How to Greet People at Different Times of Day, Say Goodbye, and Introduce Yourself

Matt: Welcome back to Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation. We hope you enjoyed the first program and that you're ready to lean some more Persian with us today.

Leyla: Chai and Conversation is a podcast made specifically for people wanting to learn conversational Persian. We're going at a nice and easy pace, with weekly lessons of about 15 minutes each.

Matt: We won't be repeating the words and phrases we learned in the first lesson again, so if you missed it, download it off of iTunes or our website www.chaiandconversation.com. Because we are learning gradually, you will generally need to know the words and phrases learned in the previous lessons in subsequent lessons.

Leyla: We've already received lots of great feedback about the podcast. Please keep it coming, as we will be developing the program as we go along. You can either contact us through our website at www.chaiandconversation.com, or you can find us and follow on Facebook.

Matt: Remember also that this podcast is only one part of Chai and Conversation. There are plenty of other learning materials available on our website. We will be talking about this more after the lesson.

Leyla: But for now, ready to get on with the lesson, Matt?

Matt: Ready!

Leyla: Okay, let's get on to Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation.

LESSON 2:

Leyla: So, the first thing we learned in lesson one was how to say ‘hello’. Do you remember what the word for ‘hello’ was, Matt?

Matt: salām

Leyla: Great, we're going to build on that today by learning some more ways to greet people throughout the day. The first of these would be how to say 'good morning'. ‘Good morning’ in Persian is 'sobh bekhayr'. Can you repeat that, Matt?

Matt: sobh bekhayr

Leyla: Note that we have that sound 'kh' again, this time in the middle of a word. Can you repeat that word again Matt, 'bekhayr'

Matt: bekhayr

Leyla: The word 'sobh' means morning, and the word ‘bekhayr’ literally means to be good. So put together, again, it's 'sobh bekhayr'

Matt: sobh bekhayr.

Leyla: So you can say 'sobh bekhayr' until about noon time or lunch time, and at that point, it would become more appropriate to say 'rooz bekhayr'

Matt: rooz bekhayr

Leyla: As you can guess, the word for day is 'rooz'. So again, that's 'rooz bekhayr'. Let's try that again, and great job rolling the r. rooz bekhayr.

Matt: rooz bekhayr

Leyla: As we move on into the evening, you can start to say ‘good evening’. The Persian word for ‘evening’ is 'asr', and 'good evening' is 'asr bekhayr'

Matt: asr bekhayr

Leyla: This is one of the trickier words we've learned so far, with the rolled r coming at the end of the word. Watch out for the pronunciation- 'asr'

Matt: asr.

Leyla: Great, so let's repeat the three greetings we've learned so far. ‘Good morning’ is 'sobh bekhayr'

Matt: sobh bekhayr

Leyla: 'Good day' is 'rooz bekhayr'

Matt: 'rooz bekhayr'

Leyla: And 'good evening' is 'asr bekhayr'

Matt: 'asr bekhayr'

Leyla: Ok, we're going to try that one more time, and this time, I'll say the word, you repeat the word, and then Matt will repeat it after you so you can check your pronunciation with his.

'sobh bekhayr'

Matt: sobh bekhayr

Leyla: rooz bekhayr

Matt: rooz bekhayr

Leyla: asr bekhayr

Matt: asr bekhayr

Leyla: Excellent! So, as we move along further into the evening, we begin to say ‘good night’, which, as in English, is used as a farewell, not as a greeting. The word for ‘night’ in Persian is 'shab' so, Matt, can you figure out to combine it with what we previously learned to form ‘good night?’

Matt: shab bekhayr

Leyla: That's right! So, the word for good night is 'shab bekhayr'

Matt: shab bekhayr

Leyla: So now we've learned a few ways to say ‘hello’, and a way to say ‘good night’, and let's learn a few more ways to say ‘goodbye’ in Persian. The most common way to say ‘goodbye’ in Persian is ‘khodā--hafez.’

Matt: khodā-hafez

Leyla: You'll often hear this word shortened in casual conversation to, 'khodāfez'

Matt: khodāfez

Leyla: You'll hear it said both ways, 'khodā-hafez' and 'khodā-fez', but for the purposes of this program, we will focus more on the long version. Let's repeat it one more time, 'khodā-hafez.'

Matt: khodā-hafez.

