SE3 - Pronunciation Aids

Listen to the audio link that gives the pronounciation of each Persian word. Then add the appropriate Vowel Signs to each of the Farsi letters below:

English	Persian	Pronounciation
Job	ايوب
Pslams	مزامیر
Proverbs	امثال سلیمان
Ecclesiastes	جامعه
Genesis	پیدایش
Matthew	متی
Mark	مرقس
Luke	لوقا
John	یوحنا
Chapter	فصل
Verse	آیه

Examples of how to place Vowel signs on Farsi letters are shown in the chart below:


Following please find the pronounciation of above words:











.

Ch. 2 - L3 Vowels and Vowel Signs

• Farsi has 3 short vowels: a, e, o
• Vowel sounds are written with the following signs:

One exception of this rule is with the sound ‘o’ occasionally rendered with the letter vâv (و )
For Example, the Number 41 in Persian is written چهل و یک. This number is NOT read as chehel VA yek. It will be read as chehel-o-yek.

Further examples of vowels are:

You won’t find these symbols often as most Farsi speaking people already know how to say the words. Where you do find them is where a word is a foreign word, a name or a word that is being introduced to the reader. In these situations the vowel sounds are indicated to assist the readers to pronounce the word correctly. You may think it's impossible to learn to read without the symbols – take courage, it can be done.

3.1 Exercise
Try to read the following text:
تب بت
Can you see which vowel signs are missing? See if you can add the missing vowel signs.
Please lookup the above words in a dictionary or use http://translate.google.com to translate. For help on using Google Translate please click here.

3.2 Exercise
Write down both Farsi words on a flashcard with the English translation on the reverse side. Perhaps you can add the vowel signs in pencil.

3.3 Exercise
With a partner practice the above flashcards by looking at the English side and guessing the correct Farsi word.

3.4 Exercise
Practice all the words that you know with a Native Speaker.

3.5 Exercise
Without looking at your flash cards, mark all the words you can read in pages 3 to 7 of the Bible Teach Book in Persian.

3.6 Exercise
Write down all the words that you marked in the above exercise and compare them with your flash cards.

Try Supplementary exercise 3 - click here - to get more familiar with the vowel signs.

The Bible Books in Persian

The Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures  نوشته‌های مقدس عبرانی - عهد عتیق

English	Persian	Pronounciation
Genesis	پِيدايِش
Exodus	خُروج
Leveitcus	لاويان
Numbers	اَعداد
Deutronomy	تثنیه
Joshua	يوشَع
Judges	داوران
Ruth	روت
1 Samuel	اول سموئیل
2 Samuel	دوم سموئیل
1 Kings	اول پادشاهان
2 Kings	دوم پادشاهان
1 Chronicles	اول تواریخ
2 Chronicles	دوم تواریخ
Ezra	عزرا
Nehemiah	نحمیا
Esther	استر
Job	ایوب
Psalms	مزامیر
Proverbs	امثال سلیمان
Ecclesiastes	جامعه
Songs of Solomon	غزل غزلهای سلیمان
Isaiah	اشعیا
Jeremiah	ارمیا
Lamentations	مراثی ارمیا
Ezekiel	حزقیال
Daniel	دانیال
Hosea	هوشع
Joel	یوئیل
Amos	عاموس
Obadiah	عوبدیا
Jonah	یونس
Micah	میکاه
Nahum	ناحوم
Habakkuk	حبقوق
Zepheniah	صفنیا
Haggai	هجی
Zechariah	زکریا
Malachi	ملاکی

Greek Scriptures (NT)      نوشته‌های یونانی - عهد جدید

English	Persian	Pronounciation
Matthew	متی
Mark	مرقس
Luke	لوقا
John	یوحنا
Acts	اعمال
Romans	رومیان
1 Corinthians	اول قرنتیان
2 Corinthians	دوم قرنتیان
Galatians	غلاطیان
Ephesians	افسسیان
Philipians	فیلیپیان
Colossians	کولسیان
1 Thessalonians	اول تسالونیکیان
2 Thessalonians	دوم تسالونیکیان
1 Timothy	اول تیموتائوس
2 Timothy	دوم تیموتائوس
Titus	تیطس
Philemon	فیلمون
Hebrews	عبرانیان
James	یعقوب
1 Peter	اول پطرس
2 Peter	دوم پطرس
1 John	اول یوحنا
2 John	دوم یوحنا
3 John	سوم یوحنا
Jude	یهودا
Revelation	مکاشفه

SE2 – ‘Crazy Story’ The Persian Alphabet

Supplementary Exercise 2 – ‘Crazy Story’ The Persian Alphabet

آ ا The Almeidas (alef) take a journey - Carla takes a sombreo & goes to the sea, where she finds 4 sailing boats racing.

