Learn how to apologize
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| Salām be hamegi! Man Anita hastam. Hi everybody! I’m Anita |
| Welcome to PersianPod101.com’s “Persian in 3 minutes.” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Persian. |
| In the last lesson, we learned the phrase Bebakhshid, āyā shomā englisi sohbat mikonid? "Excuse me, do you speak English?" We used the word Bebakhshid, which means "excuse me" in Persian. |
| In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to use Bebakhshid and other words when apologizing in Persian. |
| Bebakhshid is used in situations like when we are ordering something in a restaurant, or asking for something in a store, and so on. For example: |
| Bebakhshid, yek qahve lotfan. "Excuse me, one coffee please." |
| We can also use it when asking a question: |
| Bebakhshid, Takhte Jamshid kojāst? "Excuse me, where is Persepolis?" |
| Similar to English, there is no informal way to say "excuse me" in Persian. The meaning is already polite. Persian people just ask questions more directly when speaking to a friend. But to make it polite, you can add lotfan, meaning "please" to the start or end of a phrase, when asking for something. |
| Lotfan yek qahve midi? "Can you give me a coffee, please?" |
| We also use Bebakhshid in a sentence when apologizing. This can be used both formally and informally, but in a more casual situation it can also be shortened to Bebakhsh, as in: |
| Man rā bebakhsh. "Forgive me." |
| [slowly] Man rā bebakhsh. |
| Please note that the way we *say* this phrase is different than the way it's actually *written*. The proper way is: Man rā bebakhsh. |
| First we have the word man, or ”me”. Next, we insert "Ra" which is always used grammatically after the object of a verb. In this case, it was “me.” Finally, we have the command verb bebakhsh, meaning "(you) forgive." |
| Man rā bebakhsh. “(You) forgive me.” |
| But you will always hear it as: |
| Marā bebakhsh. |
| Now it’s time for Anita's Advice. |
| In Persian, just like American English, we usually don't say "excuse me" when asking for something from a friend. But when we want to ask something or call upon a friend, like "Hey, do you know..." or "Look, what is...," Persian people use bebin which literally means "look." |
| It is very common in casual speech. |
| Bebin, Takhte Jamshid kojāst? "Hey, where is Persepolis?" |
| Can you count in Persian? In the next lesson, you will learn the numbers from 1 to 10. |
| I'll be waiting for you in the next Persian in 3 minutes lesson. |
| Khodāfez! |
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