Common English mistakes Persian speakers make, and how to fix them

If your first language is Persian (Farsi, Dari or Tajik), many of your English mistakes follow Persian grammar and sounds: one pronoun for he and she, no plural after numbers, no word for "the", and no words that start with two consonants. Transfer, not carelessness, and each one has a clear fix.

The big ones. 1) A vowel before s-clusters: "estudent", "eschool", "esport" → start straight on the /s/. 2) He and she mixed, because "u" covers both: "My sister… he" → "she". 3) "I have 30 years" (si sāl dāram) → "I'm 30". 4) "I am agree" (movāfeqam) → "I agree". 5) No plural after numbers (se ketāb): "three book" → "three books". 6) Missing articles: "I am teacher" → "I'm a teacher"; "I saw film" → "I saw a film" or "the film". 7) Present tense for present perfect: "I live here since two years ago", "It is two years that I live here" → "I've lived here for two years". 8) "Do" for "make", because kardan is both: "I did a mistake" → "I made a mistake". 9) Extra prepositions: "discuss about", "answer to the question", "marry with" → "discuss", "answer the question", "marry"; and "I very like it" (kheyli) → "I really like it". 10) Sounds: /w/ as /v/ ("vater", "vould"), "th" as /t/, /d/ or /s/ ("tink", "dis"), and stress on the last syllable, as in Persian ("compuTER" → "comPUter").

Knowing the list is not the same as getting these right at speed, because they are habits of speech. With Airi you talk, she answers out loud and shows one small fix at a time, and the conversation carries on. The sections below go past this list: word-for-word translations, more grammar habits, the sounds, and the loanwords and courtesy phrases that mislead. Free to start, no card.

Word-for-word Persian that sounds odd in English

Persian builds many of its verbs from a noun plus a light verb such as "dādan" (give), "khordan" (eat) or "shodan" (become), and its prepositions do not line up one-to-one with English ones. Translated piece by piece, they produce sentences an English listener has to stop and decode.

Persian grammar habits that show up in English sentences

• A missing "it" or "he". Persian verb endings carry the subject, so "sakht ast" (word for word "hard is") is a complete sentence. In English that comes out as "Is hard to find work here" or "My brother lives in Shiraz. Is engineer." English needs a subject every time, even an empty "it": "It's hard to find work here." "He's an engineer."
• Questions in statement order. Persian marks a question with intonation or a question word and leaves the word order alone, with no helper like "do". That gives "Where you work?" and "Why she is angry?" English puts "do", "does", "did" or a form of "be" before the subject: "Where do you work?" "Why is she angry?"
• An extra pronoun after "who" or "that". "Zani ke bā u harf zadam" is word for word "the woman that I talked with her", and "the book that I bought it" follows the same pattern. English leaves that pronoun out: "the woman I talked to", "the book I bought".
• Two negatives. Persian pairs a negative word with a negative verb: "hichi nakhordam" is word for word "nothing I-didn't-eat". That makes "I didn't eat nothing" and "Nobody didn't come" feel right. Standard English uses one negative per clause: "I didn't eat anything." "Nobody came."
• One present tense for two. "Kār mikonam" is both "I work" and "I am working", so the English forms get swapped: "I am taking the bus every day" or "I cook dinner now." A habit takes the simple form, and something happening at this moment takes -ing: "I take the bus every day." "I'm cooking dinner now."
• Present tense after "I thought" or "she said". Persian keeps the tense of the original thought, so "fekr kardam khāne-i" is word for word "I thought you are home". English moves the second verb back to match the first: "I thought you were home." "She said she was tired."

English sounds Persian does not have, and how to make them

Iranian Persian has six vowels, no "th", no "w" as a separate consonant (Dari keeps one) and no "ng" on its own, and a Persian syllable never begins with two consonants.

Persian also gives every vowel its full value, and English does not. Words the two languages share show the difference: Persian says "dok-TOR" and "te-le-FON", while English says "DOK-ter" and "TEL-uh-fone", with the unstressed vowels shrunk to a quick "uh".

Persian loanwords and courtesy phrases that mislead in English

Persian took many everyday words from French, and several look like English words that mean something else. Courtesy formulas are the other trap: translated word for word, they make little sense in English.

Taarof, the Persian code of courtesy, has a guest decline an offer more than once before accepting. In most English-speaking settings the first "No, thank you" is taken as the answer, and the offer may not come again. If you would like the tea, say "Yes, please" the first time.

An eight-minute Airi round for Persian speakers' habits

Airi answers out loud and shows one small fix at a time. She does not score pronunciation, so treat her as a listener: if her reply shows she heard "vest" when you said "west", say it again. The 600 free credits last about eight minutes, enough for one round.

1. Set the target: "Persian is my first language. Please point out when I leave out 'it' or ask a question without 'do' or 'does'."
2. Tell her about your studies: the exams you took, your degree, who you asked for advice. Watch for "gave an exam", "license" and "asked from".
3. Ask her to play a new coworker, then ask her five questions, each with its helper verb: "Where did you work before?" "Do you live near the office?"
4. Use one sound pair in sentences of your own: "The hotel is on the west side" and "He wore a vest to the wedding." If her reply shows she heard a different word, slow down and say it again.
5. When a small fix comes up, say the corrected sentence aloud before you go on. She remembers your name and your last topic for the next round.

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Last updated: 2026-10-03