Speak / Lesson 18
How to Talk About the Time and Weather
In Lesson 18, we learn how to talk about the weather, and how to tell what time it is.
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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 |
Matt: Hello everyone and welcome back to Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation!
Leyla: We're so glad to have you with us! We're now on lesson 18 of the program, and we are continuing with what we are calling Unit 2 of Chai and Conversation. The goal of this unit is to build up vocabulary and to have a good grasp of how to have conversations in the Persian language. In the next unit, we will talk more specifically about grammar and the more detailed aspects of the Persian language.
Matt: In this lesson, we are going to continue our learning of conversational skills by learning two very important topics of discussion- the time and weather.
Leyla: We'll learn how to tell the time when asked that oh so common question, what time is it? We'll also learn how to answer how the weather is.
Matt: As always, remember that you can access more useful learning information on our website at www.chaiandconversation.com, with chai spelled CHAI.
Leyla: And enough of that for now, Matt, are you ready to begin the lesson?
Matt: Ready!
Leyla: Great, then let's begin to learn Persian with Chai and Conversation.
Leyla: So first, to ask what time it is, we say 'sa'at chande?'
Matt: saat chande
Leyla: The word for watch or clock by itself is sa'at
Matt: Saat
Leyla: And how much is chand. So you should know by now that chand plus is or hast is 'chande'. Saat chande?
Matt: Saat chande?
Leyla: If the answer is an exact hour, it's very simple. Let's say it's one oclock. You would simply say 'saat yeke'
Matt: Saat yeke
Leyla: Again, yeke is a combination of one and is, yek and hast. Saat yeke
Matt: Saat yeke
Leyla: Or, if it's two o'clock, you would say 'saat do'e
Matt: Saat do'e
Leyla: Three o'clock sounds slightly awkward, but following the same rules, it's sa'at se'e
Matt: Saat se'e
Leyla: Matt, can you figure out five?
Matt: Saat panje
Leyla: And we'll spare you the rest as you learned how to count weeks ago. It continues using the same rules all the way to twelve. Saat davazdahe
Matt: Saat davazdahe
Leyla: Now let's learn how add a half, as in it's 6:30. To say 'it's 6:30.' Half in Persian is neem.
Matt: Neem
Leyla: So to say it is 6:30 in Persian you say 'Sa'at sheesh o neeme
Matt: Sa'at sheesh o neeme
Leyla: So the is, the verb, still comes at the very end of the sentence. Sa'at sheesh o neem hast. So, Matt I'm going to ask you what time it is and you answer that it's 9:30. Matt, saat chande?
Matt: Saat noh o neem-e
Leyla: As you remember, o is the colloquial way of saying 'va' which means and. Saat noh o neem-e.
Matt: Saat noh o neeme
Leyla: Now let's learn quarter, which in Persian is robh
Matt: Robh
Leyla: So to say quarter past one, you say saat yek o robe
Matt: Saat yek o robe
Leyla: That should be simple enough. Now to switch it around and say it's a quarter to one, you say 'Sa'at ye rob beh yek-e
Matt: Saat ye rob be yeke
Leyla: So to break down that sentence, be as we've learned before means to. So you're saying it's one quarter to one. Saat ye rob be yeke
Matt: Saat ye rob be yeke.
Leyla: Now let's try a quarter to ten. Saat ye rob be da'he
Matt: Saat ye rob be da'he
Leyla: Great. Let's review these vocabulary words before moving forward. To say 'what time is it' we say 'saat chande?'
Matt: Saat chande?
Leyla: Half is neem
Matt: Neem
Leyla: And quarter is robh
Matt: Robh.
Leyla: How would you say 'it's seven o'clock?
Matt: Saat hafte
Leyla: Perfect, saat hafte. Now how would you say it's two thirty?
Matt: Saat do o neeme
Leyla: How about it's five fifteen?
Matt: Saat panj o robe
Leyla: And finally how would you say it's a quarter to eight?
Matt: Saat ye rob be hashte.
Leyla: Ok perfect! Now let's learn the word for minute in Persian. It's daygheh.
Matt: Daygheh.
Leyla: Now we'll learn how to say exact times. Let's say it's 10:10. To say this in Persian, you would say 'sa'at dah o dah dayghast'
Matt: Saat dah o dah dayghast
Leyla: Dayghast is a combination of daygheh and hast. You link hours and minutes together with an 'and' so dah o dah daygheh means ten and ten minutes. Saat dah o dah dayghast.
Matt: Saat dah o dah dayghast.
Leyla: Now, to say it's ten minutes TO ten, we switch things around, just as we did when we were saying 'it's a quarter till'. To say it's a quarter to ten we say
Matt: Saat ye rob be daheh
Leyla: Similarly, to say it’s ten minutes to ten, we say ‘saat dah daygheh be daheh
Matt: Saat dah daygheh be daheh.
Leyla: This could also be expressed as 9:50. To say it’s 9:50, you simply say ‘Saat noh o panjah dayghast
Matt: Saat noh o panjah dayghast.
Leyla: So saying the time is simple enough‐ you just have to be sure to be extremely confident in your grasp of the numbers. Time is a very common topic of conversation. Another common topic of conversation is weather. The word for weather in Persian is ‘hava’
Matt: Hava
Leyla: To ask how the weather Is, you simply say ‘hava chetore?’
Matt: Hava chetore?
Leyla: We could answer the question in the simplest way possible by using words we learned in the very first lesson to describe how we are feeling. For example, we could answer ‘hava bad neest’
Matt: Hava bad neest
Leyla: And what does this mean Matt?
Matt: The weather is not bad.
