Zaban
Farsi lessons

Learn to read Farsi.

We’ll go through the letters, some useful words, and how sentences work.
Then you can try a story and see how much you understand.

13 core chapters · 4 optional references · Free, at your own pace

Starting from scratch

Start with the sounds, then work through the letters, words and sentences. The cards below let you try a greeting or look at the alphabet first.

Start with the sounds →
Try saying hello

A first hello
in Farsi.

Start with hello, then try introducing yourself. The pronunciation and English are there to help.

Try the lesson A reading-first approach

Make the letters familiar.

A lot of Farsi letters share the same shape. See what changes when you move the dots or join the letters.

See how the letters work
Chapter 1 of 17 · Explore the Farsi path

Start here · Chapter 1 of 17

How these lessons work

Start with a few words and see how the Farsi, pronunciation and English fit together. You can use the same approach throughout the lessons.

≈ 2 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter
  • You can start without knowing any Farsi. By the end, you’ll try a short story with the English hidden.
  • First you’ll learn a few useful words, then the alphabet and joining, then the basic sentence patterns you need for the stories.
  • Have a go at each word, then check how it’s said and what it means.
  • The pronunciation here follows common Tehran speech. The spelling is what you’ll see in books.
  • The English letters under each word help you say it. They’re called romanization. They can’t show the sound as well as hearing someone say it.
  • You can stop after any exercise. Keep the alphabet page handy when you need to look up a letter.

The idea is to get you reading. We’ll go through how the letters work, how sentences fit together, and some words you’ll see a lot. You’ll still need help with a book. That’s what the translation is there for.

Four words you can use straight away

These let you greet someone, answer yes or no, and say thanks. Use the English letters underneath to try saying each one.

FarsiUse it for
سلامsalâm“hello”saying hello
بلهbale“yes”saying yes
نهna“no”saying no
ممنونmamnun“thank you”thanking someone

For now, use the English letters to say each word. The next chapters show what the Farsi letters are doing.

Farsi and Persian are the same language. In Farsi it’s called فارسیfârsi“Farsi”. People don’t always say things the way they’re written. We’ll use the written forms and point out some of the spoken ones as we go.

water

آب

âb

This is how the word looks on the page. âbâb tells you how to say it. The English tells you what it means. In the exercises, you can open the answer when you’re ready.

Try one

Look at the Farsi word. Start on the right. Have a go, then open the answer.

  1. آب

    Start at the right edge. There are two letters.

    Show answer +
    آبâb“water”. Say “âb”.
The chapters

What do you want to work on?

If you’re starting from scratch, follow the chapters in order. Otherwise, pick the bit you need. You can skip the reference pages and come back to them.

Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Farsi chapters ↗