The Thirty-Two Persian Letters | Farsi Grammar

The modern Persian alphabet has 32 letters. Its order matters for dictionaries, indexes, school exercises, and alphabetized lists, while its letter names let you spell a word aloud or clarify an unfamiliar name. The inventory comes from the Arabic-script tradition, but its sound system and standard Iranian letter forms belong to Persian.

This is an orientation page, not a complete pronunciation course. The table gives the principal modern Iranian values an A1 reader needs; dedicated pages develop ambiguous letters and difficult contrasts in context.

Alphabetical order

Persian alphabetic order is:

الف، ب، پ، ت، ث، جیم، چ، ح، خ، دال، ذال، ر، ز، ژ، سین، شین، صاد، ضاد، ط، ظ، عین، غین، ف، قاف، کاف، گاف، لام، میم، نون، واو، ه، ی

alef, be, pe, te, se, jim, che, he, khe, dâl, zâl, re, ze, zhe, sin, shin, sâd, zâd, tâ, zâ, eyn, gheyn, fe, qâf, kâf, gâf, lâm, mim, nun, vâv, he, ye

The thirty-two Persian letter names in alphabetical order.

Persian dictionaries normally ignore contextual shape: ب, بـ, ـبـ, and ـب are all alphabetized as ب. Short-vowel marks also do not create new alphabet entries. This is unlike English uppercase and lowercase only in appearance; Persian has no case distinction, but it has cursive contextual forms.

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Memorize the alphabet in small families, not as 32 unrelated drawings. Many letters share a basic shape and differ by dots: ب پ ت ث, ج چ ح خ, and ف ق are obvious learning groups.

The inventory: names and core values

The sound column is a practical guide to standard Iranian Persian. A slash separates ordinary values of one spelling; “spelling partner” identifies a letter that shares its main modern sound with other letters. These historical spellings must still be learned word by word.

Letter	Common Persian name	Core modern value	Orientation
ا	الف — alef	â or a vowel carrier	Does not connect to the following letter
ب	ب — be	b	Shape family with پ ت ث
پ	پ — pe	p	Persian addition
ت	ت — te	t	Shares modern sound with ط
ث	ث — se	s	Shares modern sound with س ص
ج	جیم — jim	j	As in English “job”
چ	چ — che	ch	Persian addition
ح	ح جیمی — he-ye jimi	h	Shares modern sound with ه
خ	خ — khe	kh	No exact ordinary English equivalent
د	دال — dâl	d	Non-connecting
ذ	ذال — zâl	z	Shares modern sound with ز ض ظ
ر	ر — re	r	Non-connecting
ز	ز — ze	z	Common z spelling
ژ	ژ — zhe	zh	Persian addition
س	سین — sin	s	Common s spelling
ش	شین — shin	sh	As in English “ship”
ص	صاد — sâd	s	Shares modern sound with س ث
ض	ضاد — zâd	z	Shares modern sound with ز ذ ظ
ط	طا — tâ	t	Shares modern sound with ت
ظ	ظا — zâ	z	Shares modern sound with ز ذ ض
ع	عین — eyn	vowel onset or hiatus	Not the Arabic pharyngeal in ordinary Iranian speech
غ	غین — gheyn	gh	Usually merged with ق in Tehran speech
ف	ف — fe	f	One dot above
ق	قاف — qâf	q	Usually merged with غ in Tehran speech
ک	کاف — kâf	k	Use Persian ک, not Arabic kaf
گ	گاف — gâf	g	Persian addition
ل	لام — lâm	l	Forms a common ligature before alef
م	میم — mim	m	Dual-joining
ن	نون — nun	n	Dual-joining
و	واو — vâv	v, u, or o	Non-connecting
ه	ه دوچشم — he-ye do-cheshm	h; final e in many words	Several distinctive contextual shapes
ی	ی — ye	y or i	Use Persian ی, including word-final form

Letter-name traditions have minor expanded variants, especially when teachers distinguish historically Arabic letters with labels. The short names above are common and sufficient for alphabetizing and spelling aloud. Such naming differences do not change the alphabet.

