Learn how to ask what or how something is
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Mohammad: Salam! I’m Mohammad, hi everyone! |
| Brandon: And I’m Brandon. Welcome back to PersianPod101.com. This is “Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 9 - Asking Questions in Persian. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask “What” or “How” something is in Persian. |
| Mohammad: We’ll listen to a conversation that takes place in a store. |
| Brandon: This conversation is between the shopkeeper and Ms. Tahereh, who wants to buy some flowers. |
| Mohammad: Yes. And since they're shopkeeper and customer, the language the shopkeeper uses is a little more formal than the customer. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Mohammad, I thought “Rial” was the currency of Iran, but they said something else in the conversation. |
| Mohammad: Ah yes, they used the word “Tomaan,” which is another version of Rial used more in conversations. |
| Brandon: Does it mean that in written text, they use the word Rial? |
| Mohammad: Yes, for example, you’ll never hear Rial when asking a price, but if you read a price, it’s always in Rial. |
| Brandon: So, they're actually the same currency? |
| Mohammad: Yes. They're the same currency, only with one more zero for Rial! |
| Brandon: You mean one Toman is equal to ten Rials? |
| Mohammad: Exactly. And if you hear one thousand Tomans, you actually have to pay ten thousand Rials. So Rial is Toman with an extra zero! |
| Brandon: Great! Now let’s move on to find out how to ask these prices in Persian, starting with the lesson's vocabulary. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase we’re going to learn is… |
| Mohammad: “chie?” meaning literally “What is?” |
| Brandon: When do we use it, Mohammad? |
| Mohammad: It’s a simple question asked when you’re not sure what something is. |
| Brandon: If we break the sentence down, what will each word mean? |
| Mohammad: “chi” means “What”, and “e” means “is.” We may also add the word “in” meaning “this” to the beginning of the sentence. |
| Brandon: And how can we answer this question? |
| Mohammad: The answer can be just a single name of something, or a sentence saying “it is…” or “in … e.” |
| Brandon: So, once again what was the phrase? |
| Mohammad: “chie?” (Pause) “chie?” |
| Brandon: Alright. Our next phrase is… ? |
| Mohammad: “in yeki”. It means “This one”. |
| Brandon: “This one”. Is it the literal translation? |
| Mohammad: Yes. They're the exact same words in both languages, with a questioning intonation. |
| Brandon: Then it’s used to prevent repeating a question that you’ve already asked for something else. |
| Mohammad: Right. When you want to know the same thing about two objects without asking it twice, you use this phrase. |
| Brandon: In English sometimes we add “And” before it, saying “And this one?” How about in Persian? |
| Mohammad: Likewise, in Persian too we add “va” to the beginning and say “va in yeki?” |
| Brandon: Okay listeners, please listen and repeat. |
| Mohammad: “va in yeki?” (Pause) “va in yeki?” |
| Brandon: And now our last phrase is… |
| Mohammad: “chande?” meaning “How much is it?” |
| Brandon: You use this to ask about the price of something. Are there any other ways to ask this question? |
| Mohammad: Yes, there are. For example one of them is “cheqadr mishe?” with the exact same meaning. |
| Brandon: One of them? Are there more? |
| Mohammad: Yes, another way is to add “qeymat-e in,” meaning “its price” before either one of these questions. For example “qeymat-e in chande?” |
| Brandon: But isn’t it usually removed, to make it more simple? |
| Mohammad: It is. Sometimes even the verb “e” is also removed, and it becomes only one word, “chand?” or “cheqadr?”. |
| Brandon: That’s interesting! Now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Mohammad: In this lesson, you’ll learn more about a phrase we already learned, “ این چیه؟ “ (in chie?) or “What is it?” |
| Brandon: It’s one of the easiest and most basic questions that someone can ask about the things around them. |
| Mohammad: I call these questions, “The three word questions”, like “in chie?” and “in chetore?”, or What is it?” and “How is it?” |
| Brandon: Also like English, where they usually start with the letters “W-H”, in Persian they start with “C-H”. |
| Mohammad: Again like, “chie?”, “chetore?”, and “chande?”. |
| Brandon: They usually end with the suffix “e” which is the more informal version of the verb “ast” meaning “is”. What’s the formula for the right order of the words in such questions? |
| Mohammad: Well, for example in “in chie?” meaning “What is it?”, “in” or “it” is in the beginning, then “chi” or “what” is second after it, and last there is “e” or “is” at the end. |
| Brandon: So it’s more like “It – what – is?”, right? What about the other question, “How is it?” |
| Mohammad: There are no exceptions. All of them are covered by the same rule and order. |
| Brandon: What are some good examples of them? |
| Mohammad: For example, “ این چطوره؟ “ (in chetore?) meaning “How is it?”, “ این چنده؟ “ (in chande?) for “How much is it?”, and “ این چی بود؟ “ (in chi bood) as “What was it?” the past version of “in chie?”. |
| Brandon: How about the answers? Does the order change for the answers, like in English? |
| Mohammad: No, in fact it’s the same order, even for the answers. It goes like “in” or “it” at first, plus the name or the adjective next, and then “e” or “is” at the end. |
| Brandon: And the examples are... |
| Mohammad: “ این گله “ (in gol e) meaning “It’s a flower”, or “ این آبیه “ (in aabie) meaning “This is blue”. |
| Brandon: Great! Now let’s talk about flowers! How do you count flowers in Persian, Mohammad? |
| Mohammad: We use a special word or classifier before the name of one or a group of flowers. For one flower, it is “shaakhe”. The word “gol” means “flower”, and “yek” means “one”. One flower becomes “yek shaakhe gol” in Persian. |
| Brandon: Then for example what’s “ten flowers”? |
| Mohammad: That’s “dah shaakhe gol”. “dah” means “ten”, but “shaakhe” and “gol” both stay singular. |
| Brandon: And what was the word used in the conversation? |
| Mohammad: It’s “daste” meaning “one group of flowers” or “a bouquet”. You can say “yek daste gol” or “dah shaakhe gol”. |
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| Mohammad: Go to PersianPod101.com to setup your customized My Feed today! |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Don’t forget to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson. |
| Mohammad: And leave us a comment! |
| Brandon: In the meantime, thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Mohammad: “Khodaahaafez.” |
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