Travel and Tourist Transactions

یک بلیط، لطفاً

A transaction abroad is short: name the thing, ask the price, find out where to go. Persian adds one small complication, and it is the most useful thing in this module. Every word below is shown three ways: the Persian script, a transliteration in brackets, and the English. Read the Persian first, right to left, and use the transliteration to check the sound. This time the transliteration will show you something the script does not.

Travel words in Persian

The nouns a traveller needs:

Match each word to its meaning

The sound that is not written

Persian joins two words with a small unstressed -e, called the ezafe. It turns two separate nouns into one idea, the way English uses "of" or an apostrophe s. The strange part is that the script normally shows nothing at all, so you can only learn it by hearing it or by reading a transliteration.

What is belit-e ghatar?

You hear someone ask for "belit-e ghatar". What are they asking for?

• A train ticket
• A ticket machine
• A train to the ticket office
• Two tickets

The rule

The ezafe is the small sound _____ that joins two words into one idea. It is _____ in speech but almost never _____ in the script. The _____ word is the main thing, and the second one describes it. After a word ending in a vowel it becomes _____.

Asking for it

Three expressions turn a noun into a transaction:

Order the exchange

Put a short transaction at the ticket window into a sensible order.

• Ask for what you want: بلیط قطار, لطفاً
• Ask the price, using چند
• Hand over پول, the money
• Ask where to go next, using کجا
• At the hotel, ask for کلید اتاق, the room key

Which are right?

Select the TWO phrases that are put together correctly.

• kelid-e otagh, the room key
• istgah-e ghatar, the train station
• otagh-e kelid, the room key
• belit ghatar, with no linking sound at all

Persian puts is at the end

The travel words become sentences once you add است (ast - is) at the end - and that stays true even when you are asking a question: - ایستگاه کجا است = "where is the station". Persian does not move the verb to the front for a question the way English does. کجا (koja - where) sits in the middle, and است still closes it. - بلیط چند است = "how much is the ticket". The same shape with چند (chand - how much). Add لطفاً (lotfan - please) at the end and you have a polite request.

Persian keeps است at the end, even in a question

Persian keeps است at the end, even in a question. Which of these asks "where is the station"?

• ایستگاه کجا است (istgah koja ast)
• است ایستگاه کجا (ast istgah koja)
• ایستگاه کجا (istgah koja)
• بلیط چند است (belit chand ast)

در ایستگاه

You are at the station and then at your hotel. Choose the right Persian each time.

• You want a train ticket. Which phrase do you use?
• You want to know what it costs. Which word do you need?
• At the hotel you need the key to your room. What do you ask for?

Tickets and stations in Persian

The Persian for a ticket is _____ and for a station is _____. To ask how much, you use _____. Two words are joined in speech by the ezafe, said _____, which the script normally does not _____.

The journey and the overnight stay

Write in English about a journey where you bought a ticket and stayed somewhere overnight. Say what you needed, what you asked, and explain the one thing about Persian that a written text will not show you.

• Say where you were going and what you had to buy
• Give the two questions you had to ask, and the Persian words you would use
• Explain what the ezafe does, and why you cannot learn it from the script alone
• Say which word comes first when two nouns are joined, and give an example