discard the other options.
Let’s look at some English words. Why ‘Telephone’ and not ‘Telefone’? Why ‘Cinema’ and not ‘Sinema’? Why ‘Cat’ and not ‘Kat’? Why ‘Xerox’ and not ‘Zerox’? Why ‘Quantity’ and not ‘Kuantity’? Why ‘Brick’ and not ‘Brik’?, and lots of others.
Sometimes we know the root of the word, and sometimes we have to just memorize it.
All right. I hope the explanations are convincing!
Now let’s go back to our today’s lesson.
Do you know how to say the following words in Persian? Give them a try again.
- Book
- Car
- Table
- House
- Television
- Week
- Night
Did you do it?
Yes? Great!
No? Try the previous lessons once more!
Now, we want to see how we can say ‘books’ in Persian. Correct! We are going to make plural nouns today.
In making plural nouns, we should add something (maybe we can call it suffix) to the end of each noun. I believe it will become a little confusing if we make a rule for each specific option. Therefore, we will try to learn them one by one.
Look at this: 
it is /ha:/. If we put /ha:/ at the end of the nouns, we will have plural nouns. This is one of them.
Sometimes, we add 
/a:n/ to a noun to make it plural.
Sometimes, we add 
/a:t/ to the end of a noun to make it plural.
And finally, sometimes, we change the appearance of a noun to make it plural!
Frightened?!
You don’t need to learn them all at this stage, it’s just for your information. As I told you, we are not going to learn them through different rules, as these rules will bring some new problems to us by themselves. We will have to know the rules, the words which can be included in each rule and so on and so on. I don’t like it! You too!
Instead, if we practice a bit, we will be able to find the exact suffix for each noun to make it plural.
So, what we are going to do is this: I give you a noun and tell you how to make it plural. Then it will be your turn to try. It’s that easy!
Ready?
/keta:b/ + /ha:/ = 
/keta:b ha:/.
/ma:shin/ + /ha:/ = 
/ma:shin ha:/.
Is it easy? Good!
Now you try! Change the following nouns into plural form (currently use /ha:/ only).
- Table
- House
- Television
- Week
- Night
Hopefully you have no problems.
Now look at this:
I bought two books.
How do you say this one? I am sure that you don’t know!
You already know the numbers, don’t you? The numbers will solve our problems.
Try this simple rule first:
Whenever we want to add numbers to a plural noun ( like: two books), we should delete the plural suffix (here /ha:/) and put the number before the noun.
Example:
/Keta:b/ + /ha:/ = /keta:b ha:/. Delete /ha:/, and put 
/do/ in the beginning. You will say: 
/do keta:b/.
Or this one: Two cars.
/ma:shin/ + /ha:/ = /ma:shin ha:/. Delete /ha:/, and put /do/ before /ma:shin/. You will say: 
/do ma:shin/.
Clear? Wonderful!
You see how easy it is! No matter what the number is, from two to two billions!, just delete the suffix and put the number at the beginning of the noun.
I hope it is easy to follow.
There is one more thing I have to tell you now.
You already know how to say ‘my book’. Remember? Good! Now, how do you say ‘my books’?
Here, you have two choices, both of which are accepted.
1- Choice 1: You may put the same letters (/æm, æt, æsh, ma:n, ta:n, sha:n/, (which you already know), directly after the plural nouns. This rule is mostly used in daily conversations. Example:
My book = 
/keta:bæm/.
My books = 
/keta:b ha:m/.
My car = 
/ma:shinæm/. My cars = 
/ma:shin ha:m/.
Our car = 
/ma:shinema:n/. Our cars = 
/ma:shin ha:ma:n/.
In this rule, there is only one exception. And this exception refers to ‘singular you’. Look at this example:
Your car = 
/ma:shinæt/. Your cars = 
/ma:shin ha:t/.
As you see, we change /æt/ in to /t/. No problems? Good!
2- Choice 2: You may change the same letters /æm, æt, æsh, ma:n, ta:n, sha:n/ into what you see below.
/yæm, yæd, yæsh, yema:n, yeta:n, yesha:n/. Don’t be afraid! It’s really easy. Look at the examples below:
My books = 
/keta:b ha: yæm/.
