What it means
پاشو (pâsho) is the spoken-Persian imperative meaning “get up” or “get a move on.” It comes from the compound verb پا شدن (pâ shodan), built from پا (pâ, foot or leg) and شدن (shodan, to become). In formal writing you would use بلند شو (boland sho) or برخیز (barkhiz), but in daily conversation پاشو is what you actually hear. The word carries a range of urgency depending on tone: a gentle پاشو from a parent waking a child is very different from a sharp پاشو on the street. Because it is a compound verb, the negative imperative is پا نشو (pâ nasho), meaning “don’t get up” or “stay seated.”
How to use it
- پاشو دیر شد! (pâsho, dir shod!) “Get up, we’re late!”
- پاشو بریم یه چیزی بخوریم (pâsho berim ye chizi bokhorim) “Come on, let’s go get something to eat.”
- پاشو یه لیوان آب بیار (pâsho ye livân âb biâr) “Get up and bring a glass of water.”
- پا نشو، همینجا بمون (pâ nasho, haminjâ bemun) “Don’t get up, stay right here.”
Cultural note
پاشو is one of the first imperatives a learner of colloquial Persian encounters because it appears constantly in family life, in films, and in everyday street dialogue. Iranian parents use it at breakfast, Persian coaches shout it at players, friends say it to drag each other off the couch. Its frequency in colloquial speech makes it a reliable marker that someone is speaking natural, informal Farsi rather than textbook Persian.
References
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