An important part of Persian grammar is the handy little linking element called اضافه ‹ezâfe› (“addition”). It is used to extend a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase by adding an unstressed particle similar English “of”, followed by other words like adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and full phrases.
After a consonant, the ezâfe particle is pronounced as an unstressed ‹e› in standard Persian and is not usually written. On the right, در ‹dar› (“door”) is extended by the ezâfe particle and the noun خانه ‹xune› (“house”), making the Persian phrase در خانه ‹dar-e xune› (“the door of the house”). در ‹dar› ends in a consonant, so the ezâfe particle is pronounced ‹e› and is not written.
“my house”
خانه (خانهٔ) من
خانه
من
←
‹xune›
‹ye›
‹man›
←
“house”
“of”
“me”
After a vowel, the ezâfe particle is pronounced as unstressed ‹ye› and may be written as ی or, after a silent ه, it may be written as a miniature superscript ی that looks like a hamze diacritic, i.e. as هٔ. Usually, though, it is only written after a vowel when extra clarity is wanted; otherwise it is often left unwritten.
Older texts
صندلئ راحتی ‹sandaliye rāhati› (“easy chair”)
Modern texts
صندلی راحتی
“the woman’s scarf”
روسری زن
روسری
ی
زن
←
‹rusari›
‹ye›
‹zan›
←
“scarf”
“of”
“woman”
When ezâfe extends one noun by adding another, it often indicates that the first noun's referent belongs to the second one's, as shown on the right in the Persian phrase روسری (چادر) زن ‹rusari-ye zan› (“the woman’s scarf”). In older texts, ezâfe after ی is often represented by a small superscripted ی that resembles hamze ( ء ), so you may see words like روسرئ (چادر) زن , but today, یی (and thus روسری (چادر) زن ) is more common.
Colloquially, short forms are used even after vowels.
Adding a noun with ezâfe is not only used for ownership. It may indicate a family relationship:
ناصر خسرو ‹nâser-e xosrow› (“Nasir, [son] of Khusraw”)
پدر و مادر من و شما ‹pedar o mâdar e man o šomâ› (“mother and father of me and you”)
It may indicate composition or purpose:
کاسه مسی ‹kâse-ye messey› (“the bowl [made] of copper, the copper bowl”)
آقای پیمان ‹âqâ-ye peymân› (“the gentleman Peyman, Mr. Peyman”)
روز جمعه ‹ruz-e jom’e› (“the day Friday”)
شهر تهران ‹šahr-e tehrân› (“the city of Tehran”)
“the big door”
در (دروازه) بزرک
در
بزرک
←
‹dar›
‹e›
‹bozorg›
←
“door”
“[that is]”
“big”
Ezâfe is also used to add an adjective, as in the phrase در (دروازه) بزرک ‹dar e bozorg› (“the big door”), shown on the right. The particle in such constructions is not usually translated into English as a separate word, but it may be thought of as “that is”.
آب گرم ‹âb-e garm› (“water [that is] warm, warm water”)
“on (the face of) the wall”
بر روی دیوار
بر
روی
دیوار
←
‹bar›
‹ruy›
‹e›
‹divâr›
←
“on”
“face”
“of”
“wall”
Ezâfe is also used with certain nouns that have preposition-like meaning. In the example on the right and the one below, the nouns روی ‹ruy› (“face”) and زیر ‹zir› (“underside”) are used like prepositions with the help of ezâfe:
از زیر میز ‹az zir-e miz› (“from the underside of the table”)
Ezâfe is also used to add prepositional phrases, e.g. بعد از ‹ba’d az ...› (“after ...”):
روز بعد از آن اتفاق ‹ruz-e ba’d az un ettefâq› (“the day after that accident”)
“the big door of my house”
در بزرک خانه من
در
بزرک
خانه
من
←
‹dar›
‹e›
‹bozorg›
‹e›
‹xune›
‹ye›
‹man›
←
“door”
“[that is]”
“big”
“of”
“house”
“of”
“me”
A noun phrase created with ezâfe may be extended with ezâfe again, as shown on the right.
As the dialogues in the previous lessons have shown, Persian does not have a word that corresponds to the English definite article “the”. To say, “the book”, for example, the noun کتاب ‹ketâb› (“book”) is normally used alone. Persian does, however, have the demonstrative adjectives این ‹in› (“this”) and آن ‹un› (“that”). These two words, unlike typical adjectives, are used before the noun with no intervening particle, as shown in the examples on the right.
Demonstrative contractions:
اینجا ‹injâ› (“here”)
آنجا ‹ânjâ› (“there”), colloquially pronounced ‹unjâ›
چنین ‹conin› (“like this”), colloquially pronounced ‹cenin›
چنین ‹conân› (“like that”), colloquially pronounced ‹cenun›
همین ‹hamin› (“this [very] same”)
همان ‹hamân› (“that [very] same”), colloquially ‹hamun›
کجا ‹kojâ› (“where”)
Demonstrative pronouns:
آنها ‹unhâ› (“those there”) or just "those", special case where ها is always joined
اینها ‹inhâ› (“these here”), second special case where ها ‹hâ› is always joined
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