Unwritten Short Vowels

Level 1

Persian often leaves its short vowels off the page. The same letter string can have more than one reading.

How It Works

Three teaching marks. A mark above a letter can show a, a mark below can show e, and a small rounded mark above can show o: بَ، بِ، بُ. Our transliteration uses a, e and o for these Iranian Persian vowels; English sound comparisons are only approximations.

Ordinary text leaves most of these marks out. مَن becomes من, and دِل becomes دل. The missing mark is not a missing consonant or a new letter to add.

Context helps, but vocabulary matters. مرد can be mard, meaning a man, or mord, meaning he or she died. A short marked example can show مَرد or مُرد, while the sentence and the known word usually guide the reader in an ordinary text.

Do not promise yourself that every new word can be sounded out from its visible letters alone. Learn its pronunciation from audio or a dictionary and keep that reading with its spelling.

Examples (4)

  1. مَن

    I

    The small mark shows a; ordinary writing is من.

  2. دِل

    heart

    The mark below د shows e; ordinary writing is دل.

  3. گُل

    flower

    The small mark above گ shows o; ordinary writing is گل.

  4. مَرد / مُرد

    a man / he or she died

    Two known readings share the ordinary spelling مرد.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Unwritten Short VowelsLevel 1

Learn This First

Learn the spoken word together with its spelling; short-vowel marks help in teaching but usually disappear in everyday text.