Learn some common noun suffixes in Persian
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| Michael: What are some noun suffixes in Persian? |
| Negar: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee hears a new word that sounds familiar, but he isn't sure about the meaning. He asks his friend, |
| "What does "aazmaayeshgaah" mean?" |
| Ben Lee: ("aazmaayeshgaah" ya'ni che?) |
| "آزمایشگاه" یعنی چه؟ |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: ("aazmaayeshgaah" ya'ni che?) |
| "آزمایشگاه" یعنی چه؟ |
| Sousan Soheyli: (in ya'ni "laabraato'aar.") |
| این یعنی "لابراتوار." |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: ("aazmaayeshgaah" ya'ni che?) |
| "آزمایشگاه" یعنی چه؟ |
| Michael: "What does "aazmaayeshgaah" mean?" |
| Sousan Soheyli: (in ya'ni "laabraato'aar.") |
| این یعنی "لابراتوار." |
| Michael: "It means "laboratory."" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you will be learning about some noun suffixes in Persian and why they are useful to know. Before we get into all that, let's quickly talk about what a suffix actually is. |
| Just for your information, the Persian word for suffix is: |
| Negar: (pasvand) |
| پسوند |
| Michael: Suffixes attach to the ends of words and they are morphemes, which means that they cannot be broken into smaller parts. A common suffix in English is "-let" as in "piglet." |
| Now that we're all on the same page in terms of understanding what a suffix is, let's quickly talk about why noun suffixes are important in Persian. To put it simply, they're important because there are so many of them! Persian is a language that is just full of affixes. It is an agglutinative language, which means that it relies heavily on compounding or putting words together to form new words. For this reason, learning the noun suffixes is a very good idea. |
| Let's now have a look at some examples of noun suffixes in Persian. We can start with the one that was mentioned in the dialogue you heard earlier. Let's listen to that first part again. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Ben Lee says |
| "What does "aazmaayeshgaah" mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Ben Lee: ("aazmaayeshgaah" ya'ni che?) |
| "آزمایشگاه" یعنی چه؟ |
| Michael: The word that Ben Lee is talking about consists of a base noun and a suffix. The suffix means "place of," and it sounds like this: |
| Negar: (gaah) |
| گاه |
| Michael: It is attached to a base noun meaning "experiment," and this is how that word sounds: |
| Negar: (aazmaayesh) |
| آزمایش |
| Michael: Together, these two make a new word meaning "place of experiment." I wonder if you can remember what place it refers to. Let's have a listen to that second sentence in our dialogue again. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Sousan Soheyli says |
| "It means 'laboratory?'" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Sousan Soheyli: (in ya'ni "laboratory.") |
| این یعنی "لابراتوار." |
| Michael: There is another prefix that carries the same meaning. It sounds like this |
| Negar: (estaan), |
| ِستان |
| Michael: and it can be affixed to a word like |
| Negar: (bimaar), |
| بیمار |
| Michael: which means "sick." When these two are joined, they form the new word |
| Negar: (bimaarestaan), |
| بیمارستان |
| Michael: which means "hospital." |
| Now, while we are talking about suffixes that end with "of" when translated, let's look at one that means "the owner of." It sounds like this: |
| Negar: (mand) |
| مند |
| Michael: Now, we will attach it to a word we have discussed previously. That word is "knowledge" or |
| Negar: (daanesh) |
| دانش |
| Michael: When these two are compounded, we end up with a word meaning "owner of knowledge" or, in Persian, |
| Negar: (daaneshmand). |
| دانشمند |
| Michael: Can you guess which profession this refers to? Okay, if you guessed that it denotes a "scientist," then you were right. Well done. Another useful suffix that also has to do with a place or a placing is |
| Negar: (daan) |
| دان |
| Michael: It translates to "place for storing" and can be combined with the word for "flower" for instance. The Persian word for flower is |
| Negar: (gol) |
| گل |
| Michael: and, combined with this suffix, it becomes a word meaning "place for storing flowers." The English word for this is...can you guess? That's right—it means "vase." Let's hear the Persian now: |
| Negar: (goldaan) |
| گلدان |
| Michael: When flowers aren't in a vase, you can often find them in gardens. The Persian word for "garden" is |
| Negar: (baagh) |
| باغ |
| Michael: and we can combine this word with the suffix |
| Negar: (baan) |
| بان |
