WBCHSE HS Persian cheat sheet

Identify the text's genre (dastan, maqama, essay, biography) because genre determines the expected structure: dastan has plot and dialogue, maqama has rhymed prose and a trickster, essay has thesis and examples.

Theme questions: state the central idea in one sentence, then support it with two events or quotations from the passage; themes in WBCHSE prose include moral instruction, social criticism, humanism, and religious devotion.

Character questions: list the character's actions, speech, and how others react; infer traits (generous, hypocritical, wise) from those details rather than from adjectives alone.

Style markers to name: saj' (rhymed prose), parallelism, tazmin (quotation of verse), amthal (proverbs), dialogue, and frame narrative; cite a short example from the text for each.

Comprehension answers must be in Persian unless the question says otherwise; keep answers to 2–4 sentences and reuse vocabulary from the passage.

Author–text matching is examinable: know each prescribed author's century and region (e.g., Sa'di, 13th-century Shiraz; Rumi, 13th-century Anatolia) and one famous work besides the prescribed text.

For 'explain the line' items, paraphrase the sentence in simpler Persian, then state its function in the paragraph (introduces conflict, draws a moral, characterizes the speaker).

Vocabulary in context: a word may shift meaning by collocation (e.g., 'dil' = heart vs. courage); confirm the sense from the surrounding verb and preposition.

Meter (bahr) families to recognize: hazaj, ramal, mujtathth, khafif, mutaqarib; scan a bayt by syllable weight (fe'ilatun, mafa'ilun, mustaf'ilun) before naming the meter.

Rhyme scheme: mathnawi = aa bb cc; ghazal/qasida = aa ba ca da; ruba'i = aaba (or aaaa in some definitions); qit'a = aa ba ca.

Devices and their Persian names: tashbih (simile), isti'ara (metaphor), majaz (trope), kinaya (metonymy), tibaq (antithesis), tajnis (paronomasia), radif (repeated word after rhyme), qafiya (rhyme).

Explanation (tafsir) steps: literal meaning → figurative meaning → emotional effect → link to the poem's theme; quote the key words of the line in your answer.

Radif vs. qafiya: qafiya is the rhyming consonant+ vowel before the radif; radif is the identical word or phrase repeated after the qafiya across the poem.

Theme mapping for prescribed poems: love and longing, Sufi union with the Beloved, patriotism, social justice, mortality; identify the poet's stance (lover, critic, mystic, patriot).

A bayt has two misra's; a ghazal typically 5–12 bayts; the matla' is the first bayt and the maqta' the last, often containing the poet's takhallus (pen name).

When asked for 'explanation with reference', give poet, poem title, and context (e.g., opening of the ghazal) before the paraphrase.

Persian verb = past stem + personal endings: -am, -i, -ad, -im, -id, -and; present stem is irregular and must be memorized per verb (raftan → raw-; didan → bin-).

Tenses: simple past (raftam), past continuous (mi-raftam), present perfect (rafta-am), past perfect (rafta budam), simple present (mi-ravam), future (khwaham raft).

Transitive vs. intransitive: transitive verbs take the object marker -ra; intransitive verbs do not (u raft vs. u kitab-ra kharid).

Ezafe construction: noun + -e + modifier (kitab-e sabz); chain ezafes (daneshju-ye khub-e daneshgah) modify from right to left.

Plural markers: -ha (inanimate and general), -an (animate, especially humans and body parts); Arabic broken plurals occur in formal prose (kitab → kutub).

Pronominal suffixes attach to nouns, prepositions, and verbs: -am, -at, -ash, -eman, -etan, -eshan (kitabam = my book; be man → behem).

Sentence order: subject–object–verb (SOV); the verb agrees with the subject in person and number, and the ezafe links modifiers to the head noun.

Subjunctive after modals and purpose: bayad beravam, mi-khwaham beravam; after ke in purpose clauses (amadam ta ke binam).

Persian is SOV; Bengali and English are SOV and SVO respectively, so reorder the verb when translating into English and keep it final in Bengali.

Ezafe phrases translate as 'of' or as noun+noun compounds: shahr-e Tehran = 'the city of Tehran' / 'Tehran city'.

The object marker -ra is not translated as a word; render it by English word order or by Bengali objective case.

Idioms translate by sense, not word-for-word: dast-e kasi-ra gereftan = 'to help someone'; dil-am mi-khwahad = 'I feel like'.

Persian 'ke' can be relative pronoun ('who/which'), complementizer ('that'), or purpose ('so that'); decide from the clause that follows.

Verbal nouns (mastar) often become English gerunds or infinitives: raftan = 'to go' / 'going'; kharidan = 'to buy' / 'buying'.

Proper nouns and titles: transliterate consistently (Hafez, Sa'di, Ferdowsi) and do not translate personal names.

Back-translation check: translate your Bengali/English version mentally into Persian and compare structure with the source; mismatched tense or number signals an error.

Formal Persian letter structure: salutation (janab-e aqay-e ... / hazrat-e ...), opening courtesy (ba'd az salam va arzu-ye hal-e shoma), body, closing (ba tashakkor, arz-e adab), signature and date.

Informal letter to a friend: salam bar dust-e aziz-am, then personal news, then closing (ba dusti, ...).

Essay (maqala) structure: introduction with thesis (moqaddama), 2–3 body paragraphs each with one idea and an example, conclusion (natija).

Cohesive devices to use: avvalan, saniyan, pas, banabar-in, dar natija, hamchenin, az su-ye digar.

Keep sentences short (10–15 words) and use known vocabulary; examiners penalize invented words more than simple phrasing.

Topic vocabulary sets for common prompts: 'ilm va danish' (education), 'wat an' (homeland), 'dust' (friendship), 'varzesh' (sports), 'internet'.

Address and date conventions: write the date in Persian order (ruz, mah, sal) and place it at the top right in formal letters.

Word count control: a 150-word essay is roughly 3 paragraphs of 4–5 sentences; count sentences, not words, during the exam.

First pass: read for gist without stopping; second pass: underline unknown words and infer meaning from context, word roots, and parallel structures.

Question types to expect: true/false, short answer, vocabulary matching, pronoun reference (in/ân refers to the nearest preceding noun), and summary.

Signal words for structure: amma (but), pas (therefore), chun (because), banabar-in (consequently), avvalan/saniyan (first/second).

Vocabulary inference: Arabic-derived roots often recur (kataba → ketab, kateb, maktab); use the root to guess an unfamiliar derivative.

Answers should be in Persian and reuse the passage's own words where possible; a one-line answer is enough for 'who/what/when' questions.

For 'what is the main idea' questions, choose the option that covers the whole passage, not a single supporting detail.

Numbers and dates in Persian text: yek, do, se, chahar, panj; hazar (1000); shenbe, yekshanbe, doshanbe for days.

Time management: skim the questions before the second reading so you know which details to locate.