Speak / Lesson 48

How To Discuss Travel

In this lesson, we learn the Persian words for different types of transportation, including airplanes, cars, bicycles, and motorcyles.

GREETINGS:

salām
hello
سَلام
chetor-ee
how are you?
چِطوری؟

Note: In Persian, as in many other languages, there is a formal and an informal way of speaking. We will be covering this in more detail in later lessons. For now, however, chetor-ee is the informal way of asking someone how they are, so it should only be used with people that you are familiar with. hālé shomā chetor-é is the formal expression for ‘how are you.’

Spelling note: In written Persian, words are not capitalized. For this reason, we do not capitalize Persian words written in phonetic English in the guides.


ANSWERS:

khoobam
I’m well
خوبَم

Pronunciation tip: kh is one of two unique sounds in the Persian language that is not used in the English language. It should be repeated daily until mastered, as it is essential to successfully speak Persian. Listen to the podcast for more information on how to make the sound.

Persian English
salām hello
chetor-ee how are you?
khoobam I’m well
merci thank you
khayli very
khayli khoobam I’m very well
khoob neestam I’m not well
man me/I
bad neestam I’m not bad
ālee great
chetor-een? how are you? (formal)
hālé shomā chetor-é? how are you? (formal)
hālet chetor-é? how are you? (informal)
khoob-ee? are you well? (informal)
mamnoonam thank you
chetor peesh meeré? how’s it going?
ché khabar? what’s the news? (what’s up?)
testeeeee

Leyla: Hello and welcome to Lesson 47 of Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation!

 

Matt: We’re so glad to have you with us!

 

Leyla: As you know, we’re in our power series of ‘Chai and Converastion, and in this series, we’re learning vocabulary that will help you in practical everyday conversations.

 

Matt: Today, we’re going to cover a particular travel topic, and that is travel with Airplanes.

 

Leyla: If you are on our mailing list, you know that my mother worked for Southwest Airlines, and before that Iran Air in IRan, and so airplanes are a particularly favorite topic of mine.

 

Matt: And if you’ve been listening to the program, you should definitely know that all of our previous learning materials and bonus materials are available on our website at www.chaiandconversation.com, with CHAI spelled CHAI

 

Leyla: But enough of that for now, Matt, are you ready to being the lesson?

Matt: Ready!

Leyla: Great, then let’s begin to learn Persian with Chai and Conversation.

So just as we did last time, we’re going to begin this lesson with a dialogue between me and Matt.

 

farda meeram peesheh khanevadam dar dallas.

ba masheen meeree?

na, ba havapayma.

parvazet saateh chandeh?

saat noh e sobh.

kay meeresee dallas?

saateh dah

chetor meeree foroodgah?

ba otoboos meeram foroodgah,

khob, beh salamati.

 

ok, let’s go over the vocabulary learned in this dialogue.

 

farda meeram soragheh khanevadam dar dallas. so first, the word peesheh probably jumps out at you.

 

havapayma, airplane

 

parvaz means flight. so parvazet saateh chandeh

 

foroodgah is the word for airport.

 

reseedan is the verb meaning to arrive. chejooree meeresee foroodgah. how will you arrive at the airport. you can use this word in many different contexts.

 

kay meeresee, when will you get here.

farda meeresam, I’ll get there tomorrow.

zood meeresam, I’ll get there quickly.

nemeeresam, I won’t get there.

 

ba otoboos meeram foroodgah

 

so let’s go over modes of transportation here since we learned two just now.

masheen, is car

another word for car is khodro. you won’t hear that as often

docharkheh

secharkheh

motorcyclet

metro

heleecoopter

ghayegh

 

 

 

to end the conversation, it was ‘beh salamati’. This is used when drinking cheers, and basically means to your health. So in other words, good luck to you.

 

You could also say ‘safar khosh’, or have a good trip.

 

So let’s go over a few of the words we learned in this lesson to review. The word for Airplane is

 

havapayma

 

the word for