Are you familiar with the Persian alphabet? No? Then you will be happy to know that ajabanzabAn.com is developing the ultimate alphabet guide guaranteed to help you bond with Persian letters. We are also developing games and puzzles.

If you like the approaches we take here, please support our efforts by buying Word Magnets! Alternatively (or in addition) you can support the Persian language by just sending us large sums of cash.

Note that the alphabet section is under construction.

Some parts are more complete than others. Throughout, we experiment with different ways to explain the alphabet. Please contact us with your comments and suggestions to let us know what works and what doesn't!

So, how do we approach the alphabet?

1. First, we emphasize the importance of bonding with the alphabet. If you're an Iranian who grew up in America, you probably never bonded with the Persian alphabet the way American kids do with the English alphabet - all their songs and books and alphabet toys.
2. Next, we bring up the important point that Persian is written from right to left.
3. Now we're ready to learn the 32 letters of the alphabet. Here we notice that the Persian alphabet is organized by SHAPE, which is really cool. [Note this part has much more construction ahead. So far we've only got a few of the letter shapes done].
4. When you see the alphabet written out (as it is here in the column to the right) you see the "detached" form of the letter. But Persian is a "semi-cursive" script, therefore, when you put the letters together to form words, the letters might look a bit different than they do in their detached form. There are some simple rules governing the changing forms which are discussed in the semi-cursive section.
5. The genius of an alphabet is that it uses a written symbol to represent sound. Phonics refers to a systematic approach to teaching letters and combinations of letters and their corresponding speech sounds. This goes beyond just learning a few facts about the alphabet. Our phonics section is under construction.
6. In the meantime, of course, we have our handy transliteration guide that shows the English letters we use for corresponding Persian sounds in our Magnetic Word Play kits and throughout this website. The difficulty with transliteration is that Persian has some consonant sounds that don't exist in English, and also English has many different vowel sounds for each vowel.
7. This section takes a closer look at the unfamiliar Persian consonants and some fun words that will freak out your friends.
8. This section will look at the mysterious Persian vowel system. Persian vowels are really simple in that the SOUNDS are constant - only 6 vowel sounds (Unlike English, where the letter "a" can have up to 40 different sounds!). The trouble with Persian vowels, however, is that half of them are not shown in writing. You just have to know they are there through context.
9. And finally, you may have noticed that several Persian letters have the same sound. There are many redundancies in the Persian alphabet and this section explains what they are and why.

That covers the basics of the Persian alphabet, but there are a few bonus and advanced topics we would like to touch on:

1. As Persian is a semi-cursive script, there are some strange things that happen in typing it which fall under the heading of "ligatures" "kashides" and such. This section under construction.
2. The current Persian alphabet we are using is based on the Arabic alphabet, but with some important differences.
3. At some point, you will know all the letters in the alphabet by sight, instantly, subconsciously. You will know the sounds they make. The next step in reading comprehension is to be able to understand the meaning of the word that these letters form. At some point, you will also know the words as well as you know the letters, and your mind will recognize the whole word, instantly, subconsciously. This section discusses that amazing phenomenon.
4. On to advanced script: What we have been showing you up until now is typed Persian, which is very uniform. However, if you want to read poetry, you are going to come across Persian calligraphy, which looks a bit different from the typed stuff (letters are more stylized). Here we will take a look at the traditions and forms of calligraphy.
5. The other place you will see Persian script is on the internet - where it doesn't look that great. There are a lot of issues with getting Persian script on computers, this section will look at the issues and what is being done about them.
6. Finally, a bit of reassurance, Persian is not Chinese, so don't panic, you can learn it. It's easy!