What it means
گریه کردن (gerye kardan) means to cry or to weep. The noun گریه (gerye) is native Persian, derived from the older verb گریستن (gerístan), which means to weep and appears in classical poetry. In daily speech the compound form گریه کردن is far more common than the simple verb گریستن, which sounds literary. You use it for crying from sadness, joy, pain, or emotion. A near synonym is اشک ریختن (ashk rikhtan), literally to shed tears, which is slightly more formal and appears in writing and song lyrics.
How to use it
- گریه نکن، درست میشه. (gerye nakan, dorost mishe.) “Don’t cry, it’ll be okay.”
- وقتی اون فیلم رو دیدم گریهام گرفت. (vaghti on film ro didam geryeam gereft.) “When I watched that film I started to cry.”
- بچه داره گریه میکنه. (bache dâre gerye mikone.) “The child is crying.”
- از خوشحالی گریه کردم. (az khoshhâli gerye kardam.) “I cried from happiness.”
Cultural note
Crying holds a prominent and accepted place in Iranian emotional culture. Public weeping at funerals, religious mourning ceremonies such as those held during Muharram, and at family gatherings is not seen as weakness but as a natural and often communal expression of feeling. The phrase گریهام گرفت (geryeam gereft), literally crying took me, is the most natural way to say you suddenly started crying, and it captures how Iranians often frame emotion as something that arrives and takes hold of a person rather than something they choose. گریه کردن also appears in countless Persian songs and poems as a marker of longing and love.