Have you ever seen two Iranians texting each other using English letters, but the words make absolutely no sense in English?

You’ve just discovered Finglish!

When you first start to learn Persian, you’ll spend time learning the beautiful Persian alphabet. But if you want