Singular pronouns and copula (man, -am)

Singular Pronouns

Farsi is delightfully gender-neutral! There is only one word for both "he" and "she".

  • من : I
  • تو : You (singular, informal)
  • او : He / She

The Verb "To Be"

In Farsi, the present tense of "to be" (am, are, is) usually attaches directly to the end of the noun or adjective as a suffix.

PronounVerb SuffixMeaning
منـمI am
توـیYou are
اواستHe / She is

The verb suffix attaches directly to the end of the word:

If a noun ends in a silent ه (which makes an 'e' sound), we add an Alef (ا) before the suffix so the sounds don't blend together:

For "you", the suffix is ـی. We can use this to make statements or ask simple questions:

Finally, for "he" or "she", we use the independent word است instead of a short suffix. Because Farsi does not use gendered pronouns, the exact same sentence works for both "he" and "she":

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