Salam! Khosh amadid!
Hello everyone, welcome back!
To begin with, let’s have a look at parts of three messages.
1- … I need to know one thing that I could not find anywhere in your site. What is the word/letter for Zero? …
A good one, isn’t it? I have simply forgotten the first number! Zero = 
/sefr/.
2- … I just want to know is it a class in university or just for fun? And also what should I do in order to be able to learn this language fluently?…
Well, it’s neither a class in university nor simply for fun! It’s a class on Internet!!
In one word, it’s for love. Probably, I have reasons to suffer this much trouble to prepare these lessons for you. You may accept it as just a simple gift from a teacher who has been separated from hundreds of his true students who loved him as a young father. Whatever the reasons are, they must be really far from money-making purposes.
To learn this language, like any other language, simply you should try! As I have told you repeatedly, practice makes perfect. Unlike me, you should have clear reasons in learning this language! You’d better focus on your goal first. Try to practice it with somebody. Listen to some Persian speaking radios or other sources to improve your listening ability. Try to stay close to its culture through listening to its music or whatever you think is helpful. Make a comparison between learning English, if English is your second language, and Persian. How could you improve your English? So, there must be a similar way in learning Persian or any other languages. How long did it take you to become acceptably fluent in English? The same thing might happen when you are learning another language. Generally, it takes us some two years to partially understand a particular language. But in some cases, we could accelerate this process via some factors, such as staying with some people who speak in that language, taking a practical conversation course, and so on. We know that there are many linguistic elements that can explain it better, but frankly, it is beyond the patience of this lesson to count them one by one!
3- This message has three questions in it.
Question A- Words are sometimes introduced with “(here)” in the English translation. Examples: To break = (here): , To fly (here) = , Short (here) = , and Younger(here) = . To what does the “(here)” refer?
As you know, words may have different meanings in different contexts. The word “(here)” refers to the meaning of this particular word in the given sentence. Look at the two examples below:
Birds flew. (Intransitive verb)
I flew a kite. (Transitive verb)
I think you agree that the word ‘fly’ is not completely the same in these two sentences. In ‘birds flew’, the word ‘flew’ means: to move through the air by means of wings or a machine. While, in ‘I flew a kite’, the same word means: to cause something to move through the air. Is this correct?
In English, however, we have the same word for these two meanings. But, this word has two equivalents in Persian in these two situations. The word ‘fly’ as noun means 
/pærva:z/. Nevertheless, for the word ‘fly’ as a verb, we have two words in Persian.
1- It means 
/pærva:z kærdæn/ if it refers to this meaning: to move through the air by means of wings or a machine. So, for ‘birds flew’ we have this sentence in Persian: 
/pærændega:n pærva:z kærdænd/.
2- It means 
/pærva:z da:dæn/ if it refers to this meaning: to cause something to move through the air. So, for ‘I flew a kite’ we have the following sentence in Persian: 
/mæn yek ba:d ba:dæk ra: pærva:z da:dæm/.
Question B-You have given three words for “to break”: To break = 
/tæreka:ndæn/, To break (here) = 
/khæra:b kærdæn/ , and 
/shekæstæn/ (Lesson 23, Useful Drills, translation sentence number 9). How do I know which to use?
Answer: this one is also a context-oriented one. Let’s see the word ‘break’ in English.
I broke my computer.
Does the word ‘broke’ mean that I broke my computer into pieces? Certainly not. It means that the physical appearance of my computer is ok, but it is not working due to some internal problem, malfunctioning, or something like this. But, we use ‘broke’ for this in English.
So, if this is the case and we mean some malfunctioning of something such as computers, cars, TVs and so on, we should use /khæra:b kærdæn/ in Persian.
Now, look at this example:
I broke his head.
Certainly, here the word ‘broke’ doesn’t refer to malfunctioning of his head. It means that I have really broken his head!! His head is bleeding!
So, if we mean ‘breaking the physical appearance of something’ such as breaking a window, a cup, a table, a head!, we should use /shekæstæn/ in Persian.
How about the following sentence?
I broke his balloon.
Here, we mean that the balloon is blasted, burst, or something. In this case, we should use /tæreka:ndæn/ in Persian.
As you see, we have different words to convey different meanings. I hope it’s not confusing.
Question C- I do not understand when to use ‘they’ = /a:nha:/ vs /isha:n/.
Answer: I think I have already explained it somewhere.
‘They’ means /a:nha:/ when the subject is plural. Example: they went = /a:nha: ræftænd/.
‘They’ means /isha:n/ when the subject is ‘he’ or ‘she’ and we want to show our respect to that person. This is very polite and common to use plural verbs for single verbs in Persian.
Example: he went = /u: ræft/. This is the exact Persian equivalent for this English sentence. However, to show our respect to that person, we’d better say /isha:n ræftænd/ not /u: ræft/. The same is true with plural ‘you’ for singular ‘you’. We’d better say /shoma:/ for /to/.
I deeply hope the problem is solved. If not, I’ll break my fingers to stop writing for good!!
All right, now it’s your turn to answer!!
