Among the free personal pronouns, the third person singular pronoun “او” (meaning “he/she”) and the third person plural pronoun “آنها” are the only ones with a different colloquial form. They appear as “اون” and “اونا” respectively.
او دوستِ من است.
اون دوستِ منه.
از او خوشم نمیآید.
از اون خوشم نمیآد.
تقصیر آنها بود.
تقصیر اونا بود.
آنها آمریکاییاند.
اونا آمریکاییان.
He/she is my friend.
I don’t like him/her.
It was their fault.
They are American.
It was already mentioned that the pronoun “آن” is roughly equivalent to the English “it” and is pronounced “اون” in spoken language according to the first general pronunciation shift rule. Therefore, the same pronoun (“اون”) is used for both humans and non-humans in colloquial Persian.
As you know, enclitic pronouns attach to nouns to show possession and attach to verbs to take the role of an object. See how they are pronounced in colloquial language in the following the examples.
Example for noun ending in a consonant:
کتابَم
کتابَم
کتابِمان
کتابِمون
My book
Our book
کتابَت
کتابِت
کتابِتان
کتابِتون
Your book
Your (pl.) book
کتابَش
کتابِش
کتابِشان
کتابِشون
His/Her book
Their book
Example for verbs:
کشتندم
کشتنم
کشتندِمان
کشتنِمون
They killed me
They killed us
کشتندَت
کشتنِت
کشتندِتان
کشتنِتون
They killed you
They killed you (pl.)
کشتندَش
کشتنِش
کشتندِشان
کشتنِشون
They killed him
They killed them
Example for noun ending in vowel “ه”:
مدرسهام
مدرسهم
مدرسهمان
مدرسهمون
My school
Our school
مدرسهات
مدرسهت
مدرسهتان
مدرسهتون
Your school
Your (pl.) school
مدرسهاش
مدرسهش
مدرسهشان
مدرسهشون
Her school
Their school
Example for noun ending in other vowels:
صدایم
صدام
صدایمان
صدامون
My voice
Our voice
صدایت
صدات
صدایتان
صداتون
Your voice
Your (pl.) voice
صدایش
صداش
صدایشان
صداشون
Her voice
Their voice
The Object Marker
The object marker “را” changes into “و” (pronounced “o” and usually written attached to the noun preceding it when needed to be written) in spoken Persian. When it is following a vowel, it becomes “رو” (pronounced “ro”).
تلویزیون را روشن کن.
تلویزیونو روشن کن.
غذایت را بخور.
غذاتو بخور.
پنجرهها را تمیز کن.
پنجرهها رو تمیز کن.
ما را نجات بده.
ما رو نجات بده.
Turn on the TV.
Eat your food.
Clean the windows.
Rescue us.
The vowel “ه” in the end of a noun is pronounced “a” in spoken language whenever the next word is the object marker.
نرگس شیشه را شکست.
نرگس شیشه رو شیکست.
پنجره را باز کنید.
پنجره رو باز کنین.
بابا میخواهد خانه را بفروشد.
بابا میخواد خونه رو بفروشه.
Narges broke the glass.
Open (pl.) the window.
Dad wants to sell the house.
The plural marker suffix “ها”
The suffix “ها” is the main way of making nouns plural. It changes into “ا” in spoken Persian unless the noun ends in vowel “ه” or “ا”.
کتابها
کتابا
بچّهها
بچّهها
books
children
نظرها
نظرا
خانهها
خونهها
opinions
houses
سیدیها
سیدیا
صداها
صداها
CDs
voices
The word “هم”
The consonant “ه” (“h”) at the beginning of the word “هم”, when meaning “too” or “even”, is not pronounced in spoken Persian. This difference in pronunciation, however, is not reflected in writing. When spoken Persian is written down, the letter “ه” at the beginning of “هم” is still usually written. The following examples are thus useless unless you listen to them as well as read them.
داوود هم آمد.
داوود هم اومد.
آنها از ما هم خستهترند.
اونا از ما هم خستهترن.
Davud came as well.
They are even more tired than us.
Prepositions and Indicators of Place and Direction
Prepositions and words similar to them that are usually accompanied by an “ezafe” are pronounced differently when their last sound is a vowel; the ezafe (and also the intervening consonant that might have come there to prevent the ezafe and another vowel to be pronounced right after each other) is simply omitted.
روی میز
رو میز
بالای ابرها
بالا ابرا
on the table
above the clouds
برای شما
برا شما
توی اتاق
تو اتاق
for you (pl.)
in the room
As a matter of fact, “توی” is rarely used in formal language anyway. Instead, the word “در” is used. On the other hand, “در” is generally considered too formal in spoken language.