Four letters added for Persian sounds

Arabic lacked dedicated letters for Persian /p/, /ch/, /zh/, and /g/. Persian scribal tradition adapted existing shapes by changing dots or adding a stroke: پ is related to ب, چ to ج, ژ to ز, and گ to ک. These four are fully ordinary Persian letters (all modern registers), not optional decorations or foreign symbols.

پدرم خانه است.

pedar-am khâne ast.

My father is at home.

چای آماده است.

chây âmâde ast.

The tea is ready.

ژاله گرافیک می‌خواند.

Zhâle gerâfik mi-khânad.

Zhale studies graphic design.

گوشی من کجاست؟

gushi-ye man kojâst?

Where is my phone?

These examples also show a useful distinction from English: Persian letters do not have uppercase variants. The first ژ in the name ژاله has the same identity it would have in the middle of a sentence; its position changes joining shape, not case.

Inherited letters and merged sounds

Persian retained the Arabic-derived spelling inventory in many loanwords even after several sound contrasts disappeared. Consequently, three letters spell /s/ (س، ص، ث), four spell /z/ (ز، ذ، ض، ظ), two spell /t/ (ت، ط), and two normally spell /h/ (ه، ح). There is no dependable sound-based shortcut for choosing among them. You must learn the spelling with the word.

صدا را کمی کم کنید.

sedâ râ kami kam konid.

Turn the volume down a little.

فقط یک ثانیه صبر کنید.

faqat yek sâniye sabr konid.

Please wait just one second.

In ordinary educated Tehran pronunciation, ق and غ usually share a merged sound whose realization varies by position and speaker. This guide preserves q for ق and gh for غ in romanization so learners can recover the spelling; those symbols should not be mistaken for a promise that every speaker maintains two phonemes. The qaf and gheyn pronunciation page explains the variation.

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Persian spelling is partly historical. When several letters share one modern sound, memorize the written word, not a supposed pronunciation rule. This is similar to knowing whether English /f/ is written f in “fine” or ph in “phone.”

Vowel-bearing and context-dependent letters

Alef, vâv, and ye require special attention. ا/آ commonly participates in writing long â; و can represent v, long u, or o in established spellings; ی can represent y or long i. At the beginning of a word, an alef-based carrier can support a vowel because a written Persian syllable does not begin with a bare vowel sign.

او دیر آمد.

u dir âmad.

He or she arrived late.

Here او is u, دیر contains long i, and آمد begins with long â. The separate pages on alef and long â, vâv, and ye give the full decisions.

Common Mistakes

1. Omitting the defining dots of a Persian-added letter

❌ بدرم خانه است.

Incorrect for pedar-am: changing pe to be changes the spelling.

✅ پدرم خانه است.

pedar-am khâne ast.

My father is at home.

2. Choosing an s-letter only by sound

❌ سدا را کم کنید.

Incorrect spelling: sedâ is conventionally written with sad.

✅ صدا را کم کنید.

sedâ râ kam konid.

Turn the volume down.

3. Choosing qaf for a word spelled with gheyn

❌ قذا سرد است.

Incorrect spelling: ghazâ begins with gheyn, despite the Tehran merger of qaf and gheyn.

✅ غذا سرد است.

ghazâ sard ast.

The food is cold.

4. Using Arabic kaf and yeh code points

❌ كیف من اینجاست.

Incorrect Iranian Persian encoding: the first word contains Arabic kaf.

✅ کیف من اینجاست.

kif-e man injâst.

My bag is here.

5. Memorizing the alphabet backward from its visual left edge

❌ ت، پ، ب، الف

Incorrect alphabetical order: visual direction does not reverse the learned sequence.

✅ الف، ب، پ، ت

alef, be, pe, te

The first four letters in Persian alphabetical order.

Key Takeaways

Persian has 32 letters in a fixed dictionary order and no uppercase/lowercase distinction.
پ, چ, ژ, and گ are Persian additions and full members of the modern alphabet.
Several inherited letters share one modern Iranian sound, so conventional word spelling must be memorized.
ا/آ, و, and ی can carry vowel information; و and ی can also be consonants.
Use Persian ک and ی code points in Iranian Persian text, even when another font makes Arabic variants look similar.

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