How a Persian headline works

In this lesson

Persian newspaper and agency headlines look intimidating, but they are built from a small number of patterns that repeat endlessly. In this lesson we take three typical economic headlines apart word by word. The examples are written for teaching, in the style of the Iranian press. By the end you’ll know the three rules that unlock most headlines, and around fifteen words you’ll meet every single day.

Before you start. This course assumes you can read the Persian script and know basic grammar (Spoken Persian Unit 3 and Read & Write Units 1–2, or equivalent).

Three headlines

1	نرخ تورم سالانه به ۳۸ درصد رسید	nerkh-e tavarrom-e sālāne be 38 darsad resid The annual inflation rate reached 38%
2	بانک مرکزی نرخ سود را افزایش داد	bānk-e markazi nerkh-e sud rā afzāyesh dād The central bank raised the interest rate
3	کاهش صادرات نفت در مهرماه	kāhesh-e sāderāt-e naft dar Mehr-māh Fall in oil exports in Mehr

Mehr is the seventh month of the Iranian Solar Hijri calendar, running roughly from late September to late October. We cover the calendar in Lesson 3.

Rule 1: the verb comes last, in the past tense

Persian is a subject–object–verb language, so the verb sits at the end of the headline: resid, “reached”; afzāyesh dād, “increased”. Unlike English headlines, which use the present tense (“Inflation reaches 38%”), Persian headlines usually use the simple past for something that has just happened.

Rule 2: the ezāfe is there, but you can’t see it

The ezāfe, the linking -e sound that joins a noun to what describes it, is almost never written. Headline 1 is a chain of three: nerkh-e tavarrom-e sālāne, “rate of inflation, annual”. On the page it is just three bare words. Reading headlines fluently is largely a matter of hearing those invisible links.

Tip. When you see two or more nouns in a row with no verb between them, try adding -e between each pair. Nine times out of ten that’s the structure.

Rule 3: verbal nouns replace verbs

Headline 3 has no verb at all. Instead it uses a verbal noun, kāhesh, “decrease / fall”. Persian news style is full of these nouns, which pair with light verbs like dādan (give) and yāftan (find) to make compound verbs:

افزایش	afzāyesh	increase, rise
افزایش دادن	afzāyesh dādan	to raise (something)
افزایش یافتن	afzāyesh yāftan	to rise (by itself)
کاهش	kāhesh	decrease, fall
کاهش یافتن	kāhesh yāftan	to fall

Core news vocabulary

نرخ	nerkh	rate
تورم	tavarrom	inflation
سالانه	sālāne	annual
درصد	darsad	percent
رسیدن (رسید)	residan (resid)	to reach (reached)
بانک مرکزی	bānk-e markazi	central bank
سود	sud	interest; profit
صادرات	sāderāt	exports
واردات	vāredāt	imports
نفت	naft	oil
به گزارش	be gozāresh-e	according to (a report by)
خبرگزاری	khabargozāri	news agency

Attribution. Almost every Iranian news story opens with be gozāresh-e followed by the source: “according to [the report of] news agency X”. Spot it and you’ve found where the story came from.

Practice

Try each question, then open it to check your answer.

1. In nerkh-e tavarrom-e sālāne, how many ezāfe links are hidden?
   
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   Two: nerkh-e tavarrom-e sālāne.

2. How would a headline say “Oil exports rose”?
   
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   sāderāt-e naft afzāyesh yāft (صادرات نفت افزایش یافت).

3. A story begins be gozāresh-e khabargozāri … What does this tell you?
   
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   The source of the story: “according to news agency …”.

4. Transliterate and translate بانک مرکزی
   
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   bānk-e markazi: central bank.

Finished the lesson?

Next up: Lesson 2, Numbers, percentages and dates in the news. Unlock the full course with a free 14-day trial.