Town, Region and Country
Village, city, country - and the Persian ending that means "the land of", which you have been reading on maps your whole life without knowing it.
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You have been reading Persian on maps 🗺️
Afghanistan. Pakistan. Uzbekistan. Tajikistan. Four countries whose names share an ending, and that ending is Persian. **ستان- (-stan) means "the land of" or "the place of".** It is not only for countries: Persian builds ordinary words with it too. Once you can see it, a long Persian word often turns out to be a short one with a place-ending on the back.
Where you live 🗂️
Five words to learn, plus **پارک (park)**, which Persian borrowed from English and you can already read:
Match each word to its meaning
- شهر (shahr)
- روستا (rusta)
- کشور (keshvar)
- خیابان (khiyaban)
- city
- village
- country
- street
The land of 🏞️
**ستان- (-stan)** means **the land of** or **the place of**, and it goes on the end of a word. You already know it from the map: **افغانستان (Afghanestan)**, the land of the Afghans, and **تاجیکستان (Tajikestan)**, the land of the Tajiks. But it is an ordinary Persian ending, not only a country-name one. **گل (gol)** is a flower, so **گلستان (golestan)** is a flower garden. **Use it as a reading tool.** Meet a long word ending in ستان and take the ending off: what is left is usually a word you can look up, and the whole thing is a place connected with it.
What does گلستان mean? ❓
گل (gol) means flower. So what does گلستان (golestan) mean?
- A flower garden: a place of flowers
- Many flowers
- A person who sells flowers
- Nothing: ستان only works on country names
The rule 📝
The Persian ending _____ means "the land of" or "the place of". You have already been reading it on maps, in country names such as _____. It works on ordinary words too: گل means flower, so _____ is a flower garden. And notice the direction it runs in - this ending turns something into a _____, so when you meet a long word ending in it, take the ending _____ and see what is left.
Find the place-word ✍️
An interactive activity.
Order them by size 🪜
An interactive activity.
Which are true of ستان-? ✅
Select the TWO correct statements about this ending.
- It means "the land of" or "the place of"
- It is used on ordinary words as well as on country names
- It makes a word plural
- It turns a place into a word for the people who live there
Use it 🧭
An interactive activity.
Two endings, opposite directions ↔️
If you have studied another language in this family, you may have met an ending that does the reverse. It is worth knowing they are not the same trick.
The summary 🖊️
A city is _____ and a village is _____. A country is _____ and a street is _____. And the ending _____ means "the land of", which is why so many country names on a map finish with it.
Your turn ✍️
An interactive activity.