تمام

What it means

تمام (tamâm) is an Arabic-origin adjective and adverb that Persian has pressed into heavy service. It covers four related meanings in everyday use: all or entire (تمام روز, tamâm-e ruz, the whole day), finished or over (کارم تمومه, kâram tamuhe, my work is done), complete (تمام توجهم رو دادم, tamâm-e tavajjoham ro dâdam, I gave my full attention), and done as a colloquial signal of completion or finality. The spoken form تموم (tamum) is what you will hear in casual Tehran conversation; تمام is the careful and written form. A very close synonym is همه (hame, all, everyone), which focuses more on countable items, while tamâm emphasises the wholeness or completeness of something.

How to use it

• تمومه (tamume) “It’s done. / It’s over. / Finished.”
• تمام روز کار کردم (tamâm-e ruz kâr kardam) “I worked all day.”
• پولم تموم شد (pulam tamum shod) “My money ran out.”
• تمام بچه‌ها اومدن (tamâm-e bachche-hâ umadan) “All the kids came.”

Cultural note

تمومه (it is finished) and تمومش کن (finish it) are among the most common phrases in informal Persian, used to close a conversation, end an argument, or declare that a task is complete. In formal contexts تمام شد (tamâm shod) is the neutral announcement that something has ended. The word also appears in compound expressions like تمام وقت (tamâm-vaqt, full-time) in job listings. Learners notice tamâm early because it is one of those words that appears in almost every spoken exchange once you start paying attention.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab