Persian nouns can be formed by using a number of productive suffixes and affixes. This example shows some possible derivations from the worddān, present stem of the verb dānestan, "to know":
Possession is expressed by special markers: if the possessor appears in the sentence after the thing possessed, the ezafe may be used; otherwise, alternatively, a pronominal genitive enclitic is employed.
Person
Singular
Plural
1st
am
emān
2nd
at
etān
3rd
aš
ešān
Ezafe
The اضافه construction denotes certain relationships between Persian words, among them: possession, qualification, titles and names. It is similar, but not identical, to the Arabic idaafa construction. Ezafe is indicated by the short vowel kasra. Since short vowels are not normally written in Persian, it usually does not appear in text, but it can be heard in spoken Persian. The following are some examples usages of the ezafe construction.
Possession:
کتاب من - ke'tab-e mæn, literally "book-of me", means "my book"
Multiple words can be connected through the ezafa construction, as in the following example of both possession and qualification:
دختر زیبای دوستم dox'tær-e zī'bā-ye dust-æm, literally "girl-of beautiful-of friend-my", means "my friend's beautiful daughter". And: دختر دوست زیبایم dox'tær-e dūst-e zī'bā-yæm, literally "girl-of friend-of beautiful-my", means "my beautiful friend's daughter". Spelling exceptions: Ezafe, while pronounced in speech, is not usually written, but it does show up in writing in the following two cases involving words ending in vowels.
In the case of heh, the normal heh is replaced with a 'heh yeh' which is a heh with a small 'yeh' on top. Example:
house = خانه /xā'ne/ my friend's house = خانهٔ دوستم /xā'ne-ye dūstæm/ A spelling variant for this would be a normal he with a non-connected ye following. This spelling is rare and is also not according to the standard orthography of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature. my friend's house = خانهی دوستم /xā'ne-ye dūstæm/
If a noun or adjective ends in alef and another noun or adjective is attached to it in an ezafe relationship, the letter yeh must be attached to the end of the word to carry the sound of the extra syllable. Example:
air/weather = هوا /hæ'vā/ "Tehran's weather" = هوای تهران /hæ'vā-ye tεh'rān/ NOTE: Ezafe can be written using the diacritic marker representing the shortvowel zir, also known as kasra. That looks like this: کتابِ من - my book دخترِ زیبای دوستم - my friend's beautiful daughter
Pluralization
The most common and productive form of pluralization for Persian nouns is with the suffix hā. This is typically used for non-human nouns. Another productive plural suffix is ān, used for human nouns after the short vowel e and yān. Many nouns borrowed from Arabic feminine forms pluralize using the āt suffix. Nouns borrowed from Arabic human forms often pluralize using the īn. The most challenging type of noun pluralization is for the class of what are termed Arabic broken plurals, which are formed through internal vowel alternation. These nouns pluralize in Persian like their counterparts in Arabic. In colloquial Persian, the plural suffix -hā can be used with virtually all nouns, even if they take an ān-plural or an Arabic plural in the written standard language. For example, one can say mard-hā instead of standard mardān.
