Telling Time, the Iranian Calendar and Money in Farsi

Numbers matter most in practical moments: telling the time, reading a date on the Iranian calendar, paying in tomans. This post covers those. The numbers themselves, from 1 to 100 with their spoken forms, are in the Persian numbers guide, which also explains counting rules and ordinals.

Telling Time in Farsi

The phrase you need immediately:

ساعت چنده؟ (sâ'at chande?): What time is it?
Formal: ساعت چند است؟ (sâ'at chand ast?)

The answer follows a simple pattern: ساعت + number + است/ـه.

ساعت سه‌ست (sâ'at se-st): It's 3 o'clock.
ساعت پنج و نیم (sâ'at panj-o-nim): It's 5:30 (five and half).
ساعت هشت و ربع (sâ'at hasht-o-rob'): It's 8:15 (eight and quarter).
ساعت ده کم ده دقیقه (sâ'at dah kam dah daqiqeh): It's 9:50 (ten minus ten minutes).

Key time vocabulary:

نیم (nim): half
ربع (rob'): quarter
دقیقه (daqiqeh): minute
کم (kam): minus/less
صبح (sobh): morning
ظهر (zohr): noon
بعدازظهر (ba'd-az-zohr): afternoon
عصر (asr): late afternoon/evening
شب (shab): night

For the full time-telling system with all its variations, the telling time post goes deep. This section gives you the vocabulary; that post gives you the grammar and the cultural context (like why "I'll be there at five" actually means "sometime between five and six").

The Solar Calendar: Why It's 1405, Not 2026

Iran uses the Solar Hijri calendar, تقویم شمسی (taqvim-e shamsi). The year starts at Nowruz (March 20/21). As of this writing, it's 1405 in Iran, not 2026. The calendar is solar (like the Gregorian) but counts from the Prophet Muhammad's emigration to Medina (like the Islamic lunar calendar), then converts to solar years. The result: Iranian dates don't match either Western or Islamic dates.

The twelve months:

The first six months have 31 days. The next five have 30. The last one (Esfand) has 29, or 30 in leap years. This mirrors the solar reality better than the Gregorian calendar's random 28/30/31 distribution.

Days of the week:

Days are numbered from Saturday: yekshanbe = "one-shanbe" (first day after shanbe). The weekend in Iran is Thursday and Friday. The work week runs Saturday to Wednesday. Jom'eh (Friday) is from Arabic and is the holy day, the exception to the number pattern.

Money: Toman vs Rial

Iran's official currency is the ریال (riyâl). Banknotes, receipts and shop price tags are in rials. In daily life, though, people count in تومان (tomân): one toman is ten rials.

Because of inflation, people also drop the thousands when they say a price. A taxi driver who says dah tomân (ten toman) means ten thousand tomans, which is 100,000 rials:

So a spoken price takes two steps: add the missing thousands, then multiply by 10 for rials (panjâh tomân is 50,000 tomans, or 500,000 rials). A price tag in rials goes the other way: divide by 10 to get tomans. Some shops now show prices in tomans, so check which unit you are reading.

The currency itself is changing. In October 2025, Iran's parliament approved a redenomination: one new rial will equal 10,000 of today's rials and will be divided into 100 qerans, with old and new money circulating side by side for up to three years. The central bank announces when that period starts, so check which money is in use before you travel.

Numbers in Daily Life

Beyond counting, here's where numbers show up in everyday Farsi:

Phone numbers: Iranians read phone numbers digit by digit. A Tehran number (021-XXXX-XXXX) is read: sefr-do-yek ... Each digit individually. Mobile numbers start with 09.

Ages:
Chand sâlet-e?: How old are you? (literally "how many years are you?")
Si sâlam-e: I'm 30.

Prices:
In chand-e?: How much is this?
Cheqad mishe?: How much does it come to? (at a restaurant or shop)

Addresses:
Pelâk-e bist-o-se: Number 23 (building number).
Tabaqe-ye sevvom: Third floor. (Ordinal: add -om to the number.)

Ordinal numbers:
First = اول (avval), the one exception (Arabic-origin)
Second = دوم (dovvom)
Third = سوم (sevvom)
Pattern: number + ـم (-om). Fourth = chahârom. Fifth = panjom. Tenth = dahom.

For the full grammar of how numbers interact with nouns, classifiers, and ordinal construction, the grammar numbers post covers everything. And for a complete vocabulary foundation, the 100 most common words includes the essential numbers in their frequency context.

FAQ

Numbers, time, money, and the calendar: four systems that trip up every learner and that no amount of grammar knowledge compensates for. The taxi driver doesn't care if you can conjugate raftan perfectly. He cares if you understand what dah tomân means.

For the grammar side of numbers (counting rules, ordinal construction, and how numbers interact with nouns), the grammar post covers the patterns. This post gave you the vocabulary. Together, they're the complete package.

Our app, ZabanYar, is coming soon. If you want someone to quiz you on prices, times and dates in real conversation, I teach on Preply.

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.