Your books = 
/keta:b ha: yæt/.
His/ her/books = 
/keta:b ha: yæsh/.
Our books = 
/keta:b ha: yema:n/.
Your books = 
/keta:b ha: yeta:n/.
Their books = 
/keta:b ha: yesha:n/.
Is it really difficult? Now you try these two choices with the following nouns:
- Table
- House
- Television
- Week
- Night
OK! That’s it for today. I just foamed at the mouth!!
Please go to Useful drills page to do your own share.
Let’s write page is waiting for you if you want to see the main stress of the new words.
See you next week!
FM
May 8, 2012 @ 7:58 am
Hi, these lessons are really great.
I’ve some questions about possessive adjectives.
1- Is there a reason to use the pronoun or the suffix (پسر من or پسرم =my son)?
2- As you said, to create a plural noun + possessive suffix it could be added just the suffix or ya+suffix
پسر = child
پسرهام or پسرهایم = my children
Is it better to use ya+suffix (as I’ve seen taught in some books) or it’s the same?
3- Yet, is it better to use پسرهای من instead?
متشکرم
Hassan H
May 10, 2012 @ 10:53 am
Hi FM
My short answers to your questions:
1- ‘pesar e man’ and ‘pesaram’ are basically the same thing.
2- to be honest, i don’t know which one is better! they are equally good and valid. the only difference i can think of is ‘pesar ham’ is rather oral persian, whereas ‘pesar hayam’ is written persian.
3- i can say ‘pesar ha ye man’ is neutral: you can use it in both oral and written persian.
hope this helps
best,
Hassan
FM
May 10, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
بسیار متشکرم
خدا حافظ
Mikel
October 16, 2012 @ 7:27 pm
HI Hassan
Quick question:
From your explanation I understood that two say “I have 2 books”, we would have to say: “Man do ketab da:ram”
However, my girlfriend is telling me that it should be “Man dota ketab da:ram”
Which one is correct??
Thanks for your help
Mikel
PS: really nice website!extremely useful
Malcom Loa
December 6, 2012 @ 9:24 am
The “ta” is what the grammar books call a “numerator”, that is, a short word that is inserted between the number and the noun. The two most common numerators are “nafar”, which is used before nouns denoting a person, and “ta”, which is used – as in this case – before impersonal things. These numerators are frequently used in colloquial Persian speech but are commonly avoided in careful written Persian. So BOTH are correct: your girlfriend is telling you what is more usually said, Hassan is telling you what is more usually written.
reza
February 1, 2013 @ 10:02 am
“Man dota ketab da:ram” is more usually used in oral persian .
as Malcom loa said “ta” is numerator ( but not only one ) and it never uses in written persian .
these are some numerators :
“nafar” is used for counting person
“joft” is used for shoe and socks
( i am native persian , please feel free to ask your questions about persian language , this is my email address : [email protected] )
Orumiya
April 7, 2013 @ 3:48 pm
Hi Hassan!
As you already have written, in Modern Persian there are allot of words from other languages, especially from Arabic. That’s why you have to write “zohr” with ta-za and not with simple z : this word comes from arabic.
Really nice website! Very useful! Thank you!
Umme Abiha Zahra
April 23, 2013 @ 6:16 pm
salam hassan
i wanna know meanings of some persian phrases so plz kindly tell there meanings
ھمینم وس من خوب
دل من
ھلالیت
Shirish Shewalkar
April 27, 2013 @ 5:36 am
Hi Hasan, your lessons are simply great. I want to learn Persian with an objective of understanding poetry later, like read Ghalib. Will this purposevbe served by taking these lessons? Will it create base? I a m really enjoying the way you are teaching. Great!
Keetu
June 6, 2015 @ 4:27 pm
I have the same question too
Roshan Masih
June 26, 2013 @ 6:51 am
Is Khuda (God) singular word or plural
Emm Rodriguez
September 2, 2013 @ 10:15 pm
Dear Hassan! I love your lessons!
