Saying Yes or No

Persian چرا is like French “si” and German “doch”. It is used to say “yes” to a negative question where “no” is expected but your answer is “yes”.

Saying Thanks

Persian is rich in words for saying thanks. There are even more expressions than what listed below. Native Persian words are based on سپاس. Words derived from ممنون and تشکر have their root in Arabic. مرسی is from French and is the most frequent word for saying thanks in spoken Persian of Iran. The abbreviation “lit.” stands for “literally”.

In speech, متشکر (moteshakker) is usually pronounced مچکر (mochchakker). Phonologically, “ch” consists of “t” and “sh” sounds. Therefore, when “t” and “sh” occur close to each other, their combination transforms into “ch”.

The adverbs خیلی and بسیار can be repeated to increase the degree of thanks: “I’m very very thankful”.

Responding to Thanks

Asking

Greetings
Index