AMFA Persian Language Proficiency Test flashcards

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Ezāfe construction

An unstressed -e (or -ye after vowels) linking a noun to a following modifier, possessor, or adjective: 'ketāb-e now', 'xāne-ye man'. It marks the whole phrase as one unit and is the main parsing signal in reading.

Rā postposition

A clitic marking a definite or specific direct object: 'ketāb rā xāndam' (I read the book). It does not mark indefinite objects with '-i' unless they are specific, and it never marks the subject.

Present stem vs past stem

Persian verbs have two stems. The past stem forms the simple past and past participle ('raft', 'rafte'); the present stem forms present and subjunctive ('rav-', 'miravam', 'beravam'). Irregular pairs must be memorized.

Subjunctive trigger bāyad

'Bāyad' (must) is followed by the subjunctive, formed with 'be-' plus present stem: 'bāyad beravam' (I must go). The same mood follows verbs of wanting and necessity, often with 'ke'.

Compound verbs with kardan

Many Persian verbs are noun plus light verb, e.g., 'telefon kardan' (to call), 'kār kardan' (to work), 'tamiz kardan' (to clean). Meaning is carried by the noun; the light verb supplies person and tense.

Colloquial ā to u shift

In Tehrani speech, ā often becomes u or o: 'nān' → 'nun' (bread), 'khāne' → 'xune' (house), 'tā' → 'to'. Listening items test recognition of these vowel changes in fast speech.

Colloquial copula endings

Spoken Persian attaches the copula directly to the predicate: 'xubam' (I am fine), 'xubi?' (are you fine?), 'irāni-im' (we are Iranian). Formal equivalents use separate forms of 'ast' and 'hastam'.

Solar Hijri calendar

Iran's official calendar begins at the spring equinox; months run Farvardin through Esfand. Dates are written year/month/day, so 1403/05/12 means 12 Mordād 1403, not 5 December.

Zero-width non-joiner

A Persian-specific character (نیمفاصله) placed after prefixes like 'mi-' and before suffixes like '-hā' and '-tar'. It keeps letters visually joined while marking a word boundary; omitting it is a formal spelling error.

Register: shomā vs to

'Shomā' is formal or plural 'you'; 'to' is informal singular. The choice governs verb endings and copula forms, so a single pronoun-plus-verb pair reveals the register of a whole passage.

Non-connecting letters

Seven letters never join to the following letter: ا د ذ ر ز ژ و. They create visible breaks inside words, which readers use to locate word boundaries in unvocalized Persian script.

Unwritten short vowels

Persian normally omits the short vowels a, e, o. Readers supply them from context and known roots, so unfamiliar words must be matched against vocabulary rather than decoded letter by letter.

SOV word order

Persian clauses run Subject–Object–Verb, with the verb final. Because the verb carries person and number, the subject pronoun is often dropped, and the clause's meaning is confirmed at its end.

Negative prefix na-/ne-

Verbs are negated with 'na-' or 'ne-' before the verb: 'nemiravam' (I do not go), 'narafte-am' (I have not gone). The prefix attracts stress, giving a clear acoustic cue in listening tasks.

Progressive dāram miravam

Formal Persian marks ongoing action with 'dāram/dāri/dārad' plus the imperfective verb: 'dāram miravam' (I am going). Bare 'miravam' is habitual or future in formal prose.

Comparative -tar and -tarin

Adjectives take '-tar' for comparison and '-tarin' for the superlative: 'bozorgtar' (bigger), 'bozorgtarin' (biggest). No separate word for 'more' is needed, and the suffix attaches directly to the adjective.

Plural -hā and -ān

'-hā' is the general plural ('ketābhā'); '-ān' is used mainly with animate nouns ('dāneshju-yān'). Arabic broken plurals appear in formal vocabulary and must be learned as separate lexical items.

Ta'ārof ritual politeness

A Persian politeness system of repeated offers and deferential refusals. 'Qābeli nadāre' (it is not worthy of you) is the standard formula when offering; declining once before accepting is expected.

Polite refusal formula

'Motasefāne nemitunam' (unfortunately I cannot) or 'šarmande-am, vali...' softens a refusal. A bare 'na' is acceptable among peers but marked as blunt in formal or first-meeting contexts.

Discourse marker xob

'Xob' functions as 'well' or 'okay', signaling a topic shift or a summary in conversation. Similar markers include 'rāsti' (by the way) and 'be har hāl' (in any case).

Arabic vs native lexicon

Formal, religious, and academic Persian draws heavily on Arabic loanwords; everyday speech prefers native equivalents. Register can therefore be judged from the lexical layer of a text or recording.

Idiom delam gereft

Literally 'my heart took', it means 'I feel blue' or 'I am fed up'. Persian idioms rarely translate word for word, so they must be learned as fixed units with their emotional meaning.

Question words chand and che

'Chand' asks quantity or number ('chand tā?'), while 'che' asks identity or quality ('che chizi?'). 'Kodām' asks 'which one' and 'ki' asks 'who'; mixing them is a common distractor.

Classifier tā

'Tā' is the general counter placed between a number and a counted noun: 'se tā ketāb' (three books). Units of measure such as kilu and metr attach without 'tā'.

Passive with shodan

The passive is past participle plus a form of 'shodan': 'neveshte shod' (it was written), 'sāxte mishavad' (it is built). The corresponding 'kardan' form is active, so voice is read from the auxiliary.

Perfect with budan

Past participle plus the copula forms the perfect: 'rafte-am' (I have gone), 'neveshte ast' (he has written). It marks a past action with present relevance, distinct from the simple past 'raftam'.

Persian-only letters

Four letters exist only in Persian and are absent from standard Arabic: پ (pe), چ (che), ژ (zhe), گ (gāf). Their presence is a quick visual cue that a text is Persian rather than Arabic.

Persian punctuation marks

Persian uses '،' for comma, '؛' for semicolon, '؟' for question mark, and '«»' for quotation. Numbers and dates run left-to-right inside right-to-left text, which affects how a date is read aloud.

Formal essay conclusion

Formal Persian essays close with a summary introduced by 'dar pāyān' or 'be-tor-e kolli', avoiding colloquial contractions. Supporting examples are introduced with 'barā-ye mesāl' (for example).

Light verb zadan

'Zadan' (to strike) forms many compounds: 'telefon zadan' (to call), 'harf zadan' (to talk), 'dast zadan' (to touch). The noun carries meaning; the light verb carries grammar.

Yes and no registers

'Bale' is formal 'yes' and 'āre' is colloquial; 'xeyr' is formal 'no' and 'na' is colloquial. Choosing the wrong pair in a dialogue signals a register mismatch to the examiner.

Stress and intonation

Stress falls on the final stem syllable of most words, and negation shifts it to the prefix. Phrase-final pitch decides statement versus question, since Persian does not reorder words to ask a yes/no question.