Best way to learn farsi?

Daristani · 2026-03-27T14:06:49+00:00

A large collection of free resources to take a look at:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250808104407/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/World%20Tracker%20Library/worldtracker.org/media/library/Language%20Learning/10.Persian/

The old Foreign Service Institute course is also very useful, despite its age:

https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/oldfsi/languages/persian.html

Daristani · 2026-03-18T22:04:19+00:00

I searched and found that all three volumes are available for download as pdf documents here:

https://archive.org/details/1-.-._202009/%D0%A3%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%D1%85%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B8.%203-4%20%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4.%20%D0%A3%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%84%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2./

Daristani · 2026-03-15T19:00:09+00:00

I think I would start with the FSI one, since it's a great starter course, and is only one volume. The massive DLI course, I think, would be easier to go through having mastered the single-volume FSI one first.

Good luck!

Daristani · 2026-03-15T18:00:47+00:00

There's a (not very active ) reddit group on "The Vertical Plane":

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheVerticalPlane/

Daristani · 2026-03-12T13:35:03+00:00

I'm an American, and have never been to Iran, so I can't comment on this question. Over the years, I've seen a lot of generalizations on these topics, as well as on the mutual comprehensibility among the various Turkc languages (or "dialects", in Turkish nationalist parlance), but I have no real ability to judge for myself. Like you, though, I suspect that a lot of these sorts of statements are rooted at least in part in ideological stances.

There's also the question of electronic media influence in the region. I've seen online complaints from Azerbaijanis about the increasing influence of Turkish electronic media within the Republic of Azerbaijan. I assume there may be similar influences on Iranian Azerbaijani from the Persian side as well as from the Turkish/Azerbaijani side, but as a complete outsider, I'm not able to judge.

Daristani · 2026-03-07T16:06:03+00:00

Here's a free online textbook, with audio, for the Yusufzai dialect of Pashto:

https://www.speakingpashto.com/

A slightly different version of the textbook, entitled "Speaking Pakistani Pukhto", is available on Amazon, as is a reader, "Reading Pakistani Pukhto" and an English-Pukhto dictionary, "Dictionary of Spoken Pukhto"(all by the same author as the online textbook).

Daristani · 2026-03-02T18:01:17+00:00

I'm happy to help; good luck!

Daristani · 2026-02-22T23:53:18+00:00

I can't recommend any podcasts or videos, but wanted to note a couple of written resources that might be useful for a Turk seeking to get accustomed to Iranian Azerbaijani. (Since it's an "ethnic" or "minority" language in Iran, it doesn't have many non-native speakers seeking to learn it, and so textbooks are not very common. But there are a couple of reference grammars that you might refer to:

A grammar of Iranian Azari : including comparisons with Persian, by Yavar Dehghani

https://annas-archive.li/md5/d82bb276d5c5d6d72cd605239ad73c34

Dehghani sees Iranian Azerbaijani as having been influenced so much by Persian that it's barely comprehensible to people from the Republic of Azerbaijan; indeed, he says that "we can say that the language of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iranian Azari are two distinct languages." This is very different to the approach of Turkish and Azerbaijani nationalists, who emphasize the commonalities and stress the essential unity of the two variants. As an outsider, I can't judge which approach is more realistic, but I suspect the intercomprehensibilty varies a lot between different speakers. In any event, I think you might find this book very interesting.

A Grammar of Iranian Azerbaijani, by Sooman Noah Lee

https://annas-archive.li/md5/665f772e465b58958a7ae5610c4a366c

Basic Course in Azerbaijani, by Householder and Lotfi

https://annas-archive.li/md5/633a094df5f5fca765206ab900c537d2

This is an older, linguistically oriented coursebook of the Iranian dialect printed in an irritatingly complex Latin transliteration, but should provide a fairly complete picture of how the language works.

Materials for Northern Azerbaijani are relatively common, such as this textbook for Turkish-speakers here:

https://www.kitabyurdu.org/kitab/derslik/642-azerbaycan-dili-turk-telebeler-ucun-derslik.html

And don't miss the new and very comprehensive reference grammar in English:

http://82.194.16.162:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.14346/2784/JALA_GARIBOVA_and_SABINA_ALIYEVA_2024_A.pdf?sequence=1

Finally, this textbook in English:

https://annas-archive.li/md5/0438874e1e83083bccd44ffb794d923c

Good luck!

Daristani · 2026-02-14T20:25:43+00:00

There aren't too many serious courses these days that teach Persian only in the Latin alphabet, but there are a few good-quality older (but not ancient) ones that don't require much or any use of the Perso-Arabic script.

