🇮🇷 Persian (Farsi) #27 Most Spoken Language (83M speakers)

Persian (Farsi) is a widely used Iranian language with a global literary footprint. If you want to learn Persian efficiently, start with the script basics, the ezafe linker for noun–adjective chains, and the compact verb system (present vs. past stems, personal endings, and the mi- marker for ongoing/habitual actions). The language has no grammatical gender and no case endings—great news for beginners and SEO hunters alike.

• Key letters: پ p, چ ch, ژ zh (“vision”), گ g. Two shapes exist for k/yeh in some fonts (ک/ك, ی/ي).
• Vowels (romanized): short a e o; long â i u. Tehran Persian often merges q/gh into a single sound [ɣ].
• Stress: mostly word-final, but clitics (e.g., -am/-at/-ash) don’t take stress.
• Diacritics: usually omitted; readers infer vowels from context. You’ll see ZWNJ (zero-width non-joiner) to separate parts: کتاب‌ها “books”.

• Ezafe (linker): noun + -e/-ye + modifier: ketâb-e bozorg “big book,” ketâb-hâ-ye jadid “new books.”
• Object marker: specific direct objects take râ را: ketâb râ dâdam “I gave the book.”
• Plural: -hâ ها is general; human plurals also use -ân (formal/literary).
• Verbs: two stems (present/past) + endings. Habitual/ongoing uses mi-: mi-xânam “I read.” Negation with na/nei → ne-: ne-mi-xânam.
• Prepositions: be “to/at,” az “from/of,” dar “in/at.” Relative/compl. particle ke “that/which.”

Iranian Persian (Tehrani) drives media and tech; Afghan Persian (Dari) is closer to classical pronunciation; Tajik is written in Cyrillic. Formal Persian favors full verbs (ast), while colloquial speech reduces (e enclitic). Politeness rituals (ta’arof) color everyday language and make phrasebook Persian feel wonderfully courteous.

• Old Persian (Achaemenid) → Middle Persian/Pahlavi (Sasanian) → New Persian (Islamic era to today).
• Rich poetic tradition (Rumi, Hafez, Sa’di); modern prose and cinema broaden global reach.

امروز به مدرسه می‌روم.
emruz be madrese mi-ravam
today to school PROG-go.1SG → “Today I’m going to school.”

کتابِ خوب / کتابِ خوبِ من
ketâb-e xub / ketâb-e xub-e man

Polite intro: Esme man … ast. — “My name is …” • Az … miâyam. — “I’m from …”

• Ezafe writing: after final vowels (ا و ی) or he ه, ezafe is often written with ی; after consonants it’s usually unmarked.
• Colloquial future: present often replaces “will”; dedicated future uses xâstan “to want” + infinitive (xâham raft).
• Clitics: possessive pronouns attach: ketâb-am “my book,” xâne-šân “their house.”