I need your help! if I want to say “my houses”, which is correct? “khaneh.ham” or “khaneham”. Or I could say “khaneh.hayam” or “khanehayam”? please help me! thank you! :)
reza
September 2, 2013 @ 10:33 pm
“khanehayam” is correct
Emm Rodriguez
December 26, 2013 @ 1:02 am
khahesh mikonam! ;)
violinist
July 19, 2014 @ 12:26 pm
Does it mean, that خانها is plural? Any translator is showing me that خانه ها is correct, but not خانها or خانهها…
Mr.KK
October 20, 2013 @ 1:47 pm
How do you say ‘his tables’?According to first choice,it is “mi:z ra:ha:sh”and as per second choice,if ‘yash’ is added,it becomes “mi:z ra:ha:yash”.Are these forms correct?Sir.
Arash
October 24, 2014 @ 5:47 am
“mi:z ha:yash” is the correct written form. When speaking, however, it is said ““mi:z ha:sh” or even ““mi:z a:sh”.
Andrej
September 2, 2014 @ 9:56 am
Dear Hassan or anybody else, can you help me because I don´t understand. You told about words used in the case of plural nouns: yæm (my), yæd (your), yæsh (his/her), yema:n (our), yeta:n (your), yesha:n (their). But when you introduce example of “yæd” (“your”) you use the suffix “yæt” instead of “yæd”, like keta:b ha: yæt (“your books”). So, which is correct form? Thank you.
Arash
October 24, 2014 @ 5:43 am
the suffix “yæt” is correct. it means “your”.
Serif
September 7, 2014 @ 2:38 pm
Hi Hasan! First of all, that is a great site! Many many thanks for such a wonderful service. I am a turk leaving in nl, with no knowledge of dutch hence no chance to learn persian through local courses. This site has just been my savior and I am really learning!
I hope I will enjoy it as much as I did in the next lessons.
I actually have a similar question on kha:neh ‘ s plural form. Not sure how to write the ha: suffix at the end of this noun which also ends with a “he”.
Can you help?
Vishnu
October 23, 2014 @ 1:03 pm
Dear Hassan,
Is there an alternate word for “Book”? I know that Ketab comes from Arabic.
Kiran
November 8, 2014 @ 11:27 am
I love to learn Persian language. We know Persian and Sanskrit are Aryan languages and both came from one common language. I have noticed Sanskrit ‘s’ sound becomes ‘h’ in Persian, ‘v’ becomes ‘p’ and ‘sva’ becomes ‘khva’
sindu – hind
sama – ham
sapta – hapt
dasa – dah
asura – ahura
maasa – maah
shvaana – spaan
ashva – aspa
Shvetha – Sped (Safed)
svap – khvab (khab)
svasr – khvahar (khahar)
There are many common words in Sanskrit and Persian.
hast – zast (dast)
asti – ast
dada – daadan
duhitr – dokhtar
bhratr – beradar
matr – mader
pitr – peder
putr – pesar
Thomas
January 30, 2015 @ 8:47 am
Hassan,
I suppose I have found a small mistake in the 2nd choice for plural :
Instead of /yæm, yæd, yæsh, yema:n, yeta:n, yesha:n/, I guess it should be written
/yæm, yæt, yæsh, yema:n, yeta:n, yesha:n/(2nd person with a “t” instead of a “d”)
I’m not sure but just in case !
thanks again for your support,
thomas
matin
May 22, 2015 @ 4:37 pm
ایول داداش کارت درسته جدا :)
khan
May 25, 2015 @ 6:56 am
Assalam,
Sir
Very happy,lessons are very interesting. I have some farsi islamic books. Can I read Islamic books of farsi after these lessons ?
Chris
November 20, 2015 @ 3:47 pm
Maybe that’s because of the agtimuiby of people. There’s people the plural of person, as in I saw three people walking down the street. Then there’s people in the sense of a group with a definite membership and social function, like the American people. They didn’t have that agtimuiby in ancient Greek or Latin. If the Romans wanted to say person or persons, they could say homo or homines; if they wanted to say people or peoples, they could say populus or populi. No overlap, no awkwardness.
Javed Ata
April 26, 2016 @ 3:01 am
The following sentence did not follow the rule: subject + object + verb.
او پرید روی دو چرخه اش
Is that an exception?