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3.7 Grammar: Adjectives

 Degree of Adjectives

In This Session

  • You will learn some of the adjectives in Persian language.
  • You will learn how to add adjectives to the sentences.
  • You will learn how to compare two items by using comparative adjectives.
  • You will learn how to use superlative adjectives as well.
  • You will learn more vocabularies on colors and some other common adjectives.

Commonly Used Adjective Vocabulary

Please listen to the audio recording of the vocabularies to learn how to pronounce them!

English Transliteration Persian
Good khob خوب
Bad bad بد
New No نو
New Jadid جدید
Old ghadimi قدیمی
Old kohne کهنه
Small koochak کوچَک 
Big bozorg بزرگ
Tall boland بُلَند
Short kootah کوتاه
Cheap/Inexpensive arzaan اَرزان
Expensive geraan گِران
Bright/Light roshan روشَن
Dark  taarik تاریک
Late diir دیر
Early/Soon zood زود
Tired khasteh خسته
Happy khoshhal خوشحال
Unhappy/Sad narahat ناراحت
Sleepy Khabaa loo خوابالو
Busy Mash ghool مَشغُول
Interesting jaaleb جالِب
‌Boring Kesel konandeh کِسِل کننده
Easy aasan آسان
Hard sakht سخت
Free raayegaan مَجانی
Correct/Right/True dorost دُرُست
Wrong/False/Incorrect eshtebah غَلَط / اِشتِباه
False Ghalat غَلَط
Weak/Fragile Za eef ضَعیف
Strong/Powerful ghavi قَوی
Crying Geryan گریان

Test Yourself

 

Adjectives in Persian language صِفَت

In Persian language, adjectives have only one form. Therefore, adjectives do not have masculine, feminine or neuter forms. In addition, adjectives don’t have a plural form either.

Adjectives follow nouns and are connected with ezafe. If there are more than one adjective, they all are connected with ezafe as well!

Example:

  • گُلِ زیبا (beautiful flower)

Note: Adverb proceed adjectives with no ezafe in between.

Example:

  • خیلی خسته (very tired)

Vocabulary Activity 1

Complete the sentences with the name of the images you see.

Vocabulary Activity 2

Match the words.

Vocabulary Activity 3

Match the words.

Vocabulary Activity 4

Match the words.

Vocabulary Activity 5

Opposite.

Opposite Adjective Activity

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Making Sentence With Adjectives

Word Order for Adjectives

Adjectives can be used in two ways:

  1. Predicatively (following)
  2. Attributively (preceding)

For examples:

Predicate Attributive

این کتاب خوب است.

This book is good.

این یک کتاب خوب  است

This is a good book.

آن مردم ثروتمند هستند

Those people are rich.

آنها مردمی ثروتمند هستند

They are rich people.

این پسر باهوش است

This boy is intelligent.

او پسر باهوشی است

He is an intelligent boy.

Practice

Please choose the correct sentence:

Please choose the correct sentence:

Activity 6

Please read the following adjectives and make a sentence with each one:

Ch 3.6 Activity 6 (PDF)

Colors

all colore and shades in one images
“Color wheel” by Viktor Hertz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
gray color lego pieces
“194 Medium Stone Grey / Light Bluish Gray” by Brick Colorstream is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
three pencils with different shads of pink
“Collaboration Colors- Pink” by Send me adrift. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
طوسی صورتی 
purple flower
“Violent violet” by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
blue color m&m
“Daily Shoot 01.11.10 [Fav Color – Blue]” by colemama is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
بنفش آبی
brown color leaf
“Most Versatile ‘The color brown'” by Sharon in Llano is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
pair of cream color boots on the bed
“Vendo mis botines de cuero natural color beige forrados en su interior cn chiporro número 36 a 10 conversable totalmente!” by Sale_closet is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
قهوه ای کِرِمی
yellow color blinds
“colorful-yellow siding” by meta_maria_hb is marked with CC0 1.0.
green leaf
“Pure Color: Green” by AllenHsu is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
زرد سبز
orange color truck
“Color Orange” by Kool Cats Photography over 15 Million Views is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
red color robe
“The Color Red #MacroMondays” by KarenBorterPhotography is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
نارنجی قرمز
blocks of black color
“The New Color Black×Gray Wallpapers iOS 7 iPhone” by @heyeased is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
white yarn and dog legs with white fur
“Collaboration Colors- White” by Send me adrift. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
سیاه سفید

Exercise

Degree of Adjectives

In Persian language there are three degree of adjectives: positive, comparative and superlative.

For comparative “tar” تر is added to the adjective. Where a noun with whom/which comparison is being done.

For superlative degree, “tarin” ترین is added to the adjective.

The comparative and superlative degrees are used to compare between two or more subjects or objects.

Example:

Superlative Comparative Sentence Adjective
شیکاگو بزرگ ترین شهر است شیکاگو از لنسینگ بزرگ تر است شیکاگو یک شهر بزرگ   است بزرگ Persian
Chicago is the biggest city. Chicago is bigger than Lansing Chicago is a big city Big English Translation
این عکس زیباترین است .این عکس زیباتر از آن است .این عکس زیبا است زیبا Persian
 

This picture is the most beautiful

  

This picture is more beautiful than that.

  

This picture is beautiful.

  

Beautiful

 English Translation
.این بلوز گران است

 

    این بلوز گران تر از شلوار   است .این بلوز گران ترین است گران Persian
 

This shirt is expensive.

 

  

This shirt is more expensive than pants.

 This shirt is the most expensive.  

expensive

 English Translation
خواهر من باهوش ترین است خواهر من باهوش تر از من است خواهر من باهوش است باهوش Persian
 

My sister is the most intelligent.

  

My sister is more intelligent than me.

  

My sister is intelligent.

  

Intelligent

 English Translation
من ضعیف ترین هستم من ضعیف تر از برادرم هستم

I am weaker than my brother.

 من ضعیف  هستم بلند Persian
 

I am the weakest.

 من ضعیف تر از برادرم هستم

I am weaker than my brother.

  

I am weak.

  

weak

 English Translation

Exercise

Activity

By using comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives, please describe your family members in 10-15 sentences. After writing, please audio-record your sentences and share it with your friends/teacher.

Key Takeaways

  • You can use adjectives to describe state of feeling.
  • You know how some adjectives and nouns conjugate.
  • You know some comparison forms of adjectives.

 !سپاس

definition

License

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Basic Persian Copyright © 2023 by Nahid Shiran is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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