Welcome to the foundation of the Persian language, or Farsi. The Farsi alphabet is based on the Arabic script, but it's not identical. It consists of 32 letters and, like Arabic, is written from right to left. That might feel backward at first, but you'll get used to it quickly.

One of the trickiest parts for new learners is that most letters change their shape depending on where they appear in a word. A letter can have up to four forms: isolated, initial (at the beginning of a word), medial (in the middle), and final (at the end). Don't worry about memorizing all four forms at once. Just being aware of them is enough for now.

Let's look at all the letters. The table below shows each letter in its isolated form, its name, and the sound it makes.

As you saw in the chart, Farsi added four letters to the original Arabic script to represent sounds that don't exist in Arabic. Mastering these will help you sound more like a native speaker. They are simple modifications of existing letters, usually with extra dots.

Think of them as familiar shapes with a new twist. For example, پ (pe) looks just like ب (be) but with three dots underneath instead of one. Similarly, گ (gāf) is a variation of ک (kāf). Spotting these patterns makes learning them much easier.

In written Farsi, you'll find two types of vowels: short and long. This is a key concept.

Long vowels are easy because they are actual letters in the alphabet:

• ا (ā) as in "father"
• و (u) as in "flute"
• ی (i) as in "machine"

Short vowels, on the other hand, usually aren't written in everyday text like books and newspapers. They are small marks written above or below a consonant. You learn to recognize them from context as you become more familiar with the language. It's like how an English speaker knows "rd" can be read as "read" or "red" depending on the sentence.

The three short vowels are:

• a (like in 'cat'), marked with a small diagonal dash above the letter, called fathe.
• e (like in 'bet'), marked with a small dash below the letter, called kasre.
• o (like in 'so'), marked with a small loop above the letter, called zamme.

The best way to learn the alphabet is to write it out. Grab a pen and paper and practice each letter. Pay attention to the direction of your strokes, always moving from right to left. Start with the isolated forms until you feel comfortable, then you can move on to seeing how they connect.

Ready to check your knowledge?

Getting the alphabet down is the biggest first step. With these letters, you have the building blocks for every word in the Farsi language.