Persian Orthography and Script Recognition
Orthography and script recognition is the entry skill the BSEB Matric Persian paper assumes: you must decode printed Persian accurately and write letters in the correct positional shape. Questions here appear as letter-joining tasks, dictation, and short reading items where one misread letter changes the word.
Positional shapes
Persian has 32 letters and no capitals; it runs right to left. Most letters take up to four shapes: isolated, initial, medial, final. Eight letters never connect to the letter that follows them: ا د ذ ر ز ژ و. After any of these, the next letter begins a fresh cluster.
Diacritics
- زبر / فتحه َ = a; زیر / کسره ِ = e or i; پیش / ضمه ُ = o or u
- جزم / سکون ْ = no vowel; تشدید ّ = doubled consonant
- تنوین (ـاً، ـٍ، ـٌ) in Arabic loanwords
- The ezafe kasra in کتابِ نو is normally unmarked but must be read aloud
Confusable letters
Read the dots, not the outline: ب پ ت ث ن ی / ج چ ح خ / د ذ / ر ز ژ / س ش ص ض / ط ظ / ع غ.
Worked example
Write بازار. Begin with initial ب (بـ). ا cannot join forward, so it appears in final form and the cluster stops. ز restarts, is joined from the right only, then ا closes that cluster, and ر stands alone. The printed word therefore has three separate strokes, not one continuous line. Reason: every break falls immediately after a non-connector.
Traps that cost marks
Writing ه as ة in dictation; giving ر or د an initial shape; confusing ص and ض; ignoring تشدید so شدّت is read as one light consonant; treating و only as a consonant when it also writes the vowel /u/.