The 100 Most Common Persian Words

These are the 100 most common Persian words, ranked by how often they appear in real Persian text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	از	ahz	from
2	به	beh	to
3	که	keh	that (conjunction)
4	در	dar	in
5	این	een	this
6	را	rah	(object marker)
7	با	bah	with
8	آن	ahn	that
9	بودن	boo-DAN	be
10	من	man	I
11	تو	toh	you
12	او	oo	he / she
13	ما	mah	we
14	شما	shoh-MAH	you
15	چه	cheh	what
16	برای	bah-RAH-yeh	for
17	هم	ham	too
18	یک	yek	one
19	نه	nah	no
20	اما	am-MAH	but
21	اگر	ah-GAR	if
22	یا	yah	or
23	هر	har	every
24	سال	sahl	year
25	زمان	zah-MAHN	time
26	روز	rooz	day
27	خوب	khoob	good
28	بزرگ	boh-ZORG	large
29	انسان	en-SAHN	person
30	دانستن	dah-nes-TAN	know
31	گفتن	gof-TAN	say
32	کردن	kar-DAN	do
33	رفتن	raf-TAN	go
34	دیدن	dee-DAN	see
35	دادن	dah-DAN	give
36	جدید	jah-DEED	new
37	چیز	cheez	thing
38	خیلی	KHEY-lee	very
39	دو	doh	two
40	اولین	av-vah-LEEN	first
41	خواستن	khahs-TAN	want
42	کجا	koh-JAH	where
43	چرا	cheh-RAH	why
44	پس	pas	then
45	آنجا	ahn-JAH	there
46	کار	kahr	work
47	زندگی	zen-deh-GEE	life
48	اکنون	ak-NOON	now
49	دیگر	dee-GAR	other
50	چیزی	chee-ZEE	thing
51	تا	tah	until; so that
52	بر	bar	on, upon
53	آنها	ahn-HAH	they
54	خود	khod	self, own
55	شدن	shoh-DAN	become
56	داشتن	dahsh-TAN	have
57	توانستن	tah-vah-nes-TAN	can, be able
58	باید	BAH-yad	must
59	آمدن	ah-mah-DAN	come
60	گرفتن	geh-ref-TAN	take, get
61	زدن	zah-DAN	hit, strike (also light verb)
62	یافتن	yahf-TAN	find
63	رسیدن	reh-see-DAN	arrive, reach
64	گذشتن	goh-zash-TAN	pass (of time; go past)
65	ساختن	sahkh-TAN	make, build
66	ماندن	mahn-DAN	stay, remain
67	آوردن	ah-var-DAN	bring
68	گذاشتن	goh-zahsh-TAN	put, place
69	نوشتن	neh-vesh-TAN	write
70	خواندن	khahn-DAN	read; sing; call
71	شنیدن	sheh-nee-DAN	hear
72	مرد	mard	man
73	زن	zan	woman
74	کودک	koo-DAK	child
75	خانه	khah-NEH	house, home
76	شهر	shahr	city
77	کشور	kesh-VAR	country
78	جهان	jah-HAHN	world
79	جا	jah	place
80	راه	rah	way, road
81	آب	ahb	water
82	دست	dast	hand
83	دل	del	heart
84	سر	sar	head
85	شب	shab	night
86	ماه	mah	month; moon
87	هفته	haf-TEH	week
88	ساعت	sah-AT	hour; clock
89	وقت	vaght	time (moment; free time)
90	امروز	em-ROOZ	today
91	نام	nahm	name
92	سخن	soh-KHAN	speech, words
93	کوچک	koo-CHAK	small
94	زیبا	zee-BAH	beautiful
95	بسیار	bes-YAHR	very, much
96	چند	chand	several; how many
97	همه	hah-MEH	all, everyone
98	هیچ	heech	none, (not) any
99	باز	bahz	again; open
100	بعد	bad	after, then

Show all 100 wordsShow the first 20

Ranked by lemma frequency in published Persian corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn Persian online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about Persian words

How many Persian words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Persian?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Persian word list come from?

From published Persian word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.