Plural demonstratives (inhâ, ânhâ)

New Letters

Here are four new letters. Notice that modern Farsi has multiple letters sharing the same sound.

  • ض (Zâd): Sounds like 'z'.
  • ظ (Zâ): Sounds like 'z'.
  • غ (Ghayn): Sounds like a guttural 'r' (similar to French 'r').
  • ژ (Zhe): Sounds like the 's' in "measure" or "vision".

These and Those

To point out multiple items, use the plural demonstratives اینها (these) and آنها (those).

When the subject is an inanimate object (things, not people), the verb usually remains singular. Notice how است (is) is used in these examples, even though we are talking about plural items:

These and Those People

When pointing out groups of people, Farsi uses a special set of plural demonstratives: اینان (these people) and آنان (those people).

these people
اینانinân
those people
آنانânân

Unlike inanimate objects, human subjects take plural verbs. Notice how the verbs in these sentences end in the plural suffixes اند or ند (are):