At the greengrocer
You can already buy پنیر, شیر and تخممرغ from the فروشنده. This lesson fills the سبد — the fruit and vegetables an Iranian kitchen runs on, and the ones you will meet on every street stall from Tehran to Shiraz.
Fruit
| Persian | English |
|---|---|
| banana | موزmuz | banana |
| orange (the fruit) | پرتقالporteghâl | orange |
| grapes | انگورangur | grapes |
| pear | گلابیgolâbi | pear |
| peach | هلوholu | peach |
| pomegranate | انارanâr | pomegranate |
| lemon | لیموlimu | lemon |
| melon | خربزهkharboze | melon |
| This banana is very sweet. | این موز خیلی شیرین است.in mowz kheyli shirin ast. |
Two of them carry more than their flavour. انار — the pomegranate — is the fruit of Yaldâ night, the longest night of the year, when families sit up together and eat it by the bowl. And خربزه is a point of local pride: the melons of Mashhad and Garmsâr are shipped across the country and argued about like wine.
Note that پرتقال is the fruit, not the colour. The colour is نارنجی, from نارنج — the bitter orange.
Vegetables
| Persian | English |
|---|---|
| carrot | هویجhavij | carrot |
| cucumber | خیارkhiyâr | cucumber |
| lettuce | کاهوkâhu | lettuce |
| potato | سیبزمینیsib-zamini | potato |
| Mother cooked the potatoes. | مادر سیبزمینیها را پخت.mâdar sib-zamini-hâ râ pokht. |
سیبزمینی is transparent once you see it: سیب (apple) + زمین (ground) + the relational -ی — the apple of the ground, exactly like the French pomme de terre. Persian builds a lot of its vocabulary this way, and the ZWNJ in the middle keeps the two halves visibly separate.
خیار and کاهو are the backbone of سالاد شیرازی and of کاهو سکنجبین, the summer dish where whole lettuce leaves are dipped in a sweet-and-sour mint syrup — one of the few places a vegetable is eaten as a dessert.
| I have cucumber and lettuce in the basket. | من خیار و کاهو در سبد دارم.man khiyâr o kâhu dar sabad dâram. |