ب In the 1st boat sits a brother from Bethel (be) - he dropped one black baseball under his boat. (be) = one dot underneath

پ In the 2nd boat sits Peter (pe) he had 3 keys with him. (pe) = 3 dots underneath.

ت In the 3rd boat sits shy Teddy bear (te) – you can only see 2 eyes over  the boat (te) = 2 dots above.

ث In the 4th boat is the Service Committee - (se) 3 brothers standing tall  (se) = 3 dots above.

Next is the Sea Horse Marathon

ج The 1st seahorse is called Jim (jim) he wins so he has a medal. He has one dot under to show he’s in first place.

چ The 2nd seahorse is called Charlie (che). He has 3 angels who work for him. 3 dots under.
ح The 3rd seahorse is Henry (he). He has no friends – no dots.

خ The 4th seahorse comes from Iran and is called khubi (khe). He always gets lost so he has 1 dot on top so we can find him.

The Almeidas are hungry:

د So they use dollars (dâl) to buy delicious donuts.

ذ Their favourite donut is called Zâlmeida (zâl) because it has one dot of cream on top.

ر Rrrodney (re) rrreally likes rrred rrrasberry donuts and ..

ز Zany zebras (ze) with one dot on top. (ze) = one dot on top.

ژ Zhessica (zhe) hates the above 3 Zâlmeida, raspberry donuts & zany zebras. (zhe) = 3 dots on top.

Out on the sea is a cruise ship with famous passengers onboard:

س Frank Sinatra (sin) Cleaning his 3 teeth

ش Shirley Temple (shin) with 3 lollipops on her 3 teeth

ص Sotiri (sâd) stands alone…

ض but Zeus (zâd) has a bee on his neck. (zâd) = 1 dot above.

ط Tiger (tâ) Woods was playing golf. At left is a picture of his golf club.

ظ He hit the ball so hard that is zoomed (zâ) out into the …

ع (ein) عالم (âl am = universe) and it …

غ (ghein) hovered above Gholam Reza’s head. (ghein) = 1 dot above.

ف who was eating fairy floss (fe) and drinking… (fe) = 1 dot above.

قهوه ق ghaveh (coffee) with 2 lumps of sugar…(ghâf) = 2 dots above

ك while cooking kababs… (kâf)

گ on top of the grill (gâf) = a line on top

Meanwhile back on Earth:

ل lovely Lauren (lâm) rowed out to the cruise ship with…

م marvelous Marianne (mim) who is looking for…

ن naughty Nigel (noon) to give him a cap. (noon) = 1 dot on top.

و Vivacious Vanessa (vâv) said: “Oo (vâv) … Nigel is not here. He left in a …

ه Hurry on a helicopter, heading for Hawaii.” (he)
ههه ه (all 4 forms of ‘he’)

ي Yelling: “She loves me yeh, yeh, yeh.” (ye)

بیتل  two Beatles are dead – under the ground (ye) = 2 dots under

(‘ye’) can be found in both these forms in the middle of words)

SE1 – Number Review & Opening the Bible

Supplementary Exercise 1 – Number Review & Opening the Bible

The Exercises are based on the Persian Bible known as ترجمه قدیمی‌.

If you are a publisher of the good news and you would like to receive a Persian Bible, please send an email to theocratic(dot)persian(at)gmail.com Best efforts will be made so that a Persian Bible be provided for you.

Open the following Scriptures in your Persian Bible then find and write the corresponding WRITTEN NUMBER in Farsi. (e.g.: 1 = يك )

( ١ ) Find and write these two words in 2 Peter 3:8 "ONE DAY"
(hint: look at the last 2 words) ……………………………………………………….

( ٢ ) Find and write the numbers in the heading for MATTHEW 14:13
(includes ۵ : see question ( ۵) )………………………………………..………………

( ٣ ) How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish? …………………….
Write in Persian the nearest page number for Jonah 1:17 …………

( ۴ ) Write in Persian how many times the number چهار ۴  appears in
REVELATION 7:1 ………………… the page number ……….

( ۵ ) Write in English the page number for MATTHEW 14:13 ……….

( ۶ ) Jehovah rested from creation after ….. Genesis 1:31 (last 2 words)
……………………………………………………………………………….

( ٧ ) Find DANIEL 4:25 in Persian Bible. Write the page number in English   ……………
Nebuchadnezzar would eat grass for _? times... .……….. زمان .......................

( ٨ ) Write in Persian the name of the 8th book of the Bible …………..

Ch. 2 - L 2 The letter Alef

• Alef is the first letter in the alphabet
• If it is in the beginning of a word it is pronounced as an ‘a’ ‘e’ or ‘o’
• If it in the middle of a word or the last letter in a word then it is always pronounced as a ‘long a’ like ‘a’ in ‘arm’. (â)
• Alef can not be connected in writing to the left

Written form

Keep in mind the correct pronunciation.

