میگه

What it means

میگه (mige) is the spoken-Tehrani 3rd-person-singular present of the verb goftan (“to say”). It means “he says” or “she says.” Iranians use it constantly to report speech, recount conversations, and frame gossip. The classic Iranian story-opener is یارو میگه (yâru mige), “the guy says…” Persian has no quotation marks in everyday speech; mige does the framing on its own.

How to use it

• میگه نمی‌تونم (mige nemitunam) “he says I can’t”
• چی میگه (chi mige) “what’s he saying?”
• مامانم میگه بیا (mâmânam mige biyâ) “my mom says come”
• هیچی نمیگه (hichi nemige) “he isn’t saying anything”
• داره میگه (dâre mige) “he’s saying right now”
• میگه چرا (mige cherâ) “he’s asking why”

Spoken vs written

Spoken: میگه (mige). Written or formal: می‌گوید (miguyad). The shift is regular for goftan: the formal -uy- middle plus -ad ending collapses to -i- plus -e. So miguyad becomes mige, miguyam becomes migam (“I say”), and miguyim becomes migim (“we say”). Use miguyad in essays, news, and formal narration; use mige in any natural conversation.

The pattern fits the broader Tehrani rule: formal -ad endings become -e in spoken speech across most verbs. So می‌بیند (mibinad, “he sees”) becomes میبینه (mibine), and می‌خواند (mikhânad, “he reads”) becomes میخونه (mikhune). The middle vowel sometimes shifts too, but the ending change is the most consistent signal.

Cultural note

The phrase یارو میگه (yâru mige), “some guy says,” is the universal Iranian joke setup. Almost every joke or anecdote starts this way, the equivalent of English “so this guy walks into a bar.” Mige also has a quoting force without quotation marks: in spoken Persian the verb itself does the work that English needs punctuation for. Listen for it in any Tehran taxi conversation.

The progressive داره میگه (dâre mige), “he’s saying right now,” is essential for live commentary, as in soccer broadcasts where the announcer narrates events in real time. There’s also a sarcastic use: میگه میام (mige miyâm), “yeah, he says he’s coming,” with rolling intonation, conveys that the speaker has been waiting an hour and doesn’t believe it anymore.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab
• Wiktionary