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The Persian alphabet

32 letters, each with its name and roughly the sound it makes. The sounds are English approximations — enough to sound a word out, not enough to pass for a local.

🇮🇷 Arabic · An abjad: the consonants are written and the short vowels are not.

The Arabic script with four letters added for sounds Arabic does not have — پ, چ, ژ and گ. Persian is an Indo-European language wearing a Semitic script, so the alphabet is borrowed while the grammar underneath is closer to English than to Arabic.

New to it? Our beginner's guide to the Persian alphabet explains how the script works and gives you a plan to learn it.

• ا alef long a
• ب be b
• پ pe p
• ت te t
• ث se s
• ج jim j
• چ che ch
• ح he h
• خ khe ch in loch
• د dal d
• ذ zal z
• ر re rolled r
• ز ze z
• ژ zhe s in measure
• س sin s
• ش shin sh
• ص sad s
• ض zad z
• ط ta t
• ظ za z
• ع eyn a catch in the throat
• غ ghayn French r
• ف fe f
• ق qaf French r
• ک kaf k
• گ gaf g
• ل lam l
• م mim m
• ن nun n
• و vav v, or long u
• ه he h
• ی ye y, or long i

Now read something in it

The letters are the smaller half. The 7,118 commonest Persian words are where they start meaning something.

Arabic is also used for Arabic. The letters mostly carry over; a handful do not.

Reading it is one thing.

Being understood when you say it is another. That takes a person.

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