What it means
ایمیل (imeyl) is a phonetic borrowing from English “email,” adapted to Persian pronunciation and script. It refers to an electronic mail message, an email address, and the medium of email communication in general. The verb form ایمیل زدن (imeyl zadan) or ایمیل فرستادن (imeyl ferestadan) means “to send an email.” The Farsi Academy proposed رایانامه (rayaname) as a native term, but ایمیل is what everyone says.
How to use it
- یه ایمیل برات فرستادم. (Ye imeyl barat ferestaadam.) “I sent you an email.”
- ایمیلت رو چک کردی؟ (Imeylet ro chek kardi?) “Did you check your email?”
- آدرس ایمیلت رو بده. (Aadres imeylet ro bede.) “Give me your email address.”
- ایمیلشو پیدا نمیکنم. (Imeylesho peydaa nemikonam.) “I can’t find his email.”
Cultural note
Email arrived in Iran in the mid-1990s alongside the country’s first widespread internet access. Because the word entered the language before any official standardization effort had traction, ایمیل became immediately entrenched. The government-backed alternative رایانامه appears in official communications and school textbooks but is almost never heard in conversation. This gap between prescribed and actual usage is a recurring feature of Persian technology vocabulary.