2.1 ExerciseWrite down the letter Alef in both forms: آ and ا on a flashcard.

2.2 Exercise
In page 6 of the Bible Teach Book, mark all letter combinations with the letters that you know so far, eg.

2.3 Exercise
Write down new combinations of the letters we have learned so far and read them out loud.

2.4 Exercise
How many of the following words did you come up with in the above exercise?
آب   آن   اين   نان
با   بابا   باب   يا   آيا
پا   پايان   آنان

2.5 Exercise
Look up the words above in a dictionary. If you dont have a Persian to English Dictionary simply go to http://translate.google.com , type in the Persian word and get the English Translation. The following screen shot shows how you can access the Persian keyboard in Google Translate.

For Example in order to find out the meaning of the word نان in English, you will have to click ن and then ا and then ن on the virtual keyboard. The relevant keys for نان have been highlighted with Yellow in the below screen shot. You can see from the following screen shot that the Persian word نان means Bread in English.

If you are having difficulty with the Persian keyboard, then simply copy/paste نان into Persian language area of Google Translate and observe the English translation. Repeat the above steps for all of the words provided in excercise 2.4. Then  write the Farsi words on one side of a flashcard and a picture or the English translation on the other side.

2.6 Exercise
Practice with the above flash cards.






By means of a ‘crazy story’ some are able to remember the alphabet. Try Supplementary Exercise 2 (click here) or make a ‘crazy story’ for yourself.

When you can recognise the Persian letters, you can ask Persian speakers to spell a word you are having difficulty with in Persian – making it easier to see how to pronounce new words.
You’ll also need to know the order of letters in the alphabet to be able to look up Persian words in a Persian-English dictionary.

Ch. 2 - L 1 Letters be, pe, te, se, nun, ye

• The Farsi alphabet has 32 letters,
• It is written from the right to the left,
• When a single letter is being referred to, the ‘own’ form is often written,
• There are no capital letters in the same way there is in English,
• Each letter has these four forms determined by its position within a word as follows:
• On its own (Own),
• The first letter in a word (First),
• In the middle of a word (Middle),
• The last letter in a word (Last)
• Take note of the groups of similar letters. While you need to know 32 characters, if you break it into groups, you really only need to know a few basic character ‘patterns’ and then learn to distinguish letters by their differences.

Sometimes you will see the middle form of ‘ye’ written using the ‘own’ form.There is no difference in meaning.

Examples
Following Persian words show letters be, pe, te, se, nun, ye in their different appearences as First, Middle or Last letters in different words.

English	Persian	Pronounciation
Jehovah
Jesus
Levite	لاوی
Deutronomy
Jonah		ََ
Hebrews
Lamentations		ََ
Inheritance	ارث
Seth
Job	ایوب
Obadiah
Timothy
Ruth	روت
Peter

1.1 Exercise
Letters in the middle of a word are not much different from each other
Learn to recognise the number of dots & where these dots are placed.
Write down the MIDDLE form of each letter (use a flashcard).

1.2 Exercise
In the ‘Bible Teach Book’ (‘آشنایی‌ با تعالیم کتاب مقدّس’) , in the pages and paragraphs provided,  mark each of the following letters & then pronounce them aloud:

To make sure that you have recognised all the letters, count each of the above letters and compare the number you found with your partner's number.

1.3 Exercise
With your partner use flashcards to practise the 6 letters above until you
can recognise each letter.

1.4 Exercise
Lay down your flashcards in a pattern. Eg: letters with dots under
ب = b
ي = i
پ = p
or - nun: ن / te: ت / se: ث

1.5 Exercise
Repeat writing each letter until you feel you have mastered writing it. Like this:

                                 Writing Directions

L10 - ADVERBS OF TIME

today = em-ruż 

yesterday = di-ruż

the day before yesterday = pari-ruż

tonight = em-shab

last night = di-shab

night before last = pari-shab

tomorrow = far-dâ

the day after tomorrow = pas-far-dâ

week = hafté

month = mâh

year = sâl


10.1 Exercise

• What day is it today?
• What day was it yesterday?
• What day is it the day after tomorrow?
• What day is it tomorrow?
• What day was it the day before yesterday?

As examples for above, imagine that today is wednesday. Then answers to questions of section 10.1 will be as follows respectively:
Em-ruz Chahar-shanbe ast.

Di-ruz se-shanbe bood.

Pas-far-da jom-eh khahad bood.

far-da panj-shanbe khahad bood.

pari-ruz do-shanbe bood


Now please practice the questions of section 10.1 with today's date.

10.2 Exercise
How do you say the following?
Today, yesterday, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day before yesterday,
year, last night, tonight, night before last, month, week?

10.3 Exercise
Learn the following in Farsi:
today, yesterday, the day before yesterday,
tonight, last night, the night before last,
tomorrow, the day after tomorrow,
week, month, year

10.4 Exercise
Write out the above on a piece of paper. Translate them to Persian.