ASSEB HSLC Elective Persian cheat sheet

Persian reads right to left; the ezāfe (unstressed -e) links a noun to its modifier: ketāb-e man = 'my book', and it is normally left unwritten except after silent h (خانۀ).

Skim for the verb first: Persian is verb-final in neutral order (SOV), so the final word of a clause usually carries person, number and tense and anchors the meaning.

Signal words of contrast and cause: اما/ولی (but), زیرا/چون (because), بنابراین/پس (therefore), با این حال (nevertheless); these mark the argumentative spine of a passage.

Pronominal enclitics -am, -at, -aš, -emān, -etān, -ešān attach to nouns (ketābam = my book), to verbs (raftam = I went) and to prepositions (az u = az-aš).

The suffix -i forms abstract nouns and adjectives of relation: dāneš 'knowledge' → dāneši 'academic'; irān → irāni; be careful, it also marks indefiniteness (mardi = 'a man').

Ra (را) marks a definite direct object only: ketāb rā xāndam 'I read the book'; with an indefinite object ra is normally dropped.

Inference questions: locate the sentence containing the keyword, then check whether the question asks for what is stated (صریح) or what is implied (مفهومی).

Past simple is built on the past stem (raft-am, raft-i, raft, raft-im, raft-id, raft-and); present uses the present stem plus personal endings (mi-rav-am).

The perfect (māzi-e naqli) = past participle + copula: rafte-am 'I have gone', rafte ast 'he has gone'; it marks a past event still relevant now.

The subjunctive (eltezāmi) drops mi- and takes -ad/-am/-i…: bebīn-am, berav-ad; it follows modals and conjunctions such as bāyad, šāyad, ke, tā.

Negative prefixes: na-/ne- for simple verbs (na-raftam), but the present subjunctive negative is na- (na-ravam); compound verbs negate the light verb or the prefix, e.g. kār na-kardam.

The passive = past participle + forms of šodan: nevešte šod 'was written'; the agent, if expressed, takes the preposition tavassot-e.

Plural markers: -hā (inanimate, general) and -ān (animate, formal); Arabic broken plurals occur in learned vocabulary (ketāb → kotob).

The ezāfe chain is the main noun-phrase device: divār-e boland-e xāne-ye pir 'the high wall of the old house'; the head is the first noun.

Identify each lesson's genre first: dāstān (short story), xātere (memoir), maqāle (essay), qesse-ye tārixi (historical narrative); genre determines what the examiner asks.

Character questions require evidence: name the trait (deltangi, sabor, šojā'), then cite the action or line that shows it rather than asserting the trait alone.

Theme statements are one sentence, abstract, and lesson-wide: e.g. 'the value of effort over inherited wealth', not a plot summary.

For narrative lessons, fix the chain: havādes-e aqāz (initial situation) → gere h (knot/conflict) → oqde-goshāyi (resolution) → natije (moral).

Author and work attributions are examinable: keep a table of lesson title, author, century and one-line subject for every prescribed lesson.

Vocabulary in context: a word may carry a figurative sense in the lesson (del 'heart' → 'courage'); answer with the contextual meaning, not the dictionary first gloss.

Quotation questions expect exact recall of a key line plus a one-sentence explanation of its function in the lesson.

Persian verse is quantitative (aruz): the metre (bahr) is a fixed pattern of short/long syllables; misrā' (hemistich) pairs into a beyt (couplet).

Rhyme scheme (qāfiye) and radif: the radif is a word or phrase repeated after the rhyme at each line end; it is not part of the rhyme itself.

Core devices: tashbih (simile, with like-words čon/ mesl-e), este'āre (metaphor), kenāye (metonymic allusion), tanāsob (parallel imagery), morā'āt-e nazir (correspondence of images).

The lyrical form (qazal) typically treats love, wine and mystical longing; the didactic form (masnavi) tells a story with a moral, rhyme aa/bb/cc.

Theme questions on classical verse often involve erfan (mystical love, fanā 'annihilation', tavakkol 'trust in God'); state the surface image and then the mystical reading.

Poetic language uses archaic verb forms and shortened stems (kon for konad, agar for āgāh); recognise them before attempting translation.

Appreciation answers must combine three elements: meaning of the couplet, device used, effect produced on the reader.

A Persian formal letter opens with besmellāh or with a salutation such as bā salām va ehterām, and closes with bā tashakkor / bā ehterām-e farāvān plus the signature.

An application (darkhāst) states the purpose in the first paragraph, gives supporting facts in the second, and ends with a request for action and thanks.

Formal register: use šomā, farmudid, xāhesmandam; avoid colloquial contractions (migam, nemidunam) which belong to spoken style only.

Paragraph structure: yek parāgrāf = yek ide-ye asli + šāhed + natije; never mix two main ideas in one paragraph.

Essay openings should avoid clichés; a concrete statement or question in the first line is what earns marks on content.

Punctuation: Persian uses ، (comma), ؛ (semicolon), : (colon), ؟ (question mark), and « » for quotation; the full stop is .

Length and format instructions in the prompt (word count, letter vs. essay, addressee) are marked; answer the exact task type asked.

Translate meaning, not word order: Persian SOV becomes English SVO, so the object moves before the verb in English and after it in Persian.

The ezāfe has no direct English equivalent; render it by 'of', a possessive, or an adjective-noun order: ketāb-e u → 'his book' or 'the book of him'.

Ra is not translated; it only signals definiteness of the object. Do not render it as 'to' or 'for'.

Persian verbs of becoming/being (šodan, budan) often map to English 'become/be' but also to 'get, turn, grow'; choose by collocation.

Idioms translate as wholes: dast-e u dard nakonad → 'may he not suffer'; del-am gereft → 'I felt sad', never 'my heart took'.

Proper names and titles are transliterated consistently (Tehrān, Hāfez) rather than translated; Arabic loanwords keep standard Persian pronunciation.

After drafting, back-translate the target sentence mentally and check that no clause has been dropped or duplicated.

The Persian alphabet has 32 letters; four letters (پ چ ژ گ) are Persian additions to the Arabic set.

Letters change shape by position: initial, medial, final, isolated; seven letters (ا د ذ ر ز ژ و) never join to the following letter.

Short vowels (a, e, o) are normally unwritten; long vowels are ا (ā), و (u), ی (i). Initial short vowels take alef: اَ (a), اِ (e), اُ (o).

Silent h (ه) at word end takes the ezāfe as -ye: xāne-ye man; after other vowels the ezāfe is -ye as well: daryā-ye.

The hamze (ء) appears on ا, و, ی: مأمور, مؤمن, مسئله; the choice depends on the surrounding vowels.

Tanvin (an) in Arabic loanwords is written as ـاً and pronounced -an: masal-an 'for example'.

Vocabulary learning is by root and pattern: kāteb, maktub, ketāb, maktab all derive from the root k-t-b 'write'.