Persian Shopping Vocabulary: Bazaar to Supermarket

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The first time I went shopping in Tehran after years of living in Milan, I handed a shopkeeper a 500,000 rial note for a bottle of water. He looked at me like I'd insulted his mother. "Panjâh tomân," he said slowly, holding up the note. Fifty tomans. Not five hundred thousand anything. That's when I realized: knowing Persian shopping vocabulary isn't just about memorizing words for "cheap" and "expensive." It's about understanding a system where the price on the tag and the price people say out loud are two different numbers. and if you don't know that, you're going to overpay for everything.

Shopping in Iran is nothing like grabbing stuff off a shelf at an Esselunga in Milan. Half the economy runs through bazaars where prices are negotiated, not labeled. The other half runs through supermarkets where prices are labeled but quoted in a currency that technically doesn't exist anymore. Fun, right?

This post gives you the actual words you need. from store types to money talk to sizes and quantities. If you want the phrases for haggling at the bazaar or what to say at the market, I've got separate posts for those. This one is the word list. Those are the phrase guides.

Store Types

Let's start with where Iranians actually shop. Not every store is a "maghâze". each type has its own name, and people use them daily.

مغازه. maghâze. shop / store (generic)

This is the catch-all. Any shop. A clothes store, a phone repair kiosk, a random hole-in-the-wall selling batteries. all maghâze.

سوپرمارکت. supermârket. supermarket

Yes, it's a loanword. Iranians say it exactly like you'd expect, just with a Persian accent. These range from tiny corner shops to massive chains like Shahrvand and Hyperstar.

بازار. bâzâr. bazaar / traditional market

The OG shopping experience. Tehran's Grand Bazaar alone has over 10,000 shops. This isn't a farmers' market with artisanal cheese. it's a labyrinth of specialized corridors where entire sections sell nothing but gold, or carpets, or spices.

پاساژ. pasâzh. shopping arcade / mall

From the French "passage." These are the indoor multi-story shopping centers that popped up everywhere in the '90s and 2000s. Every Iranian city has dozens of them.

دکّه. dakkeh. kiosk / small stand

The little stands on street corners selling cigarettes, gum, phone credit, and snacks. Vital part of daily life.

نانوایی. nânvâyi. bakery (bread shop)

Not a French patisserie. This is where you get your daily sangak, barbari, or lavâsh. Most neighborhoods have at least two.

قصّابی. ghasâbi. butcher shop

منّاوی. manâvi. corner shop / convenience store

The neighborhood manâvi is where you run when you need eggs at 10 PM. Think of it as a Persian bodega.

سبزی‌فروشی. sabzi-forushi. greengrocer / vegetable shop

Literally "vegetable-selling." Fresh herbs, fruits, vegetables. often cheaper than the supermarket.

داروخانه. dâru-khâne. pharmacy

Literally "medicine-house." You'll hear this one a lot because Iranians buy half their medications over the counter.

Money Talk

This is where foreigners get confused. and where Iranians silently judge your math skills. Here are the ten money words you actually need.

قیمت. qeymat. price

The most important word in any shopping scenario. Qeymat-esh chand-e?. "What's the price?" is your survival phrase.

تخفیف. takhfif. discount

Magic word at the bazaar. Just saying it sometimes knocks 10% off.

ارزان. arzân. cheap / inexpensive

گران. gerân. expensive

These two are your best friends. You'll use gerân approximately forty times per bazaar visit, whether you mean it or not. It's part of the haggling dance.

مجّانی. majâni. free

When the shopkeeper throws in a little extra. some herbs, a handful of dried fruit. that's majâni. It happens more often than you'd think.

پول. pul. money

باقی. bâghi. change (money back)

Important: if you don't ask for your bâghi, some vendors won't offer it. Not out of malice. it's just assumed you might leave it as a tip.

حساب. hesâb. bill / check / account

At a restaurant: hesâb lotfan. "Check, please." At a shop, it means the total.

کارت. kârt. card (bank card)

نقد. naghd. cash

What to Say

These aren't just vocabulary words. they're the action verbs and short phrases that make you functional in any store. For full haggling phrases and scripts, check the dedicated post. Here's the core vocabulary.

خریدن. kharidan. to buy

فروختن. forushtan. to sell

گرانه. gerân-e. "it's expensive"

Drop this casually and watch the price move. It's not rude. it's expected.

ارزان‌تر. arzân-tar. cheaper

The comparative form. Arzân-tar nadârid?. "Don't you have (something) cheaper?" Works everywhere.

چند میشه؟. chand mishe?. "How much is it?" / "How much does it come to?"

Your go-to price question. Works for single items and totals.

می‌خوام. mikhâm. "I want" (colloquial)

The spoken form of mikhâham. Used constantly: Mikhâm in-o. "I want this one."

دارید؟. dârid?. "Do you have (it)?"

Point at what you want, or describe it, then add dârid? Simple and effective.

نیست. nist. "there isn't any" / "it's not available"

When the shopkeeper shakes his head and says nist, it's over. Move on to the next shop.

If you're building your core Farsi vocabulary, the words in this section are some of the highest-frequency terms you'll encounter.

Sizes, Quantities, and Measures

Iran uses the metric system, but daily shopping has its own set of quantity words that don't always map neatly to metric units.

کیلو. kilo. kilogram

Fruit, meat, rice, vegetables. everything is sold by the kilo. Yek kilo sib. "one kilo of apples."

متر. metr. meter

For fabric, rope, anything measured in length.

تا. tâ. piece / unit (counter word)

This is the Persian counter word. Seh tâ sib. "three apples" (literally "three units apple"). You'll use tâ more than almost any other word when shopping.

جفت. joft. pair

For shoes, socks, gloves: yek joft kafsh. "a pair of shoes."

بسته. baste. package / pack

Yek baste shir. "a pack of milk." Used for anything that comes in a sealed package.

لیتر. litr. liter

For liquids: milk, oil, water.

اندازه. andâze. size / measurement

Andâze-ye shomâ chi-e?. "What's your size?" Essential for clothing shopping.

Need to talk about Persian numbers? That's a whole separate system worth learning before you hit the shops.

The Tomân vs. Riâl Confusion (and How to Not Get Ripped Off)

Here's the math cheat sheet:

Someone says "dah tomân" (10 tomans) → price tag shows 100,000 rials → it costs about $0.20 USD (rates fluctuate wildly).

Someone says "panjâh tomân" (50 tomans) → that's 500,000 rials.

Someone says "yek meliun" (one million) → they mean one million tomans = 10,000,000 rials.

The confusion multiplies at the bazaar where prices change daily and the rial-to-dollar rate is a moving target. My advice: get used to thinking in tomans, ignore rials entirely, and use a currency converter app on your phone for the first week. After that, your brain adjusts.

One more trap: some vendors in tourist areas quote prices in rials to make them sound bigger, hoping you'll hear the number and just pay without converting. If a carpet seller says "pânzdah meliun" and you think he means tomans, you're about to pay ten times too much. When in doubt, clarify.

Quick Reference Table

FAQ

If you want to practice these words with someone who won't judge your pronunciation. or your confused face when the price has too many zeros. I'm on Preply and I teach conversational Tehrani Farsi. We can do a mock shopping scenario where I overcharge you and you practice saying gerân-e until it sounds convincing.

Want to build your vocabulary systematically instead of memorizing random word lists? ZabanYar organizes Persian words by real-life situations. shopping included. so you learn what you'll actually use.

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.