What it means
یکچهارم (yek-chahârom) is the standard Persian expression for “one quarter” or “one fourth,” that is, one part out of four equal parts. It is a purely native Persian compound built from یک (yek, “one”) and چهارم (chahârom, the ordinal of چهار, “four”). You will hear it in recipes, in school math, and whenever someone divides something into four pieces. A related fraction is یکدوم (yek-dovvom), meaning “one half,” and نیم (nim) is the shorter, more colloquial word for the same half.
How to use it
- یکچهارم پیاز رو خرد کن. (Yek-chahârom-e piâz ro khord kon.) “Chop one quarter of the onion.”
- یکچهارم ساعت صبر کردم. (Yek-chahârom-e sâat sabr kardam.) “I waited a quarter of an hour.”
- یکچهارم قیمت اصلیه. (Yek-chahârom-e qeymat-e asliye.) “It is one quarter of the original price.”
- فقط یکچهارم کارا تموم شده. (Faghat yek-chahârom-e kârâ tamum shode.) “Only a quarter of the work is done.”
Cultural note
Fractions expressed as compounds with ordinal suffixes are the most natural way to state fractions in spoken Persian. Unlike English, which often uses words like “a quarter” or “a third” as fixed idioms, Persian builds these fractions systematically by combining yek with any ordinal, so learners who know the ordinal numbers can form any fraction they need. In everyday cooking contexts, یکچهارم frequently appears in Iranian recipe books and cooking videos, making it one of the first fractions Farsi learners encounter.