What it means
دانلود کردن (download-kardan) is the Persian verb for pulling a file from the internet to your phone or computer. Songs, films, PDFs, apps, photos, anything that lives online and ends up local. The verb is everywhere. Iranians download-mikonand films from Filimo, voice notes from Telegram, papers from Sci-Hub, updates from the Cafe Bazaar app store. It is one of the most-used loanverbs in the language.
The Pure Persian Movement (Farhangestan-e Zaban-e Farsi) offers بارگیری کردن (bārgiri-kardan, literally load-taking) as the official replacement. Almost nobody uses it outside government broadcasts and the kind of textbook that also calls a helicopter چرخبال. Real speakers say دانلود.
Compound verb structure
Download-kardan follows the dominant Persian verb-building pattern: a borrowed noun (here English download) plus the native light verb کردن (kardan, to do). The English part stays invariant. All the grammar attaches to کردن.
- Present: من دانلود میکنم (man download mikonam), تو دانلود میکنی (to download mikoni), او دانلود میکنه (u download mikoneh)
- Past: من دانلود کردم (man download kardam), ما دانلود کردیم (mā download kardim)
- Subjunctive: که دانلود کنم (ke download konam)
- Negation: دانلود نکردم (download nakardam, I did not download)
The object takes را in formal speech and رو in casual speech: فیلم رو دانلود کردم (film-o download kardam, I downloaded the film).
How to use it
in app-o az kojā download kardi?
Where did you download this app from?
این اپ رو از کجا دانلود کردی؟
dāram āhang-e jadid-eshun-o download mikonam.
I’m downloading their new song right now.
دارم آهنگ جدیدشون رو دانلود میکنم.
internet-am kond-e, hichi download nemishe.
My internet is slow, nothing will download.
اینترنتم کنده، هیچی دانلود نمیشه.
Where it comes from
Download entered Persian in the late 1990s with the spread of dial-up and stayed because it was already a self-contained technical concept the language had no native verb for. Persian solved the slot the way it always solves new-noun problems: graft the English noun onto کردن and keep moving. The Farhangestan proposed بارگیری to plug the gap with native morphology, but the proposal arrived after دانلود had already won on millions of phones. Adoption pattern is the rule for almost every internet-era tech verb in Persian.
In our voice
Use دانلود کردن without hesitation. It is neutral register, understood by every Iranian with a phone, which is everyone. The Pure Persian alternative is worth recognizing in passing so you can decode a state broadcast, not worth deploying in conversation.
References
ZabanYar is a Persian app built for heritage learners, the people who can speak a little but want to read, write, and really get it. Free early access at launch.
Join the waitlist →