بیرون

What it means

بیرون (birun) means outside, out, or exterior. It functions as both an adverb (رفتم بیرون, I went outside) and a noun (بیرون خونه, the outside of the house). As an adverb it describes position or direction away from an enclosed space. As a noun it refers to the exterior, the outdoors, or the world beyond a specific boundary. In colloquial speech بیرون رفتن (birun raftan) commonly means to go out socially, to eat out, or to leave the house for any reason. The opposite is توی (tu-ye, inside, within). Learners will also encounter بیرون in compound verbs: بیرون کردن (birun kardan) means to expel or kick out, and بیرون آمدن (birun âmadan) means to come out.

How to use it

• برو بیرون بازی کن. (boro birun bâzi kon.) “Go outside and play.”
• امشب می‌خوایم بریم بیرون. (emshab mikhâim brim birun.) “We want to go out tonight.”
• کیفم بیرون از ماشینه. (kif-am birun-e mâshine.) “My bag is outside the car.”
• اونو از خونه بیرون کردم. (unu az khune birun kardam.) “I kicked him out of the house.”

Cultural note

The phrase بیرون رفتن carries a cheerful social weight in Iranian culture. When a family says امشب می‌ریم بیرون (tonight we’re going out), it typically means dinner at a restaurant or a walk in a park, both central leisure activities for Iranian families. Tehran’s northern foothills (Tochal, Darband) and the city’s parks fill on weekends with families whose outing is described simply as رفتیم بیرون. The word also appears in the polite but firm phrase بفرمایید بیرون (please leave, literally please go outside), used when someone needs to ask a guest or an intruder to exit a space.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab