What it means
سبق (sabaq) means a lesson, a passage recited for a teacher, or a unit of study. The word is borrowed from Arabic, where the root س-ب-ق (s-b-q) carries the idea of going ahead or taking precedence. In classical Islamic education, سبق referred to the portion of text a student memorized and recited to the teacher each day. In modern Persian, it is the ordinary word for a school lesson or a chapter in a textbook. The word درس (dars, also from Arabic) is a common synonym and is often interchangeable with سبق in everyday speech, though درس can also mean the act of studying more broadly.
How to use it
- سبق امروز رو حفظ کردی؟ (Sabaq-e emruz ro hefz kardi?) “Did you memorize today’s lesson?”
- معلم یه سبق جدید داد. (Mo’allem ye sabaq-e jadid dâd.) “The teacher gave a new lesson.”
- این سبق خیلی سخته. (In sabaq kheyli sakhte.) “This lesson is very difficult.”
- باید سبق فردا رو بخونم. (Bâyad sabaq-e fardâ ro bekhoonam.) “I need to study tomorrow’s lesson.”
Cultural note
The tradition behind سبق goes back to the maktab, the traditional Islamic elementary school where students sat before a teacher and recited memorized passages from the Quran or classical poetry. This oral recitation model shaped Persian educational culture for centuries. Although modern Iranian schools follow a different structure, the word سبق has survived and is now used naturally for any school lesson or unit. Parents asking their children about school will often use سبق and درس interchangeably without any sense that one is more classical than the other.