Persian Lesson 28 – Numbers Explained, Present Perfect tense

Salam! Khosh amadid!

Hello everyone, how are you?

Let’s have a look at two messages before we start today.

Message 1

Dear Hassan H.

I am following your lessons since November. I have learned a lot since then, thanks to you.

When I was learning the letters, I looked for a way to remember all those “strange” signs in an entertaining way, thus I developed a little memory-game with all the letters. I send it to you in the attachment.

You need the shockwave plug-in from macromedia to play it (You may get it here), then just open the farsi-memory.html page in your browser. I hope you like it, you are free to do with it whatever you want, for example offer it to your pupils on your site.

Greetings

Assuna

I am really grateful for this wonderful gift. I have seen this page and it’s really helpful. I don’t think it’s fair enough to simply post it on my site. Therefore, after exchanging a couple of messages, I have decided to put a direct link to her site where you can find the game. To play this game click on = ‘Memory’ after loading her page. You may find this site on our Links page. I hope it’s a positive response to her encouraging efforts.

Message 2

Dear Hassan,

Thanks for every lesson.

Why should I do the quiz every week?

I can study the previous lessons myself!

There is nobody to correct my mistakes!

Can you please give the good translation in Farsi the next week, or give the numbers of the lessons in which we can find the good answers to correct ourselves.

Now the most of the time I am busy looking for the correct translation if I cannot remember some words.

This person has been in a close contact with me since the very beginning. He has made great progress for which I am deeply happy.

The quiz here is just a booster or reminder! It’s not a real one! As you have probably noticed, I have divided the quiz into two parts: Seen and Unseen. All the sentences and words are under the Seen section. It means that you have already seen them and they are not new to you. You will know them if you have successfully learned the previous lessons. I am trying to just review what we have already learned. So, you don’t need a different knowledge or initiation to answer to these questions. Here, ‘search makes perfect!!’ The more you search for the previous sentences the more you review them. This will help you keep your knowledge active. In this way, you haven’t stored any passive information in your brain. Everything is active and ready to use. After all, you don’t need to look for the previous sentences in the previous lessons; rather you should search them in your memory.

The second section is almost Unseen, which you might find new, I mean the numbers. This will probably bring you the real work of the quiz. Fortunately, we know the formula, which can solve our problem. Let’s take a look at the formula once more.

Suppose that we are to say this number in Persian: 98

In reading numbers, we start from left to right even if the language is written from right to left like Persian! So, we start from 9.

We have only two numbers here, which are 9 and 8. So, we know that 9 is /nævæd/ and 8 is eight or /hæsht/. We will say /nævæd/ + /hæsht/. The only thing here is that the plus sign (+) pronounces as /o/. So, we will say /nævæd/ -o- /hæsht/. Is it clear? Good.

Now suppose that we have this number: 987

Here, we have three numbers: 9 , 8 , 7.

Our mathematical knowledge tells us that 9 belongs to ‘Hundred’ family! We also know that 8 is eighty here. That is to say, we pronounce it as: nine hundreds and eighty and seven. Am I right? So, we’ll have to start from the left again:

We already know ‘900’ in Persian. All we have to do here is connect them from left to right with /-o-/ between them. Here’s how: /noh sæd/ -o- /hæshta:d/ -o- /hæft/. No problem? Good!

Now suppose that this is the number: 1987

We have to stick to the same rule.

We already know 1000 in Persian, which is /heza:r/. Again, start from left to right:

One thousands and nine hundreds and eighty and seven. It shouldn’t be difficult now: /heza:r/ -o- /noh sæd/ -o- /hæshta:d/ -o- /hæft/. Clear?

How about this one?

10987

ten thousands and nine hundreds and eighty and seven. We already know 10000 in Persian: /dæh heza:r/. So, we will say: /dæh heza:r/ -o- /noh sæd/ -o- /hæshta:d/ -o- /hæft/. No questions? Good!

Let’s take a look at this one: 15987

It follows the same rule.

Fifteen thousands and nine hundreds and eighty and seven. It means: /pa:nz dæh heza:r/ -o- /noh sæd/ -o- /hæshta:d/ -o- /hæft/.

Is it really clear?

Now let’s see some bigger numbers. Suppose that we have this number: 198987

Again, our mathematical knowledge tells us that this belongs to one hundred thousands family! Right?

So we have this: one hundred and ninety and eight thousands and nine hundreds and eighty and seven. You see it’s not my fault if the numbers get bigger!!

For this, we have the following in Persian: /sæd/ -o- /nævæd/-o- /hæsht heza:r/-o- /noh sæd/ -o- /hæshta:d/ -o- /hæft/. As you see, we begin from the biggest to the smallest one.

The same is true with million.

