Basic Vocabulary and Word Meaning
Vocabulary and word meaning checks whether you can attach meaning to a word inside a sentence - synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions - rather than recite isolated lists. Expect matching items, 'opposite of' items, and idiom-meaning questions.
Three layers of vocabulary
Native Iranian words (آب، خانه، رفتن), Arabic loans (کتاب، علم، مدرسه) and modern European loans (رادیو، کامپیوتر). Recognising the layer helps guessing: Arabic words follow root patterns, so ک‑ت‑ب yields کتاب، کاتب، مکتب.
Word building
- Prefixes: بی‑ (بیادب 'rude'), نا‑ (ناآشنا 'unfamiliar'), هم‑ (همکلاس 'classmate')
- Suffixes: ‑مند (دانشمند), ‑گر (کارگر), ‑گاه (دانشگاه), plurals ‑ها / ‑ان
- Compound verbs: کردن، شدن، دادن، گرفتن، زدن combine with a noun - کمک کردن 'to help', یاد گرفتن 'to learn', تلفن زدن 'to phone'
Idioms and opposites
دست و پا زدن 'to struggle desperately'; آب از آب تکان نخورد 'nothing stirred'; سر و کار داشتن 'to have dealings with'. Common antonym pairs: بزرگ/کوچک، دور/نزدیک، آسان/سخت، پر/خالی.
Worked example
او به من کمک کرد. کمک alone is the noun 'help'. With کردن it becomes a transitive verb; the subject او is third person singular, so the past stem کرد needs no extra ending, and به من marks the person helped. Literal 'he help did to me' becomes 'he helped me'.
Traps that cost marks
Translating idioms word for word; assuming a Persian word means the same as its Urdu look-alike; missing the transitivity flip between کردن and شدن (باز کردن 'to open' vs باز شدن 'to be opened').