شارژ کردن

What it means

شارژ کردن (shârzh kardan) is the everyday Persian compound verb for charging a phone, a battery, a laptop, or an e-bike. It also covers topping up a prepaid SIM (شارژ کردن سیم‌کارت) and, by extension, refilling any prepaid account. The first half, شارژ (shârzh), is a loan from English charge filtered through French pronunciation; the second half, کردن (kardan, to do, to make), is the workhorse Persian verb that turns any noun into a compound action.

Compound verb structure

The pattern is noun + کردن. The English loan شارژ acts as the nominal element. کردن conjugates normally for tense, person, and aspect. The noun does not change form. Negation attaches to the verb (شارژ نکردم, shârzh nakardam, I did not charge it).

• Present: شارژ می‌کنم (shârzh mikonam, I am charging)
• Past: شارژ کردم (shârzh kardam, I charged)
• Subjunctive: شارژ کنم (shârzh konam, that I charge)
• Negative past: شارژ نکردم (shârzh nakardam, I did not charge)

How it gets used

gushi-am shârzh nadâreh, kojâ mitunam shârzh-esh konam?

My phone has no charge, where can I charge it?

گوشیم شارژ نداره، کجا می‌تونم شارژش کنم؟

bâtri-ye laptop-am-o shab shârzh mikonam.

I charge my laptop battery at night.

باتری لپ‌تاپمو شب شارژ می‌کنم.

sim-kârt-am-o az kioosk shârzh kardam.

I topped up my SIM card at the kiosk.

سیم‌کارتمو از کیوسک شارژ کردم.

Where it comes from

شارژ entered Persian alongside the spread of electronics in the 1980s and 1990s. The pronunciation tracks the French rather than the English (the زh sound at the end is the French j, ژ in Persian), a pattern visible across Persian technical loans where the early importers were French-trained engineers and translators. کردن absorbed it the way it absorbs every loan; thousands of Persian compound verbs use this exact pattern (تلفن کردن, سیو کردن, پارک کردن).

Register and feel

Universal. A1 vocabulary. No Iranian over the age of five does not know this verb. There is no Pure Persian replacement in active use; Farhangestan has proposed پر کردن (por kardan, to fill) for the SIM-card sense, but speakers ignore it.

References

• Dehkhoda, شارژ
• Vajehyab, شارژ کردن