Persian Transportation Words: Getting Around in Farsi

📚 Persian Vocabulary by Topic. Series A1 | Level: Beginner

The first time I called a Snapp in Tehran, my Italian roommate watched me tap the screen and said, "Why does everything on your phone look like a mirror image of Uber?" Good question. The interface is in Farsi, the map labels are in Farsi, and the driver who called me two seconds later spoke only Farsi. If you want to get anywhere in Iran. or even talk about getting anywhere. you need Persian transportation vocabulary. Not phrases (I've got a whole guide for that). Words. The building blocks. The 35 terms that cover every vehicle, place, direction, and Tehran-specific concept you'll run into.

Here's the thing about farsi transport words that nobody tells you: half of them are French. Seriously. Iran's modernization under Reza Shah in the 1920s–40s brought French engineers, French roads, and French vocabulary. That history is baked into every bus ride and taxi negotiation you'll ever have in Persian.

Vehicles in Persian

Let's start with what you're riding in. Ten words, and you'll notice something fast. a lot of these sound suspiciously European.

ماشین. mâshin. car

The default word for car. From French machine. Nobody in Tehran says خودرو (khodrow, the formal/literary word) unless they're reading a news headline or filling out government paperwork.

اتوبوس. otobus. bus

Straight from French autobus. Used everywhere, formal and informal. City buses, intercity coaches. all otobus.

مترو. metro. metro/subway

Another French import. Tehran's metro opened in 1999 and now has seven lines. You'll hear this word constantly.

موتور / موتورسیکلت. motor / motorsiklet. motorcycle

Everyone says motor. The full motorsiklet (from French motocyclette) is technically correct but sounds formal. Tehran's motor-riders are legendary. they weave through traffic like water through rocks.

تاکسی. tâksi. taxi

From French taxi. In Tehran, this covers yellow cabs, green cabs, and the shared-ride system. If you want the full breakdown of Tehran's taxi chaos, I wrote an entire episode about it.

کامیون. kâmion. truck

From French camion. The big rigs on the highway. You'll see them loaded impossibly high on the Tehran-Isfahan route.

وانت. vânet. pickup truck / van

From English "van" + a Persian twist. These are the small cargo trucks you see everywhere. delivering fruit, furniture, building materials. A vânet-bâr is a moving truck.

دوچرخه. docharkheh. bicycle

This one is pure Persian: do (two) + charkheh (wheel). Two-wheeler. One of the few transport words that didn't come from France. Cycling in Tehran is... brave. Isfahan is more bike-friendly.

قطار. qatâr. train

Arabic origin. Used for both intercity trains and, sometimes, the metro (though most people just say metro for the subway).

هواپیما. havâpeymâ. airplane

Pure Persian: havâ (air) + peymâ (traveler). One of those beautiful compound words that actually describes what the thing does. The formal word is the same as the spoken one. no register split here.

Places You'll Go (and Get Stuck)

Knowing vehicles is useless if you can't name where they stop, park, or get lost.

ایستگاه. istgâh. station / stop

The universal word. Istgâh-e metro (metro station), istgâh-e otobus (bus stop), istgâh-e qatâr (train station). Learn this one and you've unlocked ten phrases.

فرودگاه. forudgâh. airport

Persian compound: forud (descent/landing) + gâh (place). The place of landing. IKA (Imam Khomeini International) is the main Tehran airport.

ترمینال. terminâl. terminal

Borrowed from English/French. Used for bus terminals specifically. Tehran has four major ones: South (jonub), West (gharb), East (shargh), and Beihaghi.

پارکینگ. pârking. parking lot/garage

Directly from English. Finding pârking in Tehran is a full-time job. Double-parking is an art form there. people leave their cars in neutral so others can push them out of the way.

بزرگراه. bozorgrâh. highway / freeway

Persian: bozorg (big) + râh (road). Tehran's highways are a category of experience unto themselves. The Hemmat and Hakim expressways during rush hour are not for the faint-hearted.

خیابان. khiyâbân. street / avenue

The standard word for any street. Khiyâbân-e Valiasr is the longest street in the Middle East. 18 kilometers from north to south Tehran.

کوچه. kuche. alley / side street

Smaller than a khiyâbân. Tehran's residential areas are a maze of kuche-hâ (alleys). This is where real neighborhood life happens. kids playing, old men on benches, cats everywhere.

میدان. meydân. square / roundabout

Tehran runs on meydân-hâ. Meydân-e Azâdi, Meydân-e Valiasr, Meydân-e Tajrish. these are your landmarks. When someone gives you directions, they'll reference the nearest meydân. (For more on how directions work in Iran, read my post on asking directions in Farsi.)

