Vocabulary and Idiomatic Usage: Collocation and Taarof
Vocabulary and Idiomatic Usage tests range and precision: word choice in context, register, collocation and the fixed expressions that carry most everyday meaning. The section rewards knowing how words combine, not memorising one-to-one glossaries.
What to prioritise
- Compound verbs dominate real usage: تصمیم گرفتن، توجه کردن، در نظر گرفتن، به کار بردن. Learn the nominal partner, because the light verb is often idiomatic - حرف زدن and حرف شنیدن are different words in practice.
- Persian and Arabic layers coexist. Arabic broken plurals appear in formal prose (موضوع → موضوعات); the native plural ها is the safe default elsewhere.
- Colloquial vocabulary belongs in dialogue only: یه، بچهها، خیلی خوب. It is wrong in a report.
- Taarof formulas are functional: چشم ("consider it done"), بفرمایید ("go ahead"), قابلی نداشت ("it was nothing"), لطف دارید ("you're too kind").
Worked example
«دل به دریا زدم و رفتم.» The question asks what the speaker did. Reasoning: دل به دریا زدن is a fixed expression meaning to screw up courage and take the plunge; it is not a statement about the sea, and زدم here is the light verb of the idiom, not "I hit". The correct reading is "I plucked up courage and went." A word-by-word translation produces nonsense, which is exactly the distractor offered.
Traps
- Translating idioms literally: سر و کله زدن (to show up / to wrestle with), خون به جگر شدن (to be eaten up with worry), دست و پا کردن (to fuss, to scrounge up).
- Register clashes: formal کتب inside a chat message, or colloquial یه inside a report.
- Assuming Arabic loans keep familiar English-looking senses.
- Ignoring collocation: تصمیم گرفتن, not تصمیم کردن.