| Michael: which means "keeper." When we do that, we have formed a word meaning "garden keeper," which translates, of course, to the English word "gardener." In Persian, it sounds like this: |
| Negar: (baaghbaan) |
| باغبان. |
| Michael: The word "gardener" ends with the suffix "-er" in English, and there is an equivalent suffix in Persian, even though it is not used with the word for "gardener." It sounds like this: |
| Negar: (ande), |
| نده |
| Michael: and it can be affixed to a word like |
| Negar: (sheno), |
| شنو |
| Michael: which means "listen." Put together, these two form a new word which means "listener." It sounds like this: |
| Negar: (shenavande) |
| شنونده |
| Michael: The next suffix we are going to look at is quite useful because you can use it to derive nouns from adjectives but also adjectives from nouns. It sounds like this: |
| Negar: (‘i) |
| ی |
| Michael: First, let's produce an adjective from a noun. We can start with the Persian word for "science," which is |
| Negar: (elm) |
| علم |
| Michael: When we combine it with the aforementioned suffix, we can then produce the Persian word for "scientific," which is |
| Negar: (elmi) |
| علمی. |
| Michael: Now, let's do the opposite. We'll derive a noun from an adjective. Let's use the Persian word for "good" or |
| Negar: (khoob) |
| خوب |
| Michael: and convert it into the word for "goodness," which is |
| Negar: (khoobi) |
| خوبی |
| Michael: Pretty handy, right? There are other suffixes that can be similarly useful. This one, for instance, derives a job-name from a noun: |
| Negar: (gar) |
| گر |
| Michael: Let's see how it works. First, we'll take the Persian word for "work," which is |
| Negar: (kaar), |
| کار |
| Michael: and then we'll add the suffix to produce the Persian word for "laborer" or "worker." It sounds like this: |
| Negar: (kaargar) |
| کارگر |
| Michael: This is a good one to know, for sure. Let's do one more to end this section of the lesson. Here's a Persian suffix that performs the same function as the English suffix "-ity:" |
| Negar: (iyat) |
| یّت |
| Michael: You can, for instance, combine it with the Persian word for "human" or |
| Negar: (ensaan) |
| انسان |
| Michael: to produce the word for "humanity," which is |
| Negar: (ensaaniyat) |
| انسانیّت. |
| Michael: And now you have learned quite a few of the more common noun suffixes in Persian. I must point out that what I've told you so far is really no more than a guide and shouldn't be interpreted as a list of fixed rules to go by. What I've been describing are tendencies or patterns. You might remember, for instance, that, while there is a suffix in Persian which performs the same function as the English "-er" at the end of a word, it was not used for the word "gardener" in Persian. In other words, while these suffixes are used to perform the functions I mentioned above, they aren't always the only suffixes that can perform those functions. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you have learned that the Persian language relies heavily on suffixes and other affixes for word production. This is why it's so important to learn them. Among the suffixes we talked about were those that can be used to produce nouns from adjectives and vice versa. We also talked about suffixes that can produce job names from nouns and ones that mean "the place of" or "place for storing," as well as one that means "the owner of." You also learned about the suffix that means "keeper" and others that are the same as the English suffixes "-ity" and "-er." |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: In closing, I'd like to talk about a suffix that is not a suffix. What I mean is that it is actually a word that can stand on its own, but it functions in the same way as a suffix in the Persian language. This "free morpheme," as it is known technically, is: |
| Negar: (naame) |
| نامه |
| Michael: When it is used as a word on its own, it means "message," "letter," or "book." And, when it is used as a suffix, it denotes any kind of text, written or typed. These might include letters, books, accounts, and various kinds of records. It can be used to produce an impressive word like |
| Negar: (shaahnaame) |
| شاهنامه |
| Michael: which is the name of the "Book of Kings," the Persian epic, or it can be used to derive a word as mundane as |
| Negar: (e'tebaarnaame) |
| اعتبارنامه |
| Michael: which means "letter of credit." It might not be a "suffix" in the technical sense of the word, but it can definitely be used like one and it is very good to know it. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Negar: (khodaahaafez!) |
| خداحافظ! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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