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Lesson Transcript

Salām be hamegi! Man Anita hastam. Hi everybody! I’m Anita
Welcome to PersianPod101.com’s “Persian in 3 minutes.” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Persian.
In the last lesson, we learned the phrase Bebakhshid, āyā shomā englisi sohbat mikonid? "Excuse me, do you speak English?" We used the word Bebakhshid, which means "excuse me" in Persian.
In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to use Bebakhshid and other words when apologizing in Persian.
Bebakhshid is used in situations like when we are ordering something in a restaurant, or asking for something in a store, and so on. For example:
Bebakhshid, yek qahve lotfan. "Excuse me, one coffee please."
We can also use it when asking a question:
Bebakhshid, Takhte Jamshid kojāst? "Excuse me, where is Persepolis?"
Similar to English, there is no informal way to say "excuse me" in Persian. The meaning is already polite. Persian people just ask questions more directly when speaking to a friend. But to make it polite, you can add lotfan, meaning "please" to the start or end of a phrase, when asking for something.
Lotfan yek qahve midi? "Can you give me a coffee, please?"
We also use Bebakhshid in a sentence when apologizing. This can be used both formally and informally, but in a more casual situation it can also be shortened to Bebakhsh, as in:
Man rā bebakhsh. "Forgive me."
[slowly] Man rā bebakhsh.
Please note that the way we *say* this phrase is different than the way it's actually *written*. The proper way is: Man rā bebakhsh.
First we have the word man, or ”me”. Next, we insert "Ra" which is always used grammatically after the object of a verb. In this case, it was “me.” Finally, we have the command verb bebakhsh, meaning "(you) forgive."
Man rā bebakhsh. “(You) forgive me.”
But you will always hear it as:
Marā bebakhsh.
Now it’s time for Anita's Advice.
In Persian, just like American English, we usually don't say "excuse me" when asking for something from a friend. But when we want to ask something or call upon a friend, like "Hey, do you know..." or "Look, what is...," Persian people use bebin which literally means "look."
It is very common in casual speech.
Bebin, Takhte Jamshid kojāst? "Hey, where is Persepolis?"
Can you count in Persian? In the next lesson, you will learn the numbers from 1 to 10.
I'll be waiting for you in the next Persian in 3 minutes lesson.
Khodāfez!

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