North, South, East, West: 12 Direction Words in Farsi

Short answer: East in Farsi is sharq, west is gharb, north is shomâl and south is jonub. For directions relative to you, left is chap, right is râst, up is bâlâ, down is pâyin, far is dur, near is nazdik, and behind is aqab or posht. Râst also means straight and true, so listen for context.

Twelve words cover almost every way you will point at something in Farsi. Four are compass points, the kind you see on a map. The other eight are relative to you: left, right, up, down, near, far, and two ways to say behind.

This page is the word list. When you want to use these words in an actual conversation with a stranger on the street, the dialogue is in asking for directions in Farsi.

Compass Points in Farsi

None of the four has an example sentence in our glossary yet, so learn them as a set. A quick way to drill them is to say the four out loud while you point, then do it again in a different order.

Left, Right, Near, Far

Read the English column on this table slowly, because several of these words carry more than one meaning.

Râst means right, and also straight

Râst is the word to be careful with. It means right, as in the opposite of left, but it also means straight, and it also means true. So the same word can tell you to turn right or to keep going straight, and only context decides which.

Chap is simpler: left, and that is all our glossary gives it.

Up, down, near, far

Bâlâ is up, and also above, upstairs, top and high. Pâyin is the mirror image: down, below, downstairs, bottom and low. One word each covers what English splits into five.

Dur means far, but it also means a cycle or a round. Nazdik is near or close. For behind you have two words, aqab and posht, and both carry the sense of back or behind. For the phrases that sit around these words, like ordering food or taking a taxi, see three survival dialogues in Farsi.

Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.