| Your goal | Start with |
|---|---|
| Meet your partner's Persian-speaking family | Finglish |
| Follow Persian songs, series and films | Finglish |
| Read newspapers and novels | The Persian alphabet |
| Read classical Persian poetry | The Persian alphabet |
| Take a Persian class or exam | The Persian alphabet |
| Use Persian for work | The Persian alphabet |
| The Persian alphabet | What changes for you |
|---|---|
| Persian has 32 letters, four more than Arabic | پ, چ, ژ and گ are the new ones, for p, ch, zh and g. |
| Lines run from right to left | Start at the right edge of a line and read toward the left. |
| The short vowels are not written | Nothing in کتاب stands for the e of ketab. Finglish adds it. |
| Some letters share a sound | ث, س and ص all sound like s. Finglish writes s for each, so only the Persian letters show which one a word uses. |
| Finglish | Persian alphabet | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| salam | سلام | Hello |
| mamnoon | ممنون | Thank you |
| chetori | چطوری | How are you? |
| khoobam | خوبم | I'm fine |
| doost | دوست | Friend |
People write Finglish in chats and text messages. Bubblegum is a language app where Poppy, your AI tutor, writes your Persian lessons. Its Finglish adds short vowels that Persian letters leave out, like the first a in salam and in mamnoon.
| With Finglish, you can | With the Persian alphabet, you can also |
|---|---|
| Understand what people say in Persian | Read menus and street signs in Iran |
| Text Persian-speaking relatives and friends in Latin letters | Read a novel or a newspaper |
| Read your Bubblegum lessons, stories and news in Finglish | Read a poem the way it was written |
| Ask Poppy your questions in Finglish | Read a message someone sends you in Persian letters |
| App | The Persian alphabet |
|---|---|
| Bubblegum | You choose Finglish or Persian letters for reading, and you can change it whenever you like. |
| Anjuvo | You can start without the script. When you are ready, it has 40 alphabet lessons. |
| Learn Farsi: Real Persian | It starts with Latin letters and shows the Persian script beside them. It also teaches the alphabet with handwriting practice. |
| Pimsleur | It adds reading lessons where you learn the alphabet and script. |
| Rosetta Stone | Right-to-left script is introduced in the lessons, next to pronunciation and vocabulary. |
| Chai and Conversation | The Speak course teaches conversational Persian. The Read and Write course teaches the 32-letter alphabet. |
After you pick Finglish, the Persian Alphabet course is still on your home screen.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Persian. You learn from Persian you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- The Persian Alphabet course teaches all 32 letters and the vowel marks in 12 short chapters, with a picture for each letter.
- Read your lessons in Persian letters or in Finglish, the Latin letters many Iranians text in, and switch any time.
- Lessons are built around your level and your interests.
- Casual dialogue can use everyday Iranian speech, while narration and news stay in written Persian.
- In live voice chat, Poppy asks you to say phrases back and tells you how you did.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, and you can export them to Anki.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- Bubblegum teaches the Persian of Iran, so it has no course for Dari or Tajik.
- You can't turn your own Persian books into lessons. However, you can paste a page in the chat, and Poppy will explain it.
- Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches the Persian Alphabet
Mobile
Does Finglish Use Numbers for Letters?
No. Bubblegum's Finglish uses only letters and hyphens. It leaves out ع and ء, so ساعت (hour) is saat. A hyphen adds the linking -e, as in ketab-e man (my book).
Does Finglish Have a Standard Spelling?
No. People write the same word in several ways, like khoob and khub, or merci and mersi. On screen, each word has one spelling. You can type it any way you like, and Poppy still understands.
Is There a Course for Finglish?
Yes. Finglish Sounds is a short course on how Finglish spells sounds like kh, gh and zh, and on its vowels. Poppy offers it right after you choose your level, and it takes less than 5 minutes.
Can I Start the Persian Letters Later?
Yes. The Persian Alphabet course has 12 chapters, and chapter 1 is open whenever you want it. Two letters, the tall ا and the boat-shaped ب, are enough to write بابا, the word for dad.
Which Persian App Should a Beginner Choose?
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read. Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Romanization of Persian (English Wikipedia): common to write Persian in Latin letters in online chat, social networks, emails and SMS, sometimes called Fingilish or Pingilish
- Persian Online, the writing system (University of Texas at Austin): written from right to left, 32 letters (Arabic has 28; Persian adds p, ch, zh and g), a consonantal system where short vowels are not included and their marks are hardly ever used
- Learn Persian (Farsi) by Anjuvo on the App Store (no script needed to start, every word has Latin-alphabet transliteration, 40 alphabet lessons for later)
- Learn Farsi: Real Persian on the App Store (romanised text to start immediately, Persian script alongside, the alphabet with handwriting practice)
- Pimsleur: Learn Farsi Persian (reading lessons are included, so you can pick up a new alphabet and script)
- Rosetta Stone: Learn Farsi Persian (lessons introduce the right-to-left script)
- Chai and Conversation: Read/Write Persian (the 32-letter alphabet)
- Chai and Conversation: Speak Persian (conversational Persian)
- Bubblegum: Persian Alphabet course, chapter 1
