Help with short vowels in written Farsi.

Question

So I have a semi-firm grip on the alphabet, and I continue to study it every day. In a word I can identify each letter in most cases, but I cannot pronounce them. In written Farsi they drop the short vowels as they seem redundant so I've been told. So what I'm asking you is how do I know which short vowel to use when they have none. For example the word father or pedar, in Farsi it is written as پدر. But if I had not known how to say that word beforehand I would have just seen it is p-d-r. So how do I know which ones I was supposed to use.

Answer 1

Farsi uses symbols known as diacritics to mark the vowel sounds. Unfortunately, if you were looking at an authentic text, like a news article, those markers would be left out. I found a youtube video that will help show you the diacritics and explain the sounds. https://youtu.be/xU-dDpARrE0 You will want to skip to 1:44. Some dictionaries geared towards non-native learners will have the diacritics. Also, I find it very helpful to memorize useful vocabulary by not just reading the words, but reading, listening to it, and speaking it aloud. You can use the website www.memrise.com and search "persian farsi basic course". This application has audio and you can learn to read and pronounce the words even without diacritics! Good luck. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need tutoring.