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Nouns
A noun can be someone’s name, a kind of object, or an abstract concept. While it is not of much importance to know which words exactly are considered nouns, it is important to be able to use them correctly. In pronunciation, the stress of a noun is always on the last syllable. Syllables of words are usually easy to distinguish.
محمّد
جنگل
رادیو
Muhammad
jungle
radio
پسر
تلویزیون
شب
boy
television
night
دختر
کتاب
روز
girl / daughter
book
day
Plural Form
Like English, Persian nouns have two forms; singular and plural. There are four different methods to make a noun plural. As a beginner, you must learn the first method, become familiar with the second method and simply go through the next ones just once.
1- The easiest and most common way is to use the suffix “ها”. It can be used for all nouns, including the nouns that are often pluralized in other ways. You can pluralize any noun using this suffix, although for some nouns the other pluralization methods are considered more eloquent in writing.
گل‌ها
نام‌ها
سنگ‌ها
flowers
names
stones
آسمان‌ها
آب‌ها
زن‌ها
skies
waters
women
کتاب‌ها
ستاره‌ها
مردها
books
stars
men
The suffix “ها” and many similar affixes are usually written like separate words (the first letter of the suffix is not joined to the last letter of the noun) but are written closer than a normal space character’s width to the main word. The technical term for this character in modern typesetting is a zero width non joiner. In Persian, it is called نیم‌فاصله (literally: half-space).
2- The second way is using the "ان" suffix. Apart from one or two exceptions, this suffix can only be used for living objects and body parts. It is rarely used in colloquial Persian but is very common in writing. It is useful to keep this fact in mind as well, that there are certain living things and body parts which cannot be pluralized in this way.
شیران
مردان
چشمان
lions
men
eyes
پدران
زنان
دستان
fathers
women
hands
درختان
دشمنان
معلّمان
trees
enemies
teachers
When the noun ends with a vowel, an extra letter "ی" (pronounced like the English consonant "y" in "yes) comes between the noun and the "ان" suffix.
خدایان
gods
دانایان
wise ones
If the noun ends with the vowel "ه", then the linking consonant will be "گ" and the letter "ه" will be omitted (short vowels need not be written when they are not the last sound of a word). Notice that no extra consonant is needed if the ending letter of the noun is already a consonant "ه". Compare the first row against the second row:
مرده
گیاه
:(dead)
:(plant)
مردگان
گیاهان
پرنده
فرمانده
:(bird)
:(commander)
پرندگان
فرماندهان
3- The third method is to use one of the Arabic suffixes "ات", "ین" and "ون". These suffixes are less frequent, especially in spoken language. They are typically not used for pluralizing pure Persian words and even among the Arabic loan words, relatively few can be pluralized this way.
خطرات
روحانیون
dangers
clergymen
سایرین
معلّمین
others
teachers
4- The last and hardest method is using the Arabic “mukassar” plural form. This method is a rather complicated but common way to convert Arabic nouns into plural form, mostly used in writing rather than everday speech. The mukassar plural form of each word often looks like an entirely new word. This new word usually shares at least three letters with the original word. One can gradually get familiar with the patterns and even guess the plural form of words.
فرد
علم
جزیره
:(person)
:(science)
:(island)
افراد
علوم
جزایر
فکر
حرف
مسجد
:(thought)
:(letter [of alphabet])
:(mosque)
افکار
حروف
مساجد