پل. pol. bridge

Short, sweet, pure Persian. Pol-e Tabiat (Nature Bridge) in Tehran is a pedestrian bridge that's become one of the city's landmarks.

چهارراه. châhâr-râh. intersection / crossroads

Literally "four roads." Where four streets meet. Traffic lights at châhâr-râh-hâ are... suggestions. Suggestions that most people follow, but suggestions nonetheless.

Directions and Movement

You know the vehicles and the places. Now you need to connect them. the words that tell you which way to go and how to get on and off.

راست. râst. right

چپ. chap. left

مستقیم. mostaghim. straight

These three are your holy trinity of directions. Burn them into your brain. When someone on the street waves and says mostaghim boro, ba'd bepich râst. go straight, then turn right. you need to process that in real time, not look it up.

دور زدن. dor zadan. to make a U-turn

Literally "to hit around." Tehran drivers do this with alarming frequency and zero warning.

پیچیدن. pichidan. to turn

The verb behind every direction. Bepich râst = turn right. Bepich chap = turn left. The spoken command drops the formal ending: bepich not bepichid.

پیاده رفتن. piâde raftan. to walk / to go on foot

Literally "to go pedestrian." Piâde miram = I'll walk. Essential when a taxi driver quotes a ridiculous price and you decide your legs work fine.

سوار شدن. savâr shodan. to get on / to board

Used for every vehicle. Savâr-e metro shodam = I got on the metro. Savâr sham? = Should I get in? You'll use this one daily.

پیاده شدن. piâde shodan. to get off / to disembark

The opposite of savâr shodan. Haminjâ piâde misham = I'll get off right here. This is one of the most important phrases for taxis. it's how you tell the driver to stop.

The French Invasion: Why Iranian Transportation Speaks French

Count the French loanwords on this page. Mâshin (machine), otobus (autobus), motor (moteur), motorsiklet (motocyclette), tâksi (taxi), kâmion (camion), metro (métro). That's seven out of ten vehicle words. Seventy percent.

This isn't an accident. In the early 20th century, Iran's modernization was modeled heavily on France. French was the language of diplomacy and education among Iran's elite. When cars, buses, and trucks arrived, the words came with them. imported alongside the machines themselves. Reza Shah's government sent students to French universities, hired French engineers to build Iran's first railway, and French became the prestige foreign language.

The result: if you speak French (or even know some French basics from school), you've already got a head start on Persian transportation vocabulary. An Italian speaker like me picks them up fast too, since Italian and French share Latin roots. Camion is the same in Italian and Persian. Small wins.

Tehran-Specific: Snapp, BRT, and the Metro

Tehran has its own transport vocabulary that you won't find in any textbook. These are words born from the city's specific infrastructure. and if you spend more than two days there, you'll hear all of them.

اسنپ گرفتن. snapp gereftan. to order/take a Snapp

Snapp is Iran's Uber. The verb gereftan (to take/grab) pairs with it naturally. Snapp begir = order a Snapp. This has become so common that it's essentially replaced "call a taxi" for anyone under 40 in Tehran.

بی‌آرتی. bi-âr-ti (BRT). Bus Rapid Transit

Tehran's BRT system has dedicated lanes down major streets. Faster than regular buses, cheaper than taxis. The buses are red and hard to miss. People say bi-âr-ti using the English letters pronounced Persian-style.

خط مترو. khat-e metro. metro line

Tehran has seven metro lines (and counting). Khat-e yek (Line 1) runs north-south from Tajrish to Kahrizak. People identify their commute by line number: man khat-e do suar misham. I ride Line 2.

کارت مترو. kârt-e metro. metro card

The rechargeable transit card. Works on the metro and BRT buses. You can buy one at any station. Kârt-e metro-am shârj nadâre = my metro card has no balance. a sentence every Tehrani has said at a turnstile at least once.

That textbook version? No one has ever said that in the history of Tehran. It's snapp begir and nothing else. This is exactly why learning from real spoken Persian matters. and why I built ZabanYar to teach the words people actually use.

Quick Reference Table

FAQ

These 35 words cover the vehicles, places, and movements you'll need for any transport situation in Iran. For full phrases and dialogues. how to negotiate a taxi, what to say on the metro, how to buy a bus ticket. check out my complete Farsi transportation phrases guide and the Tehran taxi episode.

If you want to practice these words with a native speaker who'll correct your pronunciation and teach you the spoken forms that textbooks skip, book a lesson with me on Preply. We'll get you from "what does mâshin mean?" to "snapp begir berim" in one session.

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.