What it means
ظرف (zarf) means dish, bowl, container, or vessel. The word is Arabic in origin and in Persian covers any receptacle: a bowl of soup, a plate, a cup, a pot, a box. The plural ظروف (zoruf) means tableware or crockery, and ظرفشویی (zarf-shuyi) is dishwashing, the daily kitchen chore. Beyond the physical meaning, zarf appears in a common time expression: ظرف ده دقیقه (zarf-e dah daghighe) means within ten minutes, where zarf functions as a container for time, a usage borrowed directly from classical Arabic grammar. This dual life as both a kitchen noun and a time preposition makes zarf one of the more versatile words at this level.
How to use it
- ظرفها رو بشور (zarf-hâ ro beshu) “Wash the dishes.”
- این ظرف شکسته (in zarf shekaste) “This dish is broken.”
- ظرف یه ساعت میام (zarf-e ye sâ’at miyâm) “I’ll be there within an hour.”
- ظرفشویی نوبت توئه (zarf-shuyi nobat-e tuye) “It’s your turn to do the dishes.”
Cultural note
In Iranian homes, washing the dishes after a meal is a shared domestic responsibility and the subject of many good-natured negotiations between family members. The phrase نوبت کیه؟ (nobat-e kieh, whose turn is it?) is a fixture of Iranian kitchen life. Large family gatherings such as Nowruz dinners can produce towering stacks of ظروف, and helping with the washing up is considered a mark of good character and respect for the host.
References
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