Persians love to tell jokes. Jokes are an essential part of the Persian language and culture. If you really want to understand Persian Language, you need to understand the jokes that people tell in Persian! Check out the following jokes and see if you understand them. Try telling a joke you like to your friends. It’s a good way to practice your Persian.
Some jokes are from a famous Persian character, Mullah Nasreddin, who appears in many funny Persian stories. He is always humorous, wise, and sometimes philosophic. Mulla’s stories are generally funny, but in the subtle humor there is always a lesson to be learned. Just hearing Molla’s name brings smile to Persians.
مظفر میره دکتر میگه آقای دکتر من بیماری فراموشی گرفته‌ام.
دکتر میگه: چند وقته این بیماری رو دارین؟
Learn colloquial Persian through short jokes: how to study a joke, the spoken forms they share, links to every joke with explanations, and a quiz.
Learning Persian through jokes
Jokes, جوک (juk) or لطیفه (latife), are part of daily life in Iran. People share them at family gatherings, at work and on their phones. Most jokes are told in spoken Persian, so they are an excellent way to hear the language as it is really used, with shortened verbs, dropped prepositions and everyday slang. Each joke in this section is short, and each one now has a line-by-line table, spoken and written forms, a glossary, an explanation of the humor and a short quiz.
How to study a joke
- Read the Persian line by line with the pronunciation, then check the English.
- Look at the spoken vs written table and try to say each line in both styles.
- Read the explanation only after you have tried to work out the punchline yourself.
- Retell the joke aloud to a friend or to yourself. Timing matters: the punchline should be the last thing you say.
- Do the quiz at the end of the page.
Spoken forms you will meet again and again
These spoken forms appear in almost every joke in this section. Learn them once and the jokes become much easier.
| Spoken / Written | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| میگه / می‌گوید | /mige / miguyad/ | says |
| میره / می‌رود | /mire / miravad/ | goes |
| رو / را | /ro / râ/ | object marker |
| یه / یک | /ye / yek/ | a, one |
| دیگه / دیگر | /dige / digar/ | other; anymore |
| اگه / اگر | /age / agar/ | if |
| چیه / چیست | /chiye / chist/ | what is it |
| -تون / -تان | /-tun / -tân/ | your (plural or polite) |
Two patterns explain most of these changes. First, the long vowel â often becomes u before n or m: کدام becomes کدوم (kodum). Second, many verb stems are shortened: می‌گوید becomes میگه (mige) and می‌رود becomes میره (mire).
A third useful pattern is the short form of است (ast), "is". After a consonant it becomes -e, as in شلنگه (shelange), "it's a hose"; after a vowel it is often shortened to -as, as in فوق‌العاده‌اس (fogholâde-as), "it's amazing". Spotting these small endings is the key to understanding fast speech.
Common characters
Some names appear again and again in Persian jokes. The sample joke on this page, about memory loss, mentions غضنفر (ghazanfar), a name often given to the main character of a joke. The page also mentions Mullah Nasreddin, ملا نصرالدین (mollâ nasreddin), a traditional figure of humorous stories who is both foolish and wise.
The jokes
- Joke 1: Memory Loss
- Joke 2: Lazy Robbers
- Joke 3: Biology Class (amphibians)
- Joke 4: Snake in Love
- Joke 5: Let's Pray (praying for rain in class)
- Joke 6: Travel to India
- Joke 7: Good Sight
The sample joke
| Persian | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| مظفر میره دکتر، میگه: آقای دکتر، من بیماری فراموشی گرفته‌ام. | /mozaffar mire doktor, mige: âghâ-ye doktor, man bimâri-ye farâmushi gerefte-am./ | Mozaffar goes to the doctor and says, "Doctor, I have caught a memory-loss illness." |
| دکتر میگه: چند وقته این بیماری رو دارین؟ | /doktor mige: chand vaghte in bimâri ro dârin?/ | The doctor says, "How long have you had this illness?" |
| غضنفر میگه: کدوم بیماری؟ | /ghazanfar mige: kodum bimâri?/ | Ghazanfar says, "What illness?" |
He has already forgotten his own complaint, which proves he really does have memory loss.
Practice
-
What are two Persian words for "joke"?
Show answer
juk and latife جوک، لطیفه
-
Give the written form: میره
Show answer
miravad, "goes" می‌رود
-
Give the spoken form: کدام
Show answer
kodum, "which" کدوم
-
Which famous figure of traditional Persian humorous stories is mentioned on this page?
Show answer
Mullah Nasreddin ملا نصرالدین
غضنفرمیگه: کدوم بیماری؟
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