Learn about some common mistake made by native Persian speakers
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| Michael: What are some common mistakes made by native Persian speakers? |
| Negar: And why do they make them? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Akhtar Akbari, a student, is corrected by her teacher, Mona Motahari, when she makes a language mistake common for many native speakers. She says, |
| Negar as Akhtar Akbari: از دیدن شما خوشبختم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam.) |
| Michael: "I am happy to see you." |
| Dialogue |
| Akhtar Akbari: از دیدن شما خوشبختم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam.) |
| Mona Motahari: از دیدن شما خوشبختم نه، از دیدن شما خوشوقتم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam na, az didan-e shomaa khoshvaqtam.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Akhtar Akbari: از دیدن شما خوشبختم. (Az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam.) |
| Michael: "I'm happy to see you." |
| Mona Motahari: از دیدن شما خوشبختم نه، از دیدن شما خوشوقتم. (Az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam na, az didan-e shomaa khoshvaqtam.) |
| Michael: "Not 'I'm happy to see you,' but 'I am glad to see you.'" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: As a language learner, you might have been in situations where you made a mistake using Persian. |
| But, don't be discouraged! In this lesson, we'll show you that making mistakes is part o f using a language. Even native speakers often make certain mistakes. Let's look at some great tips to avoid the typical ones. |
| The first tip is: don't confuse verb tenses! As you perhaps know, verbs in the Persian language are conjugated. Sometimes, it's hard for new language learners to memorize all the changes that the verbs undergo. They would then use the past singular third person, or the past base, which may sound a little strange! |
| Let us explain with examples. First, the sentence |
| "I will go" is |
| Negar: [NORMAL] من خواهم رفت (man khaaham raft) [SLOWLY] من خواهم رفت (man khaaham raft) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: but some will use this sentence instead: |
| Negar: [NORMAL] من رفتم (man raftam) [SLOWLY] من رفتم (man raftam) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: However, this actually means "I went." Using the wrong verb tense completely changed the meaning! |
| Our next tip is: you should learn the right use of prepositions. There are a few prepositions in the Persian language, and each has its own purpose in a sentence. Some of them are: |
| Negar: در (dar) |
| Michael: which means "at," |
| Negar: با (baa) |
| Michael: which means "with," and |
| Negar: را (raa) |
| Michael: which is the direct object marker. If you remove these from a sentence, or misuse them, it's also going to change the meaning of the sentence—or, it will make the sentence incomplete. For example: |
| Negar: غذایی که گفتید را درست کردم . (ghazaa-yi ke goftid raa dorost kardam.) |
| Michael: This means "I cooked the food you said." The Persian sentence looks correct for many native speakers, but please note that the direct object marker |
| Negar: را (raa) |
| Michael: must be used exactly after the direct object. And, in this case, |
| Negar: غذایی (ghazaayi) |
| Michael: is the direct object, so the correct form of our example is |
| Negar: غذایی را که گفتید درست کردم . (ghazaa-yi raa ke goftid dorost kardam.) |
| Michael: Sometimes, even native Persian speakers have a hard time figuring out where they should use the direct object marker in a sentence. |
| Another mistake has to do with the difference between the final 'E' and possessive 'E.' The final 'E' is the letter |
| Negar: ه (he) |
| Michael: which forms part of a word. The possessive 'E,' though, is written with the short vowel |
| Negar: ِ (e) |
| Michael: and means "of." This indicates possession, as you know. Although they don't look alike when they're written, they sound the same, so you might get confused when you're having a conversation in Persian. This happens especially if they both come at the end of words. Here's an example to compare the two 'E' endings. The word |
| Negar: [NORMAL] نام (naam-e) [SLOWLY] نام (naam-e) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "name of," as we have in |
| Negar: نامِ این کتاب را نمی دانم. (naam-e in ketaab raa nemidaanam.) |
| Michael: This means "I don't know the name of this book." while |
| Negar: [NORMAL] نامه (naame) [SLOWLY] نامه (naame) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: also means "postal letter." Could you hear the difference? They sound exactly the same but have different spellings. The only way you will be able to discern one from the other is through understanding the context. This takes a high level of Persian mastery, but, don't worry, you'll get the hang of it eventually! |
| Next up, we'll look at an important rule! Learn to copy the sound of the letter |
| Negar: و (vaa) |
| Michael: precisely! In script, this letter looks like the number 9. However, it can have the following pronunciations in different words—V, U, or O. Sometimes, it doesn't have any sound at all! Confusing, right? Let us explain a bit more. |
| When used as a consonant, |
| Negar: و (vaa) |
| Michael: sounds like V in volcano. But, in some words, it is silent like |
| Negar: [NORMAL] خواهر (khaahar) [SLOWLY] خواهر (khaahar) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: meaning "sister." Another example is |
| Negar: [NORMAL] خواندن (khaandan) [SLOWLY] خواندن (khaandan) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: meaning "reading." In most cases, though, the letter |
| Negar: و (vaa) |
| Michael: will sound like a 'U.' |
| You've now learned that, in Persian, some letters have different shapes but similar sounds. These can be memorized through practice and repetition, which is important, because using the wrong character can totally change the meaning of a word! Let's look at some more examples: |
| The word |
| Negar: [NORMAL] حیاط (hayaat) [SLOWLY] حیاط (hayaat) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "yard" if it is written with the letter |
| Negar: ط (te-ye daste daar) |
| Michael: which means 't,' similar to the English letter. But, if you write the same word with the letter |
| Negar: ت (te do noqte) |
| Michael: which is a 't' with two dots, it's going to mean "life." |
| Negar: [NORMAL] حیات (hayaat) [SLOWLY] حیات (hayaat) |
| Michael: Sometimes, just a small dot can make a big difference! |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Akhtar says "I'm happy to see you"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Akhtar: [NORMAL] از دیدن شما خوشبختم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam.) |
| [SLOWLY] از دیدن شما خوشبختم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam.) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: Although the words say "I'm happy to see you," this sentence actually translates as: "I am happy and fortunate to see you for my entire life." This is obviously not what Akhtar means to say! She just means to say that she's happy in the moment. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mona Motahari answers, "Not 'I'm happy to see you,' but 'I am glad to see you.' " |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar: [NORMAL] از دیدن شما خوشبختم نه، از دیدن شما خوشوقتم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam na, |
| az didan-e shomaa khoshvaqtam.) |
| [SLOWLY] از دیدن شما خوشبختم نه، از دیدن شما خوشوقتم. (az didan-e shomaa khoshbakhtam na, |
| az didan-e shomaa khoshvaqtam.) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: The second sentence translates to, "I am happy to see you at this moment," which is correct. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned about a few typical mistakes that even Persian natives can make. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Michael: For further understanding, let's look at other differences that can be confusing to English speakers. In the Persian language, there are many words that are shortened in informal speech. Using formal terms all the time will make your speech sound stiff, as though you're reading from a book. |
| To give an example: in Persian slang, the present tense is used with the adverb, even when you want to talk about a future event. For instance, if you want to say, |
| "I will go to Tehran tomorrow," informally, it sounds like this: |
| Negar: من دارم فردا می‌رم تهران. (man daaram fardaa miram tehraan) |
| Michael: Literally, this means, "I am going to Tehran tomorrow." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Negar: خداحافظ (khodaahaafez) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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