Culture
Farsi or Persian: Is There a Difference?
Farsi and Persian are two names for the same language. Persian is the usual name in English; Farsi is the word Persian speakers use for it in their own language. This guide explains where each name comes from, which one to use, and how Dari and Tajik fit in.
5 min read · Checked November 2026
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The short answer
There is one language here, not two. The language of Iran, spoken by tens of millions of people, is called Persian in English and Farsi in Persian. If you see a course, a book or an app that offers Persian and another that offers Farsi, you are looking at the same language under two labels.
The difference is the language you are speaking when you name it. In an English sentence the established word is Persian: Persian rugs, Persian poetry, Persian cats, the Persian language. In a Persian sentence the word is Farsi, and that is the word you will hear Iranians use to each other all day.
Do you speak Persian?
I speak a little Persian.
How do you say it in Persian?
Good to know
Notice the English translations in the lines above say Persian, while the Persian lines say Farsi. That small mismatch is the whole answer.
Where Farsi comes from
Both names trace back to one place. Pars, in the south of Iran, is the region where the first Persian empire began. Today it is the province of Fars, and its capital is Shiraz. Greek writers turned the name into Persis, and that is the route Persian took into English.
Farsi is the same name after a sound change. Arabic has no p sound, so when Arabic became the language of administration in the centuries after the Arab conquest, Pars was said as Fars. The Persian language kept the changed form for its own name, so Farsi is the same old name after Arabic turned the p into an f. You can still see the original p in the word Parsi, which is used for the Zoroastrian communities of India, whose ancestors left Iran.
None of this makes Farsi wrong in English. It means that both words are old and that each one has a reason to exist.
Which word should you use
In English, either one is understood. Persian is the safer default in writing, in school and in conversation with people who do not speak the language, because it is the name English has used for centuries and the one that dictionaries and libraries file the language under. Many Iranian scholars and institutions ask English speakers to use it.
Farsi is also common in English, especially among the Iranian diaspora and in the United States, and people who use it mean nothing odd by it. If you are talking to an Iranian friend or relative, use whichever word you heard from them. They will not correct you either way.
In a Persian sentence, say Farsi. It is what the language is called in the language, and Be Farsi is how you ask for a translation.
I'm from Iran.
I'm Iranian.
Dari and Tajik
Persian is spoken well beyond Iran, and the other countries use their own names for it. In Afghanistan the standard form is called Dari and is an official language. In Tajikistan it is called Tajik and is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Iranian Persian, the form this guide is about, is sometimes called Western Persian by linguists.
These three are best understood as varieties of one language, in the way that English in Texas, Glasgow and Sydney is one language. Speakers can usually follow each other, with differences in accent, in some vocabulary and in a few grammar habits. A learner who starts with one will have a big head start on the others.
The accents inside Iran vary too, from Isfahan to Mashhad to Shiraz. The form most people understand everywhere is the one spoken in Tehran, which is why it is the best place to start.
What Finglish teaches
Finglish by Iranopedia is a Persian (Farsi) learning app for English speakers, and it uses both names on purpose, so that people who search for either one find it. It teaches the spoken Persian of Tehran, the way families talk at home, and writes it in English letters so that you can speak before you learn the script.
Module 1 is free with no signup. It starts with the greeting you already know how to say, Salam, and takes about 35 minutes to finish.
Questions about Farsi and Persian
- Is Farsi a dialect of Persian?
- No. Farsi is simply the Persian name for the Persian language. It is not a dialect, a branch or a different language. Iranian Persian, Dari and Tajik are the three standard varieties of the one language.
- Do I say Persian or Farsi to an Iranian?
- Either works. Use the word the person uses. In English many Iranians say Persian, many say Farsi, and plenty say both in the same breath. In a Persian sentence, always say Farsi.
- Is Dari the same as Farsi?
- Dari is the Afghan variety of Persian, so it is the same language with its own accent and some of its own vocabulary. Iranians and Afghans can usually understand each other, more easily with a little patience.
- Is Persian related to Arabic?
- No. Persian is Indo-European and Arabic is Semitic, so they belong to different language families. They share a writing system and many borrowed words, but their grammar and everyday vocabulary are different.
Say it out loud
Hear Farsi baladi and say it back
Reading gets you the idea. The lessons have you hear each line, say it, type it from memory and answer a family member in a chat. Module 1 is free with no signup.