Nouns

A noun can be a person or thing's name, an object, or an abstract concept. While it is not of much importance to know which words exactly are considered nouns, it is important to be able to use them correctly. In pronunciation, the stress of a noun (like most other word categories in Persian) is always on the last syllable.

Like English, Persian nouns have two forms; singular and plural. There are four different methods to make a noun plural. As a beginner, you need to learn the first method, become familiar with the second method, and simply have seen the other ones at least once.

1- The easiest and most common way to make plurals is by using the suffix “ها”. You can pluralize nearly every noun using this suffix, although for some nouns the other pluralization methods are considered more eloquent in writing.

The suffix “ها” and many similar affixes are usually written like separate words (the first letter of the suffix is not joined to the last letter of the noun) but are written closer than a normal space character’s width to the main word. The technical term for this character in modern typesetting is zero-width non-joiner. In Persian, it is called نیم‌فاصله (literally: half-space).

2- The second way is using the "ان" suffix. Setting aside a few exceptions, this suffix can only be used only for living things and body parts. It is not a valid pluralization method in Colloquial Persian (neither are the other ones introduced below), but is essential in Formal Persian (which is the variety you are learning right now, and the standard variety used for writing). It is worth keeping in mind that there are certain living things and body parts that cannot be pluralized in this way.

Whenever the noun ends with a vowel other than "ه", an extra "ی" (pronounced like the English consonant "y" in "yes) goes between the noun and the "ان" suffix.

If the noun ends in the vowel "ه", then the linking consonant will be "گ" and the letter "ه" will be omitted (short vowels need not be written when they are not the last sound of a word). Notice that no extra consonant is needed if the ending letter of the noun is already a consonant "ه". Compare the first row against the second row:

3- The third pluralization method is to use one of the Arabic suffixes "ات", "ین" and "ون". These suffixes are less frequent. Their usage is typically restricted to Arabic loanwords. Unfortunately, the question of which (if any) of these three suffixes can be used for a given word doens't follow a stric rule. However, these suffixes are rarely used for simple words, so you do not need to worry about them as a beginner. If you are looking for a rule of thumb, the most important one is that "ین" and "ون" are used only for living things. Both of them (especially "ون") are very rare compared to "ات".

4- The last and most complicated pluralization method is using the Arabic broken (“mukassar”) plural form. Broken pluralization, a grammatical construct borrowed from Arabic) is a rather complex but common way to convert Arabic nouns into plural form. The broken plural of each word often looks like an entirely new word. This new word usually shares at least three letters with the original word. One can gradually get familiar with the patterns and even guess the plural forms of words.