What it means
داره (dâre) means “s/he has” or “it has.” It is the spoken Tehrani contraction of the formal-written form دارد (dârad), the 3rd-person singular present of داشتن (dâshtan), “to have.”
How to use it
- ماشین داره (mâshin dâre) “s/he has a car”
- درد داره (dard dâre) “it hurts” (literally “it has pain”)
- الان داره میاد (alân dâre miyâd) “s/he is coming right now” (progressive marker)
Formal pair
Spoken: داره (dâre). Written or formal: دارد (dârad). You read dârad in newspapers, school textbooks, and formal speeches. You hear dâre in every Tehran taxi, family lunch, and WhatsApp voice note. Mixing the two registers in one sentence sounds odd to a native ear.
Cultural note
Dâre is also the engine of the Persian present continuous: داره میخوره (dâre mikhore), “s/he is eating right now.” Without dâre, that meaning collapses into a generic “s/he eats.” Spoken Persian leans on it constantly to mark live, unfolding action.
References
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