Now let’s try this one: 1198987

One million and one hundred and ninety and eight thousands and nine hundreds and eighty and seven.

/yek milyu:n/-o- /sæd/ -o- /nævæd/-o- /hæsht heza:r/-o- /noh sæd/ -o- /hæshta:d/ -o- /hæft/.

For ten million, we have /dæh milyu:n/.

For fifteen million, we have /pa:nz dæh milyu:n/.

For twenty million, we have /bist milyu:n/.

For twenty five million, we have /bist/-o- /pænj milyu:n/.

And so on.

Wow, mathematics is really frightening!!

I have explained it all to save myself from giving you the answers of the previous quizzes every week!! I am sure you can manage it by yourself.

All right,

Unfortunately, it’s your turn to answer now!!

Quiz:

1- Say these words in Persian:

to stop – mechanic – wall – new – old – school – street – at/in –

2- Say these numbers in Persian!!

5 – 45 – 145 – 1145 – 10145 – 100145 – 1145145 – 10145145 –

3- Say these sentences in Persian:

A – The teacher didn’t beat him today.
B – He pushed me.
C – That student broke the table this morning.
D – She didn’t talk to her friend yesterday.
E – My friend was absent yesterday.

Ok. Let’s start now.

I think we have almost familiar with the simple past tense. Today, we are going to learn another tense, which is luckily very easy. This tense is Present Perfect Tense. I am not going to deal with the Simple Present Tense at this stage as I believe it’s still too soon to deal with an irregular tense. Let’s get more fluent first, and let’s do first things first. I hope you agree with me.

Look at this short sentence:

I saw him.

We already know it perfectly. It means /mæn u: ra: didæm/. Is it correct? Great!

Today, we want to say this:

I have seen him.

Scared?! Just be cool! We will make all ‘Impossibles’ ‘Possible’!!

Let’s take another look at this sentence: I saw him. It means /mæn u: ra: didæm/. Now look at the verb /didæm/.

Do you remember how we made a verb in simple past tense? Yes? Good!

We had /didæn/ for ‘to see’. We deleted /nu:n/ from the end of the infinitive to make a verb in simple past tense. We deleted /nu:n/, and we got /did/, which was a verb in simple past tense. Then we said:

/didæm/ =I saw

/didi/ = you saw

/did/ = he/she saw

/didim/ = we saw

/didid/ = you saw

/didænd/ = they saw

As you remember, we simply added /æm/, /i:/, /im/, /id/, /ænd/ to the end of the verb above.

Do you remember that? Wonderful!

Here, in Present Perfect Tense we follow the same rule with a bit difference. Here’s how:

Delete the /nu:n/ from the end of an infinitive first. We will have a verb in simple past tense like /did/. Then, add /he/ sound to this verb. We will have /dideh/

Next, put /æm/ after the newly made verb. We will have /dideh æm/

which means I have seen.

In short,

/did/ + /he/ + /æm/ = /dideh æm/ which means I have seen.

Still scared? I hope not! You see, it’s really easy. Let’s continue!

/did/ + /he/ + /i:/ = /dideh i:/

which means you have seen.

/did/ + /he/ + /æst/ = /dideh æst/

which means he/she has seen.

/did/ + /he/ + /im/ = /dideh im/

which means we have seen.

/did/ + /he/ + /id/ = /dideh id/

which means you have seen.

/did/ + /he/ + /ænd/ = /dideh ænd/

which means they have seen.

Was it difficult? Of course not! it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 or I’d better say It’s as easy as drinking water!! (A Persian expression)

Now, let’s try this one: to go = /ræftæn/

Delete /nu:n/ and you’ll have /ræft/.

Add /he/ to /ræft/ and you’ll have /ræfteh/.

Add the above suffixes to /ræfteh/ and you’ll have:

I have gone = /ræfteh æm/.

You have gone = /ræfteh i:/.

He/she has gone = /ræfteh æst/.

We have gone = /ræfteh im/.

You have gone = /ræfteh id/.

They have gone = /ræfteh ænd/.

Easy, isn’t it?

Now try this one: to write = /neveshtæn/.

I have written = /neveshteh æm/.

You have written = /neveshteh i:/.

He/she has written = /neveshteh æst/.

We have written = /neveshteh im/.

You have written = /neveshteh id/.

They have written = /neveshteh ænd/.

And finally this one: to paint = /ræng kærdæn/.

I have painted = /ræng kærdeh æm/.

You have painted = /ræng kærdeh i:/.

He/she has painted = /ræng kærdeh æst/.

We have painted = /ræng kærdeh im/.

You have painted = /ræng kærdeh id/.

They have painted = /ræng kærdeh ænd/.

All right, we have done a great job today. I hope you enjoyed it.

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!

Lesson 28

• Let’s Write 28
• Useful Drills 28
• Persian Samples 28