Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Brandon: Hi everyone. My name is Brandon.
Mohammad: And “Salam!” I’m Mohammad.
Brandon: Welcome back to PersianPod101.com. This is “Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 14 - Going to Work in Iran”. In this lesson, you’ll learn to talk about transportation in Persian.
Mohammad: And we’re going to show you the different methods of transportation in Iran.:
Brandon: The conversation takes place in an office.
Mohammad: And it’s between the same people from last time, Zahra and Mohsen.
Brandon: Do you remember? Since they're colleagues and friends they use informal Persian this time too.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Brandon: Mohammad, why did Mohsen think he was going to be late for work in the conversation?
Mohammad: Well, since he walked to work, he had probably overslept! But if he had a car, I would say because of the traffic jams or the lack of parking spaces.
Brandon: Is it common to be late because of these problems in Iran?
Mohammad: Yes. In big cities like Tehran, the capital, you have to leave home early to be on time.
Brandon: What’s the reason behind these problems?
Mohammad: The fast growth of the population may be one of the reasons.
Brandon: And what do you think the solution is?
Mohammad: The recent development of public transportation like buses, taxis, and the Metro could help resolve the problem, if more people used them. That’s because more people can be transported with less traffic.
Brandon: Then let’s hope for less traffic! Listeners, you can do your part by using public transport when you visit Iran!
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first important phrase that we had in the conversation was?
Mohammad: “Be moghea residan.”
Brandon: It means “to arrive on time”. Can we break it down?
Mohammad: “Residan” is the verb “to arrive”. “Moghea” means “the time”, and “Be” is a preposition meaning “to”. Together they literally become “to arrive to the time.”
Brandon: I guess the part that can change is the verb “Residan”.
Mohammad: That’s right. “Residan” is the infinitive form, and it changes for different pronouns.
Brandon: Can you explain it with an example?
Mohammad: Of course. For example, for the pronoun “you”, the present tense would be “Beh moghea miresi.”
Brandon: So it means “You arrive on time”. Listeners, please listen and repeat.
Mohammad: “Be moghea residan.” (Pause) “Be moghea residan.”
Brandon: Our next word is…?
Mohammad: “Che tor” or “Che tori”. It means “How”.
Brandon: We had “How” a few times before now, for different purposes. Like, “How are you?” and “How about you?”. Is it the same word?
Mohammad: Yes. It’s the same word, but this time it’s used to say “How” meaning “In what way?”
Brandon: You said “Chetor” or “Chetori?” Is the last “i” the same verb “i” meaning “You are”?
Mohammad: It sounds similar in pronunciation, but the tone and accent is different, since the meaning is also different. Here it means “a” or “any”.
Brandon: Which would make the sentence literally mean “In a what way”, ?
Mohammad: Yes. Even though it’s not grammatically correct, it’s still used a lot.
Brandon: Can you say both versions of this word so we can hear the difference?
Mohammad: In “How are you?” where the “i” is a verb, it’s “CheTOri?” - the emphasis is on “To”. But in “What way?” it’s “ChetoRI?”, the accent is on “Ri”.
Brandon: So once again it’s?
Mohammad: “Chetori?” or “Chetori?”
Brandon: Okay. Our last word is...
Mohammad: “Savaar” meaning “On” or “Riding in”.
Brandon: This one is used instead of “by,” in “by a vehicle.”
Mohammad: Yes, it’s used instead of the “baa”. It’s not limited to vehicles on the ground, but can also be used for “Ghaayegh” meaning “boat”, “Havaapeymaa” meaning “airplane”, and animals like “asb” meaning “horse” too.
Brandon: I see. So do we have to add the vehicle or animal name, after “Savaar”?
Mohammad: Well, we first add a possessive “e”, and then add the vehicle’s name. Like “Savare asb” meaning “riding on a horse”.
Brandon: And we said that “Savaar” is an adverb, right?
Mohammad: That’s right. We can make it a verb by adding “Shodan,” meaning “to become”. Then it’ll be “Savaar shodan” or “to ride”.
Brandon: Okay then, one more time it’s …
Mohammad: “Savaar” (Pause) “Savaar”.
Brandon: Great! Now let’s move on to the grammar.

Lesson focus

Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about transportation in Persian. What verbs do we use, Mohammad?
Mohammad: The two most used verbs are “Aamadan,” meaning “to come”, and “Raftan,” meaning “to go”.
Brandon: These are the infinitive forms of the verbs. What are the other forms, used more in conversations?
Mohammad: For example, “I come” is “Miaayam” or “Miaam”, and “you come” is “Miaayi”. “I go” is “Miravam” or “Miram”, and “you go” is “Miravi” or “Miri”.
Brandon: How about the past tenses of these verbs? For example, “I went” is?
Mohammad: “Raftam” is “I went”, and “Rafti” is “you went”.
Brandon: And “I came” or “You came” are?
Mohammad: “Aamadam” and “Aamadi”. These become “Oomadam” and “Oomadi” in the spoken language.
Brandon: Can you give an example in a sentence?
Mohammad: “I went home” would be “Raftam khooneh.”
Brandon: Thanks. Okay, these were the verbs related to transportation. What about adverbs or prepositions? For example, how do you say “BY something” in Persian?
Mohammad: We use the word “Ba” which means “with”. For example “by bus” will become “Ba Otoboos”. And the sentence will be “Ba otoboos miram” meaning “I go by bus.”
Brandon: So you use “with” instead of “by”. Is this used for all types of transportation?
Mohammad: It’s used for almost all of them, except “Piyaadeh,” meaning “walking,” which doesn’t need “by”.
Brandon: Great! Is the word “Savaar”, which we learned in the vocabulary, used too?
Mohammad: “Savaar” meaning “riding” can be used as well, but the word “Baa” is used much more often since it’s short and simple.
Brandon: Now, after verbs and prepositions or adverbs, we get to nouns. Let’s review the names of the vehicles to use with “by”.
Mohammad: Good idea. We already learned “Otoboos” which is “bus”. Another word is “Maashin” meaning “car”. “By car” becomes “Baa maashin”.
Brandon: What about “taxi” or “metro”?
Mohammad: They are so similar to their English words. We say “Taaksi” for “taxi”, and “metro” is used for “metro”. So “by metro” will be “Baa metro”.
Brandon: Okay. What about…“train”!?
Mohammad: It’s “Ghataar”. “By train” is “Baa Ghatar”.
Brandon: And what were the words for “walking” and “riding” that we had earlier?
Mohammad: “Walking” is “Piyaadeh”, and “riding” is “Savaar”.
Brandon: Fantastic! Well listeners, how do you go to work or school every day?
Mohammad: “Piyaadeh?”, “Baa Otoboos?”, or maybe “Baa taaksi?”

Outro

Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Please don’t forget to come back to us…
Mohammad: “Baa internet!”
Brandon: (laughs) Thanks for listening, bye!
Mohammad: Khodaahaafez!

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