Persian grammar is very regular: the verb goes at the end, personal endings show who acts (ـم، ـی، ـد), the ezâfe links a noun to its adjective, and را marks a specific object. These 25 questions test those rules plus plurals, tenses with می, the subjunctive, negation and comparatives.
Most Persian verb forms are built from two stems and one set of endings. The present stem gives the present tense with می (می‌روم, miravam, I go) and the subjunctive with بـ (بروم, beravam); the past stem gives the simple past (رفتم, raftam, I went). The endings are ـم، ـی، ـد، ـیم، ـید، ـند for I, you, he/she, we, you (plural) and they. Persian has no grammatical gender and no word for “the”.
Three small elements do a lot of work. The ezâfe -e links words: ketâb-e bozorg (a big book). The ending ـی makes a noun indefinite: کتابی (ketâbi, a book). And را follows a definite direct object: کتاب را خواندم (I read the book). For more practice, see the grammar lessons or the verb conjugator.
Read each sentence to the end before choosing: in Persian the verb, which usually decides the answer, comes last.
Word order and the verb “to be”
1. Where does the verb normally go in a Persian sentence?
2. Which sentence has the normal word order for “He reads the newspaper every day”?
3. Complete the sentence: ما ____. (We are tired.)
4. Complete the question: تو کجا زندگی ____؟ (Where do you live?)
5. Complete the sentence: آنها ایرانی ____. (They are Iranian.)
Ezâfe, plurals and the indefinite ی
6. What does the ezâfe do in کتاب من (ketâb-e man, my book)?
7. How is گل زیبا (beautiful flower) pronounced?
8. Which plural suffix can be added to almost any Persian noun?
9. What is the ـان plural of دانشجو (student)?
10. What does «دیروز مردی آمد» mean?
The object marker را
11. Complete the sentence: من آن فیلم ____ دیدم. (I saw that film.)
12. Which sentence means “I bought the bread” (the specific bread we talked about)?
13. The word مرا (marâ, me) is a contraction of را and which pronoun?
Present, past and the subjunctive
14. What does می‌خوردم mean?
15. Complete the question: شما چه کار ____؟ (What do you do?)
16. Which form means “you (plural) came”?
17. Complete the sentence: من باید این کتاب را ____. (I must read this book.)
18. Complete the sentence: می‌خواهم فارسی ____. (I want to learn Persian.)
19. Complete the sentence: می‌خواهم خوشحال ____. (I want to be happy.)
Negation and comparatives
20. Complete the sentence: بهتر است امشب بیرون ____. (It’s better if we don’t go out tonight.)
21. Complete the sentence: او را ____. (I didn’t see him.)
22. Complete the sentence: این کتاب گران ____. (This book is not expensive.)
23. Complete the sentence: تهران از شیراز ____ است. (Tehran is bigger than Shiraz.)
24. Which phrase means “the best student”?
25. Which statement about Persian comparatives is true?
Answer key with explanations
- C. At the end: Persian is subject-object-verb: من نان می‌خورم (man nân mikhoram, I eat bread), literally “I bread eat”. Time and place words come before the object: من صبح نان می‌خورم.
- A. او هر روز روزنامه می‌خواند.: Subject, then time, then object, and the verb last: او هر روز روزنامه می‌خواند (u har ruz ruznâme mikhânad). Putting the verb before the object, as in English, sounds wrong in standard Persian.
- B. خسته‌ایم: The short endings of “to be” are ـم، ـی، ـ (است)، ـیم، ـید، ـند. After a final silent ه they are written with ا and a half-space: خسته‌ایم (khaste-im, we are tired), خسته‌اید (you all are), خسته‌اند (they are).
- C. می‌کنی: The personal ending must match the subject: تو (to, you singular) takes ـی, so می‌کنی (mikoni). ـد is for او (he/she), ـم for من (I) and ـید for شما (you plural or polite).
- D. هستند: With آنها (ânhâ, they) the verb is هستند (hastand), or the short ending: ایرانی‌اند (irâni-and). است (ast) is only for one person or thing: او ایرانی است.
- B. It links a noun to the word that describes or owns it.: The ezâfe -e joins a noun to a following adjective, noun or pronoun: ketâb-e man (my book), ketâb-e khub (a good book), ketâb-e Ali (Ali’s book). Read more about the ezâfe.
- D. gol-e zibâ: The adjective follows the noun, and the ezâfe -e between them is usually not written after a consonant: گل زیبا is gol-e zibâ.
