Persian

About Persian

Persian, also known as Farsi, is the official language of Iran. The same language is called Dari in Afghanistan, where it is one of the two official languages, and Tajik in Tajikistan, where it is written in Cyrillic letters. Speakers from the three countries understand each other, though accent and some words differ. Ethnologue counted about 53 million speakers in 2015, and many more speak it as a second language. For the Afghan form see Dari.

Persian is written from right to left in a form of the Arabic alphabet with 32 letters, and short vowels are usually not written. Use shomā as the polite "you" and keep to for friends and family. The sound written kh is like the ch in Scottish "loch". Politeness runs deep in Iran: offers are often refused once or twice before they are accepted, and a shopkeeper may at first decline your money, a custom called taarof.

FamilyIndo-European, Iranian
Speakersabout 53 million (2015)
Official inIran, Afghanistan (as Dari), Tajikistan (as Tajik)
ScriptPersian alphabet (Arabic script, 32 letters, right to left), Cyrillic for Tajik
Codesfa (ISO 639-1), fas (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Ethnologue (2015), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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