Learn how to make questions and question tags in Persian
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| Michael: How are questions made in Persian? |
| Negar: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Bita Baharan is asking his neighbor whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Bita Baharan: آیا شما به مهمانی ما میایید؟ (aayaa shomaa be mehmaani-ye maa miaayid?) |
| Dialogue |
| Bita Baharan: آیا شما به مهمانی ما میایید؟ (aayaa shomaa be mehmaani-ye maa miaayid?) |
| Mark Lee: ما میاییم، نمیایم؟ (maa miaayim, nemiaaym?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Bita Baharan: آیا شما به مهمانی ما میایید؟ (aayaa shomaa be mehmaani-ye maa miaayid?) |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Lee: ما میاییم، نمیایم؟ (maa miaayim, nemiaaym?) |
| Michael: "We are coming, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you will be learning how questions are made in Persian. The Persian word for "questions" is: |
| Negar: سوال‌ها (so'aal-haa) |
| Michael: You will also be learning about Persian question tags. Question tags usually come at the end of a sentence in English, but, in Persian, they come first. In keeping with this, they will be discussed first in this lesson. |
| After that, we will be looking at the question words. In English, these are the words we always use in questions and that start with W-H—except for the word "how," of course. Interestingly, in Persian, many of them start with C-H. |
| To finish the lesson, we will be discussing "yes" and "no" questions, as well as some common questions that you will probably find useful to know. |
| And, with that, let's begin. As promised, we will start with tag questions. Here are some examples: |
| Negar: مگه نه؟ (mage na?) |
| Michael: or, in a more simplified form: |
| Negar: نه؟ (na?) |
| Michael: One might use it in a question such as, "You are happy, aren't you?" |
| Negar: شما خوشحال هستید، نه؟ (shomaa khoshhaal hastid, na?) |
| Michael: In the English translation of this sentence, the tag was "aren't you?." As you will have noticed, a question tag is a small phrase or a word that is attached to a regular sentence. It then converts the sentence into a question. |
| Another version of this Persian question tag is: |
| Negar: درسته؟ (doroste?) |
| Michael: One uses it in the same way one uses the English word "right" as a question tag. An example of this would be, "You are happy, right?" or |
| Negar: شما خوشحال هستید ، درسته؟ (shomaa khoshhaal hastid, doroste?) |
| Michael: Another common way to make a question tag in Persian is using the negative form of the verb in the sentence. For example: |
| Negar: شما این درس رو دوست دارید، ندارید؟ (shomaa in dars ro doost daarid, nadaarid?) |
| Michael: which means "You like this lesson, don't you?" Another example is |
| Negar: من هر آخر هفته اتاقم رو تمیز کردم، نکردم؟ (man har aakhar-e hafte otaaqam ro tamoz kardam, nakardam?) |
| Michael: "I cleaned my room every weekend, didn't I?" We used the same format in the dialogue: |
| Negar: ما میاییم، نمیایم؟ (maa miaayim, nemiaaym?) |
| Michael: "We are coming, aren't we?" And there you have it. That's the most important information you need to know about question tags |
| Up next, we will discuss some of the Persian equivalents of the English W-H questions. Let's begin with the only word that does not actually start with W-H, and that is the word "how." In Persian, it sounds like this: |
| Negar: چطور (chetor?) |
| Michael: Probably the question you are most likely to hear or use it in is "How are you?" or |
| Negar: چطوری؟ (chetori?) |
| Michael: That is the informal way to say it. The more formal way would be to ask: |
| Negar: حالتون چطوره؟ (haaletoon chetore?) |
| Michael: Another question you might find useful if you are shopping is "How much is it?" or |
| Negar: این چنده؟ (in chande?) |
| Michael: Also, while shopping, there is a chance you might have an assistant come up to you and ask, "What do you want?" or |
| Negar: چه چیزی می‌خواهید؟ (che chizi mikhaahid?) |
| Michael: The question word in this question is, of course, "what" or |
| Negar: چه؟ (che?) |
| Michael: If someone wanted to ask you the same question in a less formal way, they could say, |
| Negar: چی می‌خوای؟ (chi mikhaay?) |
| Michael: The word |
| Negar: چی (chi) |
| Michael: also means "what," but it is not as formal as |
| Negar: چه (che) |
| Michael: Let's imagine that, in the previous scenario, you were at an Iranian store alone because you were planning to go shopping with an Iranian friend, but they are late and you are struggling to communicate with the shop assistant. You call your friend and ask, "Where are you?" or |
| Negar: کجا هستی؟ (kojaa hasti?) |
| Michael: In this question, the question word is |
| Negar: کجا؟ (kojaa) |
| Michael: or "where." Now, let's imagine your friend tells you they are late because they live far away and you ask, "Where do you live?" or |
| Negar: کجا زندگی می‌کنی؟ (kojaa zendegi mikoni?) |