Leyla: Which doesn’t really say all that much. Similarly, you could say the weather is good or ‘hava khoobe’
Matt: Hava khoobe
Leyla: Or hava bade
Matt: Hava bade
Leyla: But we probably want to speak more specifically than that. Let’s learn a few different words we could use to describe the weather. Warm is ‘garm’
Matt: Garm
Leyla: To say the weather is warm, which is something we have to say quite frequently in Texas, you say ‘hava garme
Matt: Hava garme
Leyla: Cold is sard,
Matt: Sard
Leyla: So the weather is cold is hava sarde
Matt: Hava sarde
Leyla: The word aftab means sun. Aftab
Matt: Aftab
Leyla: So to say it is sunny, you say ‘hava aftabeeyeh’ ‘Hava aftabeeyeh’
Matt: The word baroon means ‘rain’. Baroon Baroon
Leyla: So to say the weather is rainey, you say ‘hava barooneeyeh
Matt: Hava barooneeyeh
Leyla: To say the weather is humid, you say ‘hava martoobeh
Matt: Hava martoobeh
Leyla: The word for cloud is ‘abr’
Matt: Abr
Leyla: So to say the weather is cloudy you say hava abreeyeh
Matt: Hava abreeyeh
Leyla: If someone asks you how is the weather, or hava chetore, you could answer by dropping the word ‘hava’‐ simply saying, for example, abreeyeh
Matt: Abreeyeh
Leyla: You could do this for all the words. For example, ask me how the weather is and I will answer without using the word ‘hava’. Go ahead
Matt: Hava chetoreh?
Leyla: Barooneeye
Leyla: Let’s learn a few more word we can add to mix. For example, kami means a bit. So I could say ‘hava kami sarde’
Matt: Hava kami sarde
Leyla: Another word we can use ‘khoshk’, it means dry. Khoshk
Matt: Khoshk.
Leyla: Hava khoshke
Matt: Hava khoshke
Leyla: Ok, let’s go over all the words we have learned so far with the word hava dropped.
It’s warm is ‘garme’
Matt: Garme
Leyla: It’s cold is ‘sarde’
Matt: Sarde
Leyla: It’s humid is martoobe
Matt: Martoobe
Leyla: It’s dry is khoshke
Matt: Khoshke
Leyla: It’s sunny is ‘aftabeeyeh’
Matt: Aftabeeyeh
Leyla: It’s rainy is ‘barooneeyeh’
Matt: Barooneeyeh
Leyla: It’s cloudy is abreeyeh
Matt: Abreeyeh
Leyla: You can also combine any of these that you want obviously. So the weather is hot and humid would be ‘hava garm o martoobeh’
Matt: Hava garm o martoobeh
Leyla: So it’s November in Austin Texas, and I’m going to ask you how the weather is today. Matt, hava chetore?
Matt: Hava kami sarde
Leyla: Ok great. He’s right, it’s getting a bit cold here. So hava kami sarde. So let’s use this new weather and time information in a conversation between strangers. Matt, you start
Matt: Bebakhsheed. Saat chande? Saat sheesh o neeme?
Leyla: Khayli mamnoon. Cheghadr hava khoobe!
Matt: Baleh, hava khayli khoobeh. Sard neest va baroonee ham neest!
Leyla: Ok, let’s go over this conversation, since there are a couple things in there you might not have understood. First, the word cheghadr. This is an expression for how much. Cheghadr
Matt: Cheghadr!
Leyla: So in the conversation, Matt said ‘cheghadr hava khoobeh.’ This expression means the weather is so great! But literally, it means ‘how much the weather is great!’. Cheghadr hava khoobeh!
Matt: Cheghadr hava khoobe
Leyla: Next I answered ‘sard neest va baroonee ham neest!’ This should be very simple for you to understand. Sard neest means ‘it’s not cold’ Sard neest
Matt: Sard neest
Leyla: Neest is the oppostive of hast, but doesn’t have a shortened version in colloquial speech. So for example, it is cold is sard hast, and gets shortened to sarde.
Matt: Sarde
Leyla: It is not cold, by contrast, is sard neest, and is spoken and written the same way. Sard neest
Matt: Sard neest
Leyla: So sard neest, va baroonee ham neest. These are all words we’ve learned before. Matt, can you figure out what ‘va baroonee ham neest’ means?
Matt: It is also not rainy.
Leyla: Exactly! Perfect. Baroonee ham neest. There is another way to say that it is rainy, and that is to say that rain is coming. To say this, you say ‘baroon meeyad’
Matt: Baroon meeyad
Leyla: This means the same thing as barooneeye. You could add the word dare before this phrase to make it markedly in the present tense. Let’s try that ‘dare baroon meeyad’
Matt: Dare baroon meeyad
Leyla: So that means, at this moment, it is raining. Let’s learn another form of precipitation and that is snow. The word for snow is barf
Matt: Barf
Leyla: So to say it is snowing, you say barf meeyad
Matt: Barf meeyad
Leyla: To finish the lesson, let’s expand this idea a bit and learn to ask the question of how the weather is in the present in a couple of different ways. First, you could say alan hava chetore? Alan means right now, at this moment. Alan hava chetore?
Matt: Alan hava chetore?
Leyla: You could also say how is the weather today. This would would emrooz hava chetore?
Matt: Emrooz hava chetore?
Leyla: So now you have learned how to specify time and weather, two very important topics of conversation. That’s a lot for one lesson so we will end it there!
Matt: We hope you enjoyed this lesson of Chai and conversation
Leyla: As we said in the introduction of the lesson, the podcast is only one part of the learning process. there are bonus materials for each lesson available on our website at chaiandconversation.com with Chai spelled CHAI. These include pdf guides that spell out each word and their meanings for you so you can easily understand them.
Matt: We look forward to you joining us next time on Chai and Conversation.
Leyla: And until then, beh omeede deedar from Leyla Matt: And khodahafez from Matt