What it means
ملحفه (malhafe) means “bedsheet,” the piece of cloth you spread over a mattress to sleep on or to keep the bedding clean. Although it is written and listed in dictionaries as a loanword from Arabic (مَلْحَفَة), in daily conversation almost everyone uses the softened, colloquial form ملافه (malâfe). The two are the same thing: ملحفه is the more formal or written spelling, ملافه is what you actually hear. It belongs to the wider world of روتختی (rutakhti), the full set of bedding that includes the sheet, the duvet cover, and the pillowcases.
How to use it
- ملافه رو عوض کن (malâfe ro avaz kon) “change the sheet”
- این ملحفه خیلی نرمه (in malhafe kheyli narme) “this bedsheet is very soft”
- یه دست ملافهی تمیز بنداز رو تخت (ye dast malâfe-ye tamiz bendâz ru takht) “put a clean set of sheets on the bed”
- ملافهها رو شستم آویزون کردم (malâfe-hâ ro shostam âvizun kardam) “I washed the sheets and hung them up”
Cultural note
In Iranian homes the bedsheet is usually sold as part of a سرویس روتختی (servis-e rutakhti), a matching set with the duvet cover and pillowcases. Washing and changing the ملافه is a routine part of خانهتکانی, the deep house cleaning done before Nowruz, when many families also buy a fresh set. Because the colloquial ملافه is so common, some speakers are surprised to learn the “correct” written form is ملحفه.