Quiz:
1- Say these words in Persian:
Street- homework- girl- country- kite- balloon- to fly- room- car- bag- knife- bus
2- Say these numbers in Persian:
5- 10- 18- 33- 123- 312- 960- 1255- 15000- 65231- 156897- 855446- 5635472-
3- Say these sentences in Persian:
A- They didn’t find their white dog any more.
B- That bad man cut 500 green trees last year.
C- That big bulldozer destroyed our beautiful house 22 years ago.
D- I didn’t touch that big light the day before yesterday.
Any problems? Try to review the lessons once more!!
All right,
Today, we are going to say this sentence in Persian: did he break your table?
Great guess! Today, we are going to see the question form of sentences in simple past tense.
We already know how to say : he broke your table. Don’t we? Let’s try it again now.
/u: mi:zeta:n ra: shekæst/. Is this correct? Wonderful!
Now, look at this word: 
/a:ya:/.
Put this word at the beginning of the above sentence and replace the full stop with a question mark. That’s it! We have proudly changed the above sentence into a question form!!
Note: here, the intonation of the verb(the way we pronounce the verb) should change a bit; like what you see in the following sentence:
/a:ya: u: mi:zeta:n ra: shekæst/?
Is this clear? Perfect!
Now try this one:
He saw that man. 
/u: a:n mærd ra: did/. Question? 
/a:ya: u: a:n mærd ra: did/?
All right, please go to Useful drills page to try more.
Let’s write page is waiting for you if you want to see the main stress of the new words.
See you next week!
Khoda Hafez!
Jane Whitefox
August 2, 2012 @ 9:00 am
A language cannot be learnt “for fun”. It is a unique world, a brige that could connect you to a new culture. Getting the knowledge is an enormous day-to-day job, and lucky you are if you meet a person who would be as loyal to you as the creator of this site! Thank you Hassan indeed for everything you do!
regina
August 21, 2012 @ 7:19 pm
hallo Hassan many thanks for your nice persian course. i enjoy it very much.to give you some hints:I would add more persian sentences with the translation. the more examples , the more exercise.people are learning by reading small sentences from real life. thats how a child is learning language too.
regina
August 21, 2012 @ 7:23 pm
to add something : you give well persian sentences but without transliterations, so a person who did not learn the persian alphabet very well has no use of the many example sentences which you give in persian letters. I suggest you just add to the many sentences written in persian the english transliteration to help people to learn better and quicker the persian language without to have to know the persiann letters perfectly.me for example , I can easily learn farsi sentences written in european letters but to spell each persian word I just dont have the patience and therefore I cannot use the many persian sentences of you.
Ana
May 26, 2013 @ 7:34 pm
I find this site is just as good as a farsi learning method can be! We get loads of transliterations at the lessons that provide all you need to get to know how to pronounce something the first time you see a word. Besides, every time a new word is introduced in the drills it appears with both the audio file and the transliteration. So, as far as I am concerned, I believe you’ve never left with a doubt about how to pronounce anything. There’s an extra effort to be done in order to read but, I’ve found that after a week of training every day a little bit, it becomes very easy and automatic. It goes without saying that a minimum effort is required in the beginning in order to become familiar with a new alphabet.
As a teacher of Spanish and French for foreigners (I’m myself Spanish) I found the method is really well structured and it introduces difficulty gradually. Also, as with any other language, if it’s too easy, you do not really learn. I love this site and I think it’s already awesome as it is. A million thanks from Spain, Hassan.
KFC
August 30, 2013 @ 11:02 am
I totally agree. Hassan has gone to a huge effort and communicated Farsi very well. I’m not a language genius and I learned the Persian alphabet in one day. I focused on it for 10 hours and all the next day I wrote everything from memory and checked it against the website. Basically after 2 days it was completely sunk in my brain because I kept reading this website and you get used to looking at the letters. I think you have to learn the letters to truly understand the language and also who wants to say that can speak Farsi but they can’t read it?
Jack
September 3, 2012 @ 3:46 pm
In english, we say “He popped the balloon”.
We never say “broke”
Mona-Lisa
April 27, 2013 @ 7:34 am
Fly and flies.
Time flies like an arrow
Fruit flies like a banana.
Jomar Genavia
April 27, 2013 @ 2:46 pm
wow I never thought there are lot of people make this far! me I’m still repeating page 10 up to 16…
by the way great work and very good teaching! despite that you work alone to maintain this website, and If you ever need affiliates or want some help in maintenance of this website just send me a message on my yahoomail :[email protected].
– doostat Jomar Genavia from Philippines
Bilal
July 20, 2014 @ 5:54 pm
thanks a lot Hassan bhai
Muhammad Usman
July 22, 2014 @ 7:17 pm
Stay blessed Sir Hassan, i am debuted to you for the knowledge you have given.
uçurtma
July 23, 2014 @ 12:20 pm
wow when i never thought You will find lot associated with anyone make the actual far! me I’m still repeating page 10 up for you to 16…
by your own way great function IN ADDITION TO very good teaching! despite that you can work alone for you to maintain the website, ALONG WITH whether or not anyone ever need affiliates or maybe want a few assist within maintenance connected with this internet site only send me an message at MY PERSONAL
– doostat Jomar Genavia by Philippines