BSEB Matric Persian (Optional) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Maqsad-e nasr

The author's purpose in a prose lesson: to instruct, to warn, to praise, or to narrate. Answers name the purpose in one clause and support it with a line from the text.

Markazi kirdar

The central character whose decision or action changes the outcome of the story. Identifying this character requires pointing to the moment the plot turns on that person's choice.

Nasihat in prose

The moral lesson drawn at the close of a prose lesson. A complete answer states the value taught and the consequence the text shows for holding or ignoring it.

Matla and maqta

Matla is the opening couplet of a ghazal in which both lines rhyme. Maqta is the closing couplet containing the poet's takhallus, or pen name.

Radif and qafiya

Radif is the word or phrase repeated after the rhyme in every couplet. Qafiya is the recurring rhyme pattern preceding the radif, and both define ghazal form.

Tashbih and isti'ara

Tashbih is explicit simile, usually marked by kaf or chu. Isti'ara is metaphor, where the comparison is implied and the particle of comparison is absent.

Talmih

A brief allusion to a well-known Quranic, historical, or legendary figure or event, used to enrich a line without narrating the story in full.

Ruba'i rhyme scheme

A four-hemistich poem with rhyme scheme aaba, meaning lines one, two, and four rhyme while line three does not. It usually carries a single philosophical idea.

Persian present stem

The stem used for present, subjunctive, and imperative forms, often differing sharply from the past stem: raftan gives raw, guftan gives gu, dadan gives deh.

Izafa construction

An unstressed -e linking a noun to a following adjective, possessor, or qualifier, as in kitab-e surkh. It is pronounced but normally not written in Persian script.

Object marker -ra

A suffix attached to a definite direct object, as in kitab-ra kharidam. It marks specificity rather than animacy, and it is not a preposition of purpose.

Plural suffix -an

A plural marker used mainly with animate nouns, especially humans and body parts, as in mardan and chashman. Inanimate nouns normally take -ha instead.

Comparative -tar

A suffix forming the comparative degree, as bozorgtar means bigger. Adding -in instead gives the superlative bozorgtarin, meaning biggest.

Compound verb translation

Persian noun-plus-verb combinations such as taqdim kardan translate as a single target verb, here to present, rather than as a noun plus a generic verb of doing.

Rendering the izafa

When translating into Hindi or Urdu, the izafa becomes a possessive or adjectival link: kitab-e-man is meri kitab, not a literal construction with ka and main.

Idiom translation rule

Translate a muhawara by an equivalent idiom in the target language, not word for word. Dast-e kasi ra giriftan means to help someone, not to catch a hand.

Insha structure

A Persian composition moves from muqaddima, the short introduction, through mafhum, the body paragraphs, to natija, the conclusion stating a moral or a request.

Darkhwast format

A Persian application opens with a respectful address such as janab-e-muhtaram, states the request after bara-e-karam, and closes with aap ka shagird plus name and class.

Register in letters

Formal Persian letters address the reader with shoma and second-person plural verb endings throughout; switching to tu or singular endings breaks the required formal register.

Dil tang shudan

A Persian idiom meaning to become sad or distressed. It is figurative, so it is translated by an equivalent target-language expression rather than as narrowing of the heart.

Az dast raftan

An idiom meaning to be lost or to slip away beyond recovery. The literal sense involving the hand is not the meaning required in translation or comprehension answers.

Zaban dar kashidan

An idiom meaning to fall silent or to refrain from speaking. It is used of a person who chooses not to answer rather than of physical withdrawal of the tongue.

Chashm dashtan

An idiom meaning to expect or to await someone. Comprehension answers should give this figurative sense, not a literal statement about possessing an eye.

Markazi khayal

The main idea of an unseen passage, usually stated in its first or last sentence. The middle sentences supply supporting detail rather than the central claim.

Morphological decoding

Using affixes to infer meaning in an unseen passage: mi- marks a continuous present verb, bi- a subjunctive, -ha a plural, and -tar a comparative adjective.

Contextual word meaning

In comprehension items, the correct sense of a word is the one fitting its sentence, not its commonest dictionary sense; dam may mean moment, breath, or net.

Unwan of a passage

A short noun phrase that covers the whole unseen passage. A title drawn from one detail of a single sentence is incomplete and loses marks.

Persian pe and che

Pe is written with three dots below and che with three dots above. Both are Persian additions to the Arabic alphabet, along with zhe and gaf.

Unwritten short vowels

Zabar, zer, and pesh are not normally written in Persian. The reader supplies them, and a wrong choice changes the word, as between kirm and karam.

Non-connecting letters

Alef, dal, zal, re, ze, zhe, and waw never join to the following letter. They take initial or isolated form and force a break in the written word.

Hamza seat rules

Hamza is carried on ya after kasra, on waw after damma, and stands alone after a long vowel. Persian often writes final -a with ha instead of hamza.

Reciting the radif

In poetry recitation the radif must be sounded clearly at the end of every couplet, and long vowels are lengthened rather than shortened into short vowels.