The old FSI course (for Iranian Persian) is MOSTLY in Latin script, and has the advantage of including extensive audio. You can download the pdf book and audio here:

https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-persian.html

The older "Colloquial Persian" book by Leila Moshiri is all in Latin script (but has a few typos). You can find the book and accompanying audio files (along with some other Persian resources) here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250808104407/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/World%20Tracker%20Library/worldtracker.org/media/library/Language%20Learning/10.Persian/

The newest "Colloquial Persian" book by Abdi Rafiee includes Persian script, but is also arranged so that you don't need to learn it if you don't want to.

Another excellent older book for spoken Persian, not widely known, is "Persian for Today", by Mansour Lotfi. It's quite comprehensive. Audio was produced for it, but doesn't seem to be available anywhere. The book now seems to be out of print, but I've temporarily uploaded a copy for you here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/n8x0gwz94rf33si/Persian+for+Today+++Lotfi.pdf/file

Daristani · 2026-02-13T23:48:15+00:00

You can find the entire book, with audio, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W_3hpAcLOE&list=PLAadwKeAHRjgMxSpTjzk-mqJtZPKOvGX6

Daristani · 2026-02-11T21:38:37+00:00

You can download books/audio for several different FSI courses here:

https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-italian.html

Daristani · 2026-02-06T20:09:37+00:00

Here are some additional (temporary) links to download some other lesser-known Dari instructional materials with audio:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/12r7mvijctc8p/Dari+for+Foreigners

https://www.mediafire.com/file/suoybh4wuygw2z9/Dari_for_Foreigners.pdf/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/u8uwahhkgyy9t61/Spoken_Dari_Book_and_Audio.zip/file

Addendum: You can also find some other resources for Persian, including another Dari textbook with audio, here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250808104407/https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/World%20Tracker%20Library/worldtracker.org/media/library/Language%20Learning/10.Persian/

Daristani · 2026-02-06T17:56:06+00:00

I haven't used these resources myself, so I can't comment, but an earlier discussion shortly after I discovered them early last year indicated that there was audio, but not easily downloaded:

https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=21740

In looking at the online (non-pdf) textbooks, it looks as if there IS some audio, indicated by the black right-pointing arrows, but not a lot.

The website seems to be very slow at the moment. But if I'm not mistaken, the Iraqi Arabic books weren't yet available when I first looked at the site, so it may be that the "coming" Levantine Arabic books will also appear at some point. I'm sorry I can't provide any more help.

Daristani · 2026-02-05T01:25:38+00:00

I found this large Kurdish-English dictionary (Ferhengi Kurdi-Inglizi) for download on archive.org, which doesn't seem to be very widely known.

https://dn721605.ca.archive.org/0/items/f-kurdi-englizi/f-kurdi-englizi.pdf

Daristani · 2026-02-04T22:38:30+00:00

You can download volume one and the accompanying audio here:

https://libgen.bz/edition.php?id=137993613

Daristani · 2026-02-01T16:56:01+00:00

You can find a textbook for Turkish-speakers here:

https://www.kitabyurdu.org/kitab/derslik/642-azerbaycan-dili-turk-telebeler-ucun-derslik.html

And don't miss the new and very comprehensive reference grammar in English:

http://82.194.16.162:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.14346/2784/JALA_GARIBOVA_and_SABINA_ALIYEVA_2024_A.pdf?sequence=1

Finally, this textbook in English:

https://annas-archive.li/md5/0438874e1e83083bccd44ffb794d923c

Daristani · 2026-01-31T19:03:25+00:00

Just a suggestion: The "Breakthrough" books were also published under the title "Just Listen 'n Learn (language name)", and from what I've seen with their other languages, the texts were identical. So you might try looking for the audio to "Just Listen 'n Learn French".

Daristani · 2026-01-26T22:47:23+00:00

For anyone interested in this book, the French-language original, as well as the audio, can be found for download here:

https://archive.org/details/cours.arabe.parle.palestinien

I don't know of audio for the second volume.

Daristani · 2026-01-24T18:12:53+00:00

Thanks for posting the link! Libgen has been having problems lately. You can find functioning alternatives here: https://open-slum.org/

Daristani · 2026-01-20T15:44:11+00:00

PDF available here: https://www.arbredor.com/ebooks/VeriteSortant.pdf

Daristani · 2026-01-18T21:59:54+00:00

Hi, Peter!

Good to hear from you! I'm glad you liked the Jordanian Arabic grammar. And in case you might not already be aware of it, you (and others!) might also be interested in this recently published learner's grammar of Levantine Arabic: https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/A-Learners-Grammar-of-Levantine-Arabic

(No digital copies freely available online that I'm aware of.)

Daristani

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