Leyla: In Persian, as in English, there are many ways to say ‘goodbye’. Let's learn a few of these. One way of bidding someone farewell in a casual way is to say 'feylan'

Matt: feylan

Leyla: 'feylan' means something along the lines of 'for now', so, ‘goodbye for now.’ ‘feylan.’

Matt: feylan

Leyla: Again, that's ‘feylan’ with an 'f', 'feylan'

Matt: feylan

Leyla: Another very common phrase for goodbye is a slightly longer phrase, but it is used often, so let's try it out. 'bé omeedé deedār'

Matt: bé omeedé deedār.

Leyla: The word 'omeed' means ‘hope’, and ‘deedār’ is 'to see you', so this phrase means something along the lines of 'hope to see you again'. Now let's repeat these few farewells we have learned so far,

khodā-hāfez

feylan 

bé omeedé deedār 

Now, you could always combine the second two phrases we learned with 'khodā-hāfez' to make a complete farewell. For instance, you could say 'khodā-hāfez, feylan'

Matt: khodā-hāfez, feylan

Leyla: This literally means, ‘goodbye for now’. You could also say 'khodā-hāfez, bé omeedé deedār'.

Matt: khodā-hāfez, bé omeedé deedār.

Leyla: And this would mean ‘goodbye, and hope to see you again’. Let's learn two last common ways to say goodbye. You can say 'until later', which is 'ta ba'ad'

Matt: 'tā ba'ad'

Leyla: 'ba'ad means ‘later’, and notice that this is different than the word for 'bad' because it has a pause in the middle of the word. Listen carefully 'ba'ad'

Matt: 'ba'ad'

Leyla: ‘ta’ in the phrase 'ta ba'ad' means ‘until’. You can use this word with the word for ‘tomorrow’, which is 'fardā' to say ‘until tomorrow,’ or, in Persian, 'tā fardā'

Matt: 'tā fardā'

Leyla: So, ‘until later’ is 'tā ba'ad'

Matt: 'tā ba'ad'

Leyla: And ‘until tomorrow’ is 'tā fardā'

Matt: tā fardā

Leyla: tā ba'ad

Matt: tā ba'ad

Leyla: And 'tā fardā'

Matt: tā fardā

Leyla: Or, combined with goodbye, 'khodā-hāfez, tā ba'ad'

Matt: 'khodā-hāfez, tā ba'ad'

Leyla: And 'khodā-hāfez, tā farda'

Matt: khodā-hāfez, tā fardā

Leyla: So we learned ‘goodbye,’ 'khodā-hāfez', for now, 'feylan', ‘in hopes of seeing you again,’ 'bé omeedé deedār', ‘until later,’ 'tā ba'ad' and ‘until tomorrow,’ 'tā fardā'. Let's repeat all these together one last time before we move on. I'm going to say the word, you repeat it, and Matt will repeat it after you.

khodā-hāfez

feylan

bé omeedé deedār

tā ba'ad

tā fardā

Now, we're going to learn one final thing before we wrap up this lesson, and that is how to say your name in Persian. The phrase for 'My name is Leyla' in Persian would be 'esmé man leyla hast'. Listen to this carefully one more time 'esmé man leyla hast'. Matt, could you repeat that phrase using your own name? 'esmé man leyla hast'

Matt: esmé man matt hast.

Leyla: Great, so I would say 'esmé man leyla hast', and Matt would say

Matt: 'esmé man matt hast'.

Leyla: You might recognize that word 'man' from the last lesson. This means 'me', and 'esm' is the Persian word for ‘name’. So I'm going to repeat the phrase one more time, and then you repeat it using your own name. ‘esmé man leyla hast.’

__________

Great, and hopefully you replaced the word 'leyla' with your own name. Now, after you meet someone and you want to say something along the lines of 'Pleased to meet you' or 'It's a pleasure', you say 'khosh-vaghtam'

Matt: khosh-vaghtam.

Leyla: Great, so let's try a short conversation using all these words we've learned. Listen along and see if you can understand all the words.

Leyla: salām, sobh bekhayr.

Matt: salām, sobh bekhayr.

Leyla: chetor-ee?

Matt: khoobam, merci, va shomā?

Leyla: khoobam, merci. esmé man leyla hast.

Matt: khosh-vakhtam. esmé man matt hast.

Leyla: khosh-vakhtam.

Leyla: Hopefully you understood all of that conversation.