What it means
تصادف کردن (tasâdof kardan) means to have an accident, to crash, or to collide, most often in a traffic context. The noun تصادف (tasâdof) comes from the Arabic root ص-د-ف (s-d-f), which carries the sense of chance encounter or coincidence. In Arabic, tasaduf originally meant things happening to meet by chance. In modern Persian the word has narrowed almost entirely to the traffic accident sense, while the pure coincidence meaning is handled by اتفاق (ettefâq) or تصادف followed by context. The light verb کردن (kardan, to do) turns the noun into a verb, a pattern that applies to hundreds of Arabic-origin nouns in Persian. A synonym in more formal registers is تصادم کردن (tasâdom kardan), also from Arabic, meaning to collide head-on.
How to use it
- دیروز تو خیابون تصادف کردم. (diruz tu khiyâbun tasâdof kardam.) “I had an accident on the road yesterday.”
- دو تا ماشین با هم تصادف کردن. (do tâ mâshin bâ ham tasâdof kardan.) “Two cars collided with each other.”
- خوشبختانه تصادف بدی نبود. (khoshbakhtâne tasâdof badi nabud.) “Fortunately it was not a serious accident.”
- اگه حواست نباشه تصادف میکنی. (age havâsat nabâshe tasâdof mikoni.) “If you are not paying attention you will have an accident.”
Cultural note
Iran has one of the highest road accident rates in the world per capita, a fact Iranians themselves discuss openly. Tehran traffic is famously chaotic, and تصادف کردن comes up in daily conversation with a frequency that reflects this reality. Drivers routinely navigate intersections where traffic lights are treated as suggestions, and the cultural phrase ایران که باشی تصادف میکنی (in Iran you will have an accident) is said half-jokingly among both locals and expats. Road safety campaigns have made تصادف a word that also appears heavily in official public health messaging.