What's the Persian alphabet like?

Have a go at spelling out your name and perhaps your address in Persian. Here's the alphabet and how to pronounce it.

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What's significant about the Persian alphabet?

• There are 32 letters in the alphabet and script, written from right to left. Most letters must be connected one to another.
  Calligraphy is a much appreciated art and there are 20 different types of lettering for the alphabet

• Vowels

  In the Persian script, vowels that are referred to as ‘short vowels’ (a, e, o) aren’t written.
  For example, bad in English has three letters but only two in Persian: بد [bad] and man is من [man] (2 letters)
  
  Only the long vowels (i, u, a) are written, for example, bar in English has three letters, as has its Persian translation:
  بار [bâr] and دید [did]

• Pronunciation

  Words in English are generally used separately, whereas words in Persian are very often connected to one and other. For example, man is مرد [mard], good is خوب [khob], but a good man is مردِ خوب [mard e khob]

• What a difference a dot makes

  Complexities mainly lie in the placement of dots in the alphabet, for example, they can be above, below or inside the letter:
  س is pronounced [se], but with the dots, ش is pronounced [sh]
  ب is pronounced [be], but with the dots, پ is pronounced [pe]
  ح is pronounced [he], but with the dots, چ is pronounced [ch]
  ط is pronounced [te], but with a dot, ظ is pronounced [ze]
  
  Here are some examples of words which have 1, 2 or 3 dots, including the different sounds and meanings:
  نور [nour], light but with dots: تور [tour], net
  بور [bour], blond but with dots: شور [shoor], salty

• Email and website conventions

  When giving an email or website address, the conventions are:
  @ @ [at], at
  . نقطه [noghteh], dot
  / ممیز [momayez], forward slash
  - خط فاصله [khateh fâseleh], dash