- D. ـها: ـها (-hâ) is the everyday plural for people, animals and things: درخت‌ها (derakht-hâ, trees), دوست‌ها (dust-hâ, friends). ـان is more formal and used mainly for people and living things, ـات and ـین come from Arabic loanwords.
- B. دانشجویان: After a final vowel u or â, a ی is added before ـان: دانشجویان (dâneshjuyân, students), آقایان (âghâyân, gentlemen). The everyday plural دانشجوها (dâneshju-hâ) is also correct.
- A. Yesterday a man came.: The unstressed ending ـی makes a noun indefinite: مردی (mardi, a man). Persian has no word for “the”: مرد آمد (mard âmad) means “the man came”. یک مرد (yek mard) also means “a man”.
- A. را: را (râ) comes right after a specific direct object, here آن فیلم (ân film, that film): ân film râ didam. Specific means the listener knows which one: a demonstrative, a name or a pronoun makes the object specific.
- B. نان را خریدم.: A specific object takes را: نان را خریدم (nân râ kharidam, I bought the bread). Without را, نان خریدم (nân kharidam) means “I bought (some) bread”, and نانی خریدم means “I bought a loaf of bread”.
- D. من: من + را becomes مرا (marâ): او مرا دید (u marâ did, he saw me). The other pronouns stay separate: تو را (to râ), او را (u râ), ما را (mâ râ). In speech you will hear منو (mano).
- C. I was eating (or I used to eat): می + past stem gives the past continuous: می‌خوردم (mikhordam) is “I was eating” or “I used to eat”. Without می, خوردم (khordam) is the simple past “I ate”.
- C. می‌کنید: The present tense is می + present stem + ending: می + کن + ـید = می‌کنید (mikonid). کردید (kardid) is past (“you did”), and بکنید (bokonid) is subjunctive.
- A. آمدید: The simple past is the past stem with an ending and no می: آمد + ـید = آمدید (âmadid). Many verbs have different past and present stems: آمد (âmad) and آ (â), as in می‌آیید (miâyid, you come). آمدیم (âmadim) is “we came”.
- B. بخوانم: باید (bâyad, must) is followed by the subjunctive: بـ + present stem + ending, so بخوانم (bekhânam). می‌خوانم (mikhânam) is the ordinary present “I read” and cannot follow باید.
- D. یاد بگیرم: می‌خواهم (mikhâham, I want) is followed by a subjunctive verb with its own personal ending. In a compound verb, بـ goes on the verb part: یاد بگیرم (yâd begiram). English uses “to learn”, but Persian does not use the infinitive here.
- A. باشم: بودن (to be) has its own subjunctive without بـ: باشم، باشی، باشد (bâsham, bâshi, bâshad). داشتن (to have) also differs: داشته باشم (dâshte bâsham).
- D. نرویم: بهتر است (behtar ast, it is better) takes the subjunctive, and in the negative subjunctive نـ replaces بـ: برویم (beravim) becomes نرویم (naravim). نمی‌رویم (nemiravim, we don’t go) is the negative present and cannot follow بهتر است.
- D. ندیدم: The simple past is negated with نـ: دیدم becomes ندیدم (nadidam). نمی‌دیدم (nemididam) is the negative past continuous, “I wasn’t seeing / I didn’t use to see”.
- D. نیست: The negative of است (ast) is a separate word, نیست (nist): گران نیست (gerân nist). The other persons follow it: نیستم، نیستی، نیستیم، نیستید، نیستند.
- D. بزرگ‌تر: Comparatives add ـتر (-tar) to the adjective, and از (az) means “than”: tehrân az shirâz bozorg-tar ast. ـترین (-tarin) is the superlative “biggest”.
- B. بهترین دانشجو: A superlative with ـترین comes before the noun with no ezâfe: بهترین دانشجو (behtarin dâneshju), بزرگ‌ترین شهر (bozorg-tarin shahr, the biggest city). A comparative follows the noun like other adjectives: دانشجوی بهتر (a better student).
- B. ـتر is added to short and long adjectives alike, as in مهم‌تر (more important).: Persian has no “more beautiful” pattern: every adjective takes ـتر, so مهم‌تر (mohem-tar, more important) and زیباتر (zibâ-tar, more beautiful). “Than” is از: از من بلندتر است (az man boland-tar ast, he is taller than me).
How to practice Persian grammar
Learn verbs by their two stems, not only the infinitive: خواندن gives خواند (khând) for the past and خوان (khân) for the present and subjunctive. Then build short sentences of your own and check three things: is the verb last, does the ending match the subject, and does a specific object have را? Ten minutes a day with these checks fixes most beginner errors.