Video Chat with Persian Speakers

Where people speak Persian

Persian (فارسی) is an official language in 1 country or territory. To meet people from one of them, pick it with the country filter.

• 🇮🇷Iran

Useful Persian phrases for video chat

Short, natural phrases you can use in your first minute on camera. The pronunciation is a simple English-style guide; stressed syllables are in capitals.

Tips for practicing Persian on video chat

• Iran is on UTC+3:30 and Afghanistan on UTC+4:30, so evenings there fall from late morning to early afternoon in New York and from late afternoon into the evening in London. Our guide to the best time to chat across time zones helps with the half-hour offsets.
• Ask about Nowruz, the Persian New Year at the spring equinox around March 20 or 21. It's celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and well beyond, and most people enjoy describing how their family marks it.
• Poetry is part of everyday life for many Persian speakers. Asking about a favorite poet, such as Hafez, Rumi or Saadi, can lead to a line or two recited on the spot.
• Use mersi freely. It's as common as mamnoon for thanks in everyday Persian.
• When you want to learn a spelling, ask your partner to type the word in Persian script, since romanized spellings vary from person to person.

Spoken vs written Persian

Courses often start with written Persian, while people on a video chat speak the colloquial form, based largely on Tehran speech. The phrases above are colloquial on purpose. Here's how some common words change:

Shomaa, to and taarof

Shomaa (شما) is the polite you and to (تو) is the informal one. On a first chat, shomaa and its verb endings, like the -id in Farsi baladid?, are the safe choice; your partner may switch to to once things are relaxed.

Persian conversation also has taarof, a style of politeness in which people offer, insist, decline and compliment more than English speakers expect. You'll hear phrases such as khaahesh mikonam (please, or you're welcome) and ghaabel nadaare (it's nothing, said when offering something). You don't need to master it; just know that modest refusals and generous compliments are part of the style.

Reading the script

• Persian is written right to left in an Arabic-based script of 32 letters, including four that Arabic doesn't use: پ (p), چ (ch), ژ (zh) and گ (g).
• Short vowels usually aren't written, so you often learn a word's pronunciation by hearing it, which is where video chat helps.
• Most letters join the next one and change shape slightly depending on their position in the word.
• In casual messages many people type Persian in Latin letters, often called Finglish, so you may see salam or merci instead of the script.

Your first Persian chat, step by step

Persian shares a large vocabulary with Urdu, so you may recognize many words on the Urdu page. For habits that make any exchange better, read our language exchange tips, and the language exchange page explains how practicing works on Omlet.

Practice Persian with the country filter

Omlet's interface is in English only, and it doesn't match people by language or translate anything. There are two easy ways to find Persian speakers:

• Use the country filter. Press Country, pick a country where Persian is spoken (for example Iran), then press Start.
• Ask whoever you meet. On Worldwide matching, a quick "Do you speak Persian?" costs nothing to try.

The country filter's first day is free (you add a card to start, and can cancel in Settings before the charge). After that it's $3 one time for that device and browser, with no subscription. It can make matching slower when fewer people from that country are online; if a match takes a while, try another country or switch back to Worldwide.