What it means
صرافی (sarrafi) means a currency exchange office, the place where you go to buy or sell foreign currency. The word comes from Arabic صراف (sarraf), meaning a money changer or banker, a profession that has existed across the Middle East and Central Asia for centuries. In modern Persian صرافی refers specifically to the physical shop or bureau where exchange transactions happen. The person who runs it is a صراف (sarraf). A close synonym in formal contexts is دفتر تبادل ارز (office of currency exchange), but صرافی is the word anyone in Iran actually uses on the street.
How to use it
- باید برم صرافی دلار بخرم. (bayad beram sarrafi dollar bekharam.) “I need to go to the exchange office to buy dollars.”
- نرخ دلار تو این صرافی چنده؟ (nerkh-e dollar too in sarrafi chande?) “What is the dollar rate at this exchange office?”
- صرافیهای خیابون فردوسی معروفن. (sarrafi-haye khiyaboon-e Ferdosi ma’rufan.) “The exchange offices on Ferdowsi Street are well known.”
- صراف گفت امروز یورو گرونه. (sarraf goft emrooz euro geruneh.) “The money changer said the euro is expensive today.”
Cultural note
Tehran’s Ferdowsi Street (خیابان فردوسی) has for decades been the most famous concentration of صرافی shops in Iran, so well known that the street name is almost synonymous with currency exchange among Iranians. Because Iran operates under international financial sanctions, the informal currency market run by صرافی offices plays an outsized role in the economy: the exchange rates quoted there often diverge significantly from the official government rate, and many everyday transactions, including rent, imports, and savings, are calculated at the صرافی rate rather than the official one. This dual-rate reality is a defining feature of Iranian economic life that any intermediate learner will encounter quickly.