In previous lessons, the concept of object marking and the usage of prepositions was briefly touched on. The usage of prepositions is fundamental to sentence-making in Persian, and is incredibly important for you to learn. It is highly recommended that you review this lesson a couple of times to become fully adjusted to the material in question.

Object Marker rā (را)

The object marker in Persian is a definite direct object marker used to indicate something that is being acted upon. This is always placed after the noun, and usually takes three usual forms. The first one is solely restricted to writng or incredibly formal speech, which is rā (را). The second one is found in spoken Persian, which is ro (رو), which is somewhat common and can come off as a little bit formal. The third and final one is solely restricted to spoken Persian and is the most commonly used form, and it is when the rā and the noun being marked are merged together, and it usually comes off as an -o (و) sound at the end of the noun (e.g: ketabo (کتابو)).

Examples:

• ketāb rā khāndi (کتاب را خواندی) "You read the book." Variants include:

  • ketāb ro khāndi (کتاب رو خواندی)

  • ketābo khāndi (جتابو خواندی)

Common Prepositions

There are five main important prepositions that are crucial to learn, namely:

• az (از) functions as: 

  • Origin/source --> man az shirāz āmadam (من از شیراز آمدم) "I came from Shiraz."

  • Starting point (when referring to time) --> az key ino yād gerefti? (از کی اینو یاد گرفتی؟) "Since when have you learned this?"

  • Causative --> az sarmā larzidam (از سرما لرزیدم) "I shivered from the coldness."

  • Comparative (see lesson 6 on comparative sentence making.)

• be (به) functions as: 

  • Direction --> to be madrese rafti (تو به مدرسه رفتی) "You went to school."

  • Indirect object to somebody --> be u piām ferestādam (به او پیام فرستادم) "I sent a message to him."

  • Manner --> be ārāmi towzih dād (به آرامی توضیح داد) "She explained calmly."

• dar (در) functions as "in/at/on," identical to the English equivalent and usage of said three words.

  • dar supermārket budam (در سوپرمارکت بودم) "I was at the supermarket."

• bā (با) functions as "with," identical to the English equivalent and usage of said word.

  • bā dustam nabudam (با دوستم نبودم) "I was not with my friend."

• barāye (برای) functions as "for" in Persian, identical to the English equivalent and usage of said word.