Learn the top five mistakes people make when learning the language
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Mohammad: Hi everyone! I’m Mohammad! |
| Becky: And I’m Becky. Welcome back to PersianPod101.com! This is All About, Lesson 12 - Top 5 Tips for Avoiding Mistakes in Persian. |
| Mohammad: In this lesson, we're here to give you some tips on how to avoid common mistakes, made by learners of Persian. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: Now remember, nothing is wrong with making mistakes. It's how you learn! We just want you to be aware of some common mistakes, then try to avoid them. It will make your Persian language learning experience a lot easier! So let's get started! |
| Mohammad: Tip number one – |
| Becky: Don’t confuse verb tenses! |
| Mohammad: As you know, verbs in Persian language are conjugated, meaning each tense has its own rules, to match its pronouns, and show its time and plural or singular forms. |
| Becky: Yeah, and sometimes it's hard for new language learners to memorize them all. Most of the time they use only one tense and form for all verbs commonly. |
| Mohammad: Which is usually the past singular third person, or the past base, and it may sound a little strange. |
| Becky: Let's try to explain it with examples. |
| Mohammad: Good idea. For example: "I will go" is "Man khaham raft", while some may say "Man raftam" meaning "I went!". |
| Becky: If you’re not sure what to use, please don’t worry about it. You’ll learn more about it in later lessons on PersianPod101.com. Okay, now let’s hear about the second tip. |
| Mohammad: Remember the shape of different letters with the same sound. |
| Becky: You've already learned that in Persian, there are some letters with different shapes that have the same or similar sounds. These can be memorized through practice and repetition. |
| Mohammad: But in Persian, it’s more difficult than other languages, because using the wrong character can totally change the meaning in some cases. |
| Becky: That’s right. Let’s look at some examples. |
| Mohammad: The word "Hayat" will mean "Yard" if written with the letter "Tey-e dasteh dar" which means t with a handle. But if you write it with the letter ‘Te do noghteh’ which means t with 2 dots, it’s going to mean “Life”. |
| Becky: And this aspect of Persian might not be easy for beginners, and sometimes just a small dot can make a difference. Okay, now let’s hear about tip number three. |
| Mohammad: Master the sound of the letter ‘Vav.’ |
| Becky: This is the letter that looks like the number 9. |
| Mohammad: That’s right. The letter "Vav" can have different pronunciations in different words. Although it’s one letter, it can be read as "V", "U", or "O". |
| Becky: And sometimes, it doesn’t have any sound at all. |
| Mohammad: When the letter is placed between "K-h-e" - which makes the sound ‘khe’ - and "A", it won’t have any sound. So the "Khva" compound will sound like "Kha", like in the word "Khahar" meaning "Sister". |
| Becky: And also in many cases, the letter sounds like "O". |
| Mohammad: For example, the word "Nok" meaning "Peak" will have the letter ‘Vav’, but will sound like ‘O’. However, in most cases, it will sound like ‘U’. |
| Becky: So it’s best to master the sounds of the letter Vav as soon as possible, so that you can avoid reading them incorrectly. Ok. Now let’s continue with the next tip. |
| Mohammad: Learn the right usage of prepositions. |
| Becky: There are a few prepositions in the Persian language, and each has its own purpose in a sentence. Mohammad, can you name them please? |
| Mohammad: Of course. ‘Va’ means “And”, ‘Ba’ means “With”, ‘Beh’ means “To”, ‘Dar’ means “In”, ‘Az’ means “From”, and ‘Ra’ is Object Indication. |
| Becky: If you remove them from a sentence, or misuse them, it’s going to change the meaning, or make the sentence incomplete. Mohammad, can you give us an example? |
| Mohammad: Sure. "Man ba oo beh khaneh raftam." |
| Becky: This means, ‘I went home with him.’ |
| Mohammad: In this sentence, you can find the prepositions ‘Ba’ meaning ‘with’, and ‘beh’ meaning ‘To’. In English, sometimes, you don’t need the preposition ‘to’ when talking about home or other places, but in Persian, there’s no exception. You need to use it every time. |
| Becky: Also, small changes of pronunciation or writing can create a different meaning, so please make sure you master them too in the beginning. Okay, now let’s hear the last tip. It is... |
| Mohammad: Understand the difference between the final “EH” and possessive “EH”. The final ‘EH’ is the letter ‘He’ which is part of a word. And the Possessive ‘EH’ is written with the short vowel ‘e’, and means ‘of’ or shows someone’s possession. |
| Becky: Although they don’t look the same as each other when they’re written, it sounds similar, so you might get confused when you’re having a conversation in Persian. Also they both come at the end of words. |
| Mohammad: Here are some examples. The word "Nam - eh" means "Name of", while "Nameh" means "postal letter". They sounds similar, but have different spellings. |
| Becky: The best way to master them is to keep listening to the differences, and learn more vocab. |
| Mohammad: But the sooner you master them, the better. |
| Becky: Alright, that’s good advice! Well, those were our top 5 tips for avoiding common mistakes in Persian. |
| Mohammad: Keep these in mind and your Persian learning experience will be made a lot easier! |
Outro |
| Becky: That’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone. |
| Mohammad: Bye. |
Comments
Hide