Learn about exchanging foreign currency
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Exchanging money in Iran can sometimes be tricky. You can exchange money at airports, special money exchange stores, and banks. As a general rule, try to find one of the exchange offices or banks. So first things first: let's find a location that will exchange money. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| First, let's review some previous phrases and patterns we've already covered. |
| In Persian, “Is there an exchange office near here?” is |
| In nazdikihaa sarraafi hast? |
| (slow) in naz-di-ki-haa sar-raa-fi hast? |
| In nazdikihaa sarraafi hast? |
| Now, to ask for a bank, we can just replace the word for “exchange office” with the word for “bank” and the phrase works just fine. “Is there a bank near here?” is |
| In nazdikihaa baank hast? |
| (slow) in naz-di-ki-haa baank hast |
| In nazdikihaa baank hast? |
| It’s not very different from the exchange office sentence, and lucky for us, “bank” in Persian is baank. |
| For times when there is neither a bank nor an exchange office, you can ask, "Where can I exchange currency?" In Persian, this is: |
| Kojaa mitavaanam arz avaz konam ? |
| (slow)ko-jaa mi-ta-vaa-nam arz a-vaz ko-nam |
| Once again: |
| Kojaa mitavaanam arz avaz konam? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| The first word, kojaa, means “where.” |
| (slow) kojaa |
| kojaa |
| Then we have mitavaanam, which in English is “can I”. |
| (slow) mitaavanam |
| mi-ta-vaa-nam |
| Then there’s arz, which is “foreign exchange”. |
| (slow) arz |
| arz |
| Finally we have the words avaz konam which means “I change”. |
| All together, we have |
| Kojaa mitavaanam arz avaz konam? |
| "Where can I exchange currency?" |
| Exchanging currency is pretty straightforward - you need to fill out some forms and then present the amount you want exchanged. One extremely useful phrase is "Smaller denominations, please." It's usually beneficial to have smaller amounts of currency on you, to pay for bus fare, taxi fare, and so on. |
| In Persian, “Smaller denominations please” is |
| Pool-e koochektar daarid lotfan? |
| (slow) Pool-e koochektar daarid lotfan? |
| Poo-l-e koo-chek-tar daa-rid lot-fan |
| Once more: |
| Pool-e koochektar daarid lotfan? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| The first word, Pool-e, means “money” or “notes.” |
| (slow) pool-e |
| pool-e |
| Next we have koochektar, which means “smaller”. |
| (slow) koochektar |
| koochektar |
| Then, you have daarid, meaning “have you”. |
| (slow) daarid |
| daarid |
| And last of all is lotfan, which as you already know means “please?” |
| (slow) lotfan |
| lotfan |
| All together, we have |
| Poole koochektar daarid lotfan? |
| In English, this literally means “Have you got smaller money notes?” |
| Finally, you can also use the phrase “Break this, please” to indicate you would like smaller units of the currency. In Persian, “Break this, please” is Lotfan khordash konid. |
| Lotfan khordash konid. |
| (slow)Lot-fan khor-dash ko-nid. |
| Once more: |
| Lotfan khordash konid. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| The first word, lotfan, means “please”. |
| (slow) lotfan |
| lotfan |
| Then we have khordash konid, which means “break it”. |
| (slow) khordash konid |
| khordash konid |
| Here’s the phrase again: |
| Lotfan khordash konid. |
| “Break this, please.” |
| Ask this when you have a big bill that you want to break. |
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