| Michael: The nice thing about this particular question word is that it never changes form in a sentence. It is always, simply: |
| Negar: کجا؟ (kojaa) |
| Michael: Now, let's imagine that your friend has said they are on their way. You ask, "When will you arrive?" or |
| Negar: کی می‌رسی؟ (key miresi?) |
| Michael: The question word is |
| Negar: کِی؟ (key?) |
| Michael: If this were a different scenario and you call your friend only to find out that they have already arrived, you could ask: |
| Negar: کی رسیدی؟ (key residi?) |
| Michael: which means, "When did you arrive?" You will have noticed that each question employs a different tense. One is about the future—"When will you arrive?"—and the other is about the past—"When did you arrive?." This tells us that we can use this question word no matter what the tense of the question. It will not change. |
| There are several other W-H question words of course, but we do not have time to discuss all of them in this lesson. You can find out more about those by listening to our lessons regarding the various W-H questions. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned about forming questions in Persian with question tags and question words. Here are some question tag to know: |
| Negar: مگه نه؟ (mage na?), نه؟ (na?), درسته؟ (doroste?) |
| Michael: You can simply make a question tag by adding the negative form of the verb in the sentence at the end. Also, you learned about the question words: |
| Negar: چطور (chetor?) |
| Michael: meaning "how" |
| Negar: چه؟ (che?) |
| Michael: meaning "what" |
| Negar: کجا؟ (kojaa?) |
| Michael: for "where," and finally |
| Negar: کِی؟ (key?) |
| Michael: "for when." These are what are called the "W-H question words" in English. |
| Next, we will talk about "yes" and "no" questions. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: We'll use a very useful question to discuss "yes" and "no" questions. The question is "Do you speak English?" If you are in an informal situation, you can ask it like this: |
| Negar: انگلیسی بلدی؟ (engelisi baladi?) |
| Michael: The Persian word |
| Negar: بلد (balad) |
| Michael: means "know" or "be familiar," and it is this word that indicates that the question is informal. If you want to be more formal, you will have to ask it like this: |
| Negar: آیا شما انگلیسی صحبت می‌کنید؟ (aayaa shomaa engelisi sohbat mikonid?) |
| Michael: It is in this question that we find a very important question word. It sounds like this: |
| Negar: آیا (aayaa) |
| Michael: If you use this word at the beginning of a regular sentence, you change that sentence into a "yes" or "no" question. This means that the person you are talking to can answer "yes" or "no." |
| In a moment, we will look at a few common questions that you might find useful to know. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Bita Baharan says "Are you coming to our party?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Bita Baharan: آیا شما به مهمانی ما میایید؟ (aayaa shomaa be mehmaani-ye maa miaayid?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Negar as Bita Baharan: آیا شما به مهمانی ما میایید؟ (aayaa shomaa be mehmaani-ye maa miaayid?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Bita Baharan: آیا شما به مهمانی ما میایید؟ (aayaa shomaa be mehmaani-ye maa miaayid?) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark Lee says "We are coming, aren't we?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Mark Lee: ما میاییم، نمیایم؟ (maa miaayim, nemiaaym?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Negar as Mark Lee: ما میاییم، نمیایم؟ (maa miaayim, nemiaaym?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Negar as Mark Lee: ما میاییم، نمیایم؟ (maa miaayim, nemiaaym?) |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: When traveling in Iran, you might find the following, common questions useful. The first of these is |
| Negar: حال شما چطوره؟ (haal-e shomaa chetore?) |
| Michael: which means "How are you?." One more time: |
| Negar: [SLOWLY] حال شما چطوره؟ (haal-e shomaa chetore?) |
| Michael: You will also find it useful to be able to ask or understand the question |
| Negar: اسم شما چیه؟ (esm-e shomaa chiye?) |
| Michael: which means "What's your name?" Let's hear that one more time as well: |
| Negar: [SLOWLY] اسم شما چیه؟ (esm-e shomaa chiye?) |
| Michael: Another question you are likely to encounter quite frequently is "Where are you from?" or |
| Negar: اهل کجایید؟ (ahle kojaayid?) |
| Michael: One more time: |
| Negar: [SLOWLY] اهل کجایید؟ (ahle kojaayid?) |
| Michael: And, lastly, a question that you will be very glad to know when the time comes to use it is: |
| Negar: دستشویی کجاست؟ (dastshooyi kojaast?) |
| Michael: or "Where is the bathroom?" Let's hear it again slowly: |
| Negar: [SLOWLY] دستشویی کجاست؟ (dastshooyi kojaast?) |
| These are some of the most common questions you will encounter when traveling or working in Iran. If you do plan to travel there, enjoy your stay! |
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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