Assam Higher Secondary Persian key terms

The Persian language, written in the Arabic-derived script with four added letters; the medium of the exam's prose and verse texts, studied for grammar, comprehension and composition.

The Persian writing system, an adapted Arabic alphabet in which letters change shape according to position and several letters share one shape, distinguished only by dots.

Correct spelling; the convention governing which of several same-shaped letters, and which of ه or ة, must be written in a given word.

Grammar: the system of rules covering word classes, sentence structure, agreement and word formation that a candidate applies when analysing or correcting Persian sentences.

Morphology, the branch of grammar treating the internal build of words: roots, affixes, plurals and verb stems, as opposed to the arrangement of words in a clause.

Syntax: the study of how words combine into phrases and clauses, including the order of subject, object and verb and the role of the ezafe link.

The verb; the word carrying tense, person and number, agreeing with its subject and normally closing the Persian clause. Transitive verbs take an object marked by را.

A verb stem. Persian verbs have a past stem, which builds the past tenses, and a present stem, which builds the present and subjunctive; both are needed to conjugate a verb.

The past tense category. Simple past, past continuous and past perfect are formed from the past stem plus personal endings, with the past participle used for compound tenses.

The present tense category. Present and present continuous forms are built from the present stem with personal endings, and the same stem underlies the subjunctive.

Mood: the speaker's attitude toward an action. Persian distinguishes indicative, subjunctive after particles such as که or تا, and imperative forms of the verb.

The ezafe construction, an unstressed -e linking a noun to a following modifier, possessor or adjective; it chains several times in phrases such as کتابخانهٔ بزرگ شهر.

A noun phrase built with the ezafe link, where the first noun governs one or more following words; the head noun is definite unless the phrase is made indefinite with ی.

The noun, a word naming a person, thing or idea; it may take plural endings, the indefinite ی, and the object marker را when it functions as a direct object.

The plural number. Persian marks it with the ending -ها for most nouns or the Arabic-derived -ان for animate nouns, with some words taking either form.

The singular number, the unmarked form of a noun; also used of a word that is grammatically single rather than compound or plural.

The pronoun. Persian has separate subject pronouns and attached object pronouns such as م، ت، ش, which also express possession when joined to nouns.

The adjective, a word describing a noun and normally following it through the ezafe link; it agrees in number only when the noun is plural and the adjective is predicative.

The adverb, an invariable word modifying a verb, adjective or another adverb, indicating manner, time, place or degree; it is not linked by ezafe.

The preposition, a particle such as در, از, به or با that introduces a complement; some prepositions combine with را or with a following ezafe phrase.

The conjunction, a word such as و, یا, اما or چونکه joining words or clauses and signalling addition, choice, contrast or cause.

The glottal-stop sign, written as a small letter over or under a seat; its seat and its pronunciation vary by position and must be handled correctly in spelling.

Simile: an explicit comparison of two things through a particle such as مانند, چون or مثل, a staple device in Persian poetry that candidates identify and explain.

Metaphor: use of a word for something other than its literal sense on the basis of resemblance, where the comparison particle is suppressed; the borrowed term keeps the image.

Figurative transfer, a trope in which a word is used for a related but non-identical idea, as when a part stands for a whole or a cause for its effect.

Irony or allusion: an expression whose intended meaning is the opposite of, or implied beyond, its literal wording, understood from context rather than from the words alone.

Metre: the quantitative pattern of long and short syllables in a verse, analysed with the science of عروض and named by a formula such as فعولن مفاعیلن.

The science of Persian and Arabic prosody, which reduces a verse to its underlying metrical feet and checks whether lines conform to a recognised metre.

Rhyme: the recurring final sound or sounds shared by verse-endings from the last stressed syllable onward; together with the refrain it structures a poem.

The refrain: a word or phrase repeated unchanged immediately after the rhyme word at the end of each verse, a feature especially common in ghazal and ode.

The couplet, the basic unit of Persian verse, consisting of two half-lines or مصراع; a poem is counted and quoted in couplets.

A half-line or hemistich, one of the two parts of a couplet; the first half of the opening couplet rhymes with the second in most forms.

The ghazal, a lyric form of usually five to twelve rhyming couplets on love, longing or mysticism, with the poet's name often woven into the final couplet.

The qasida, a long monorhyme ode, typically opening with a lyrical prelude before moving to praise, elegy or moral reflection; classical Persian panegyric used this form.

The mathnawi, a poem in rhyming couplets, each couplet rhyming independently, suited to long narrative and didactic works because it frees the poet from monorhyme.

The quatrain, a four-line form with a distinctive metre and a rhyme scheme in which the first, second and fourth lines rhyme; used for brief philosophical or lyrical statements.

Prose, writing not organised in metre; candidates study both plain and ornate Persian prose, distinguishing simple narrative style from rhymed, embellished composition.

Verse, composition organised in metre and rhyme, as opposed to prose; the term covers the whole body of Persian poetry regardless of form.

Composition: the writing of connected Persian prose on a set topic, testing vocabulary, sentence control, paragraphing and the correct use of ezafe and verb agreement.

Translation, an exam task requiring a passage to be rendered between Persian and the candidate's language with attention to idiom, tense and the ezafe construction.