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 motorcycles.
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Download lesson MP3GREETINGS:
hello
سَلام
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:
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 48 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 Conversation, and in this series, we’re learning vocabulary and grammar 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 particular 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 C-H-A-I.
Leyla: 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. We'll go over the vocabulary of the dialogue afterwards.
fardā meeram peeshé khānevādam dar dāllās.
Matt: bā māsheen meeree?
Leyla: na, bā havāpaymā.
Matt: parvāzet sā’até chand-é?
Leyla: sā’até nohé sobh.
Matt: kay meeresee dāllās?
Leyla: sā’até dah.
Matt: chetor meeree foroodgāh?
Leyla: bā otoboos meeram foroodgāh.
Matt: khob, bé salāmatee.
Leyla: Okay, let’s go over the vocabulary learned in this dialogue. So the first sentence I said is “fardā meeram peeshé khānevādam dar dāllās.” So we've covered the word “khānevādé” extensively before; do you remember what this means, Matt?
Matt: ‘Family’.
Leyla: So “fardā meeram peeshé khānevādam dar dāllās," so ‘tomorrow I am going to my family in Dallas’. “peeshé” doesn't have a direct translation in the English language, but it means literally ‘next to’, so ‘tomorrow I’m going next to my family in Dallas', in this context meaning ‘I’m going to visit my family'. So let's say that together: fardā meeram.
Matt: fardā meeram.
Leyla: peeshé khānevādam dar dāllās.
Matt: peeshé khānevādam dar dāllās.
Leyla: Exactly, so my family's in Dallas, and I'm going to visit them in Dallas tomorrow. So Matt replied, “bā māsheen meeree?”
Matt: bā māsheen meeree?
Leyla: Exactly, and what was the word “māsheen," Matt?
Matt: ‘Car’.
Leyla: Exactly, so Matt's asking ‘are you going with a car?’, and I answered, “na, bā havāpaymā.”
Matt: na, bā havāpaymā.
Leyla: Exactly, and just like the word “airplane” has the word “air” in it, “havā” is the word for ‘air’ in the Persian language, and “havāpaymā” is the word for ‘airplane’. havāpaymā.
Matt: havāpaymā.
Leyla: So I say, “na, bā havāpaymā.”
Matt: na, bā havāpaymā.
Leyla: Meaning?
Matt: ‘No, with an airplane’.
Leyla: Exactly, ‘no, with airplane’. So then, Matt asks, “parvāzet sā’até chand-é?”
Matt: parvāzet sā’até chand-é?
Leyla: So “parvaz” is the word for ‘flying’, so ‘what time is your flight?’. parvāzet sā’até chand-é?
Matt: parvāzet sā’até chand-é?
Leyla: Perfect, and you might need to review your time vocabulary at this point, but I answered, “sā’até nohé sobh.”
Matt: sā’até nohé sobh.
Leyla: And “noh” is the word for ‘nine’, so nine in the morning. sā’até nohé sobh.
Matt: sā’até nohé sobh.
Leyla: Exactly, and then Matt asks, “kay meeresee dāllās?”
Matt: kay meeresee dāllās?
Leyla: So “reseedan” is the infinitive of the verb “meeresee,” and it means ‘to arrive’. So “kay meeresee dāllās?” ‘When do you arrive in Dallas?’ kay meeresee dāllās?
Matt: kay meeresee dāllās?
Leyla: And I answered, “sā’até dah.”
Matt: sā’até dah.
Leyla: And what time is that, Matt?
Matt: Ten o'clock.
Leyla: Exactly, so it's about a thirty-minute flight, actually, between Austin and Dallas, but with the takeoff and landing and everything, it's about an hour. So the flight leaves at nohé sobh and arrives at sā’até dah, ten o'clock. And then Matt asks me, “chetor meeree foroodgāh?”
Matt: chetor meeree foroodgāh?
Leyla: The word for ‘airport’ is “foroodgāh.”
Matt: foroodgāh.
Leyla: So “chetor meeree foroodgāh?” ‘how are you going to the airport?’. chetor meeree foroodgāh?
Matt: chetor meeree foroodgāh?
Leyla: And I answered, “bā otoboos meeram foroodgāh.” Matt, can you guess what the word “otoboos” means?
Matt: ‘Bus’.
Leyla: Exactly, it's taken directly from French. otoboos.
Matt: otoboos.
Leyla: And bā otoboos meeram foroodgāh.
Matt: bā otoboos meeram foroodgāh.
Leyla: And finally, Matt ended it with “khob, bé salāmatee.”
Matt: khob, bé salāmatee.
Leyla: Which we've covered so many times before. Okay, let's go over vocabulary we've learned in this dialogue. So “reseedan” is the word meaning ‘to arrive’. “chejooree meeresee foroodgāh?” ‘how will you arrive at the airport?'. chejooree meeresee foroodgāh?
Matt: chejooree meeresee foroodgāh?
Leyla: Now you can use the word “reseedan," or ‘to arrive', in many different contexts, and let's go over a few. For example, you can ask, ‘When will you get here?’. kay meeresee?
Matt: kay meeresee?
Leyla: And of course the word ‘here’ is implied; you could say “kay meeresee eenjā?”
Matt: kay meeresee eenjā?
Leyla: So “kay meeresee?” just simply means ‘when do you arrive?’, and “kay meeresee eenjā?” means ‘when do you arrive here?’. You could answer, “fardā meeresam."
Matt: fardā meeresam.
Leyla: Meaning ‘I’ll arrive tomorrow’. fardā meeresam.
Matt: fardā meeresam.
Leyla: The word for ‘quick’ is “zood,” so if you want to say, ‘I’ll arrive quickly', you'll say
“zood meeresam.”
Matt: zood meeresam.
Leyla: Or you could just say ‘I won’t arrive' or ‘I won’t get there’. nemeeresam.
Matt: nemeeresam.
Leyla: So, for example, if someone asks you to do something, and you're too busy for it, you could say… the word “nemeeresam” could mean ‘I won’t get to it', ‘I won’t be able to do that'. nemeeresam.
Matt: nemeeresam.
Leyla: So again, chejooree meeresee foroodgāh?
Matt: chejooree meeresee foroodgāh?
Leyla: And another question that was asked in the sentence using this word is kay meeresee dāllās?
Matt: kay meeresee dāllās?
Leyla: And what does that mean?
Matt: ‘When will you get to Dallas?’.
Leyla: Exactly, ‘when will you arrive in Dallas?’.
Matt: ‘When will you arrive in Dallas?’.
Leyla: And you won't hear that often, especially outside of Iran, but you may, and it means ‘something that goes by itself’: “khodrō.”
Matt: khodrō.
Leyla: The word for ‘bicycle’ in Persian is “docharkhé.”
Matt: docharkhé.
Leyla: And that means ‘two wheels’, “bi-cycle.” The word for ‘tricycle’ is “secharkhé.”
Matt: secharkhé.
Leyla: ‘Three wheels’. The word for ‘motorcycle’, an easy one, is “motorcyclet.”
Matt: motorcyclet.
Leyla: And the word for ‘underground’, which Iran just… which Tehran recently added a few years ago is “metrō.”
Matt: metrō.
Leyla: The word for ‘helicopter’, again, an easy one, is “heleecoopter.”
Matt: heleecoopter.
Leyla: And finally, the word for ‘boat' is “ghāyegh.”
Matt: ghāyegh.
Leyla: So let's go over these one more time: the word for ‘car’, māsheen!
Matt: māsheen.
Leyla: Another word for ‘car’, khodrō.
Matt: khodrō.
Leyla: The word for ‘bus’, which we learned earlier, is otoboos.
Matt: otoboos.
Leyla: The word for 'plane’ is havāpaymā!
Matt: havāpaymā.
Leyla: A ‘bicycle’ in Persian is “docharkhé.”
Matt: docharkhé.
Leyla: So then what is a ‘tricycle’?
Matt: secharkhé.
Leyla: Exactly. The word for ‘motorcycle’, “motorcyclet.”
Matt: motorcyclet.
Leyla: The word for an ‘underground’, ‘subway’, or ‘metro’ is “metrō.”
Matt: metrō.
Leyla: The word for ‘helicopter’, “heleecoopter.”
Matt: heleecoopter.
Leyla: And finally, the word for ‘boat', “ghāyegh.”
Matt: ghāyegh.
Leyla: To end the conversation in the dialogue, Matt said “bé salāmatee.” So this is used when drinking, to say ‘cheers!’, and basically means ‘to your health!’. It's used in many different contexts, and in this context, it's basically ‘to your health!’. bé salāmatee.
Matt: bé salāmatee.
Leyla: Great, and we will leave the lesson at that! Thank you so much for listening to this lesson of Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation! There's only one more lesson in the power series, and then we will have a review for the lesson.
Matt: Remember that you can find vocabulary lists, exercises, PDF guides, and more on our website at www.chaiandconversation.com, with “chai” spelled C-H-A-I.
Leyla: Or find us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/learnpersian, and until next time, khodāhāfez from Leyla.
Matt: And bé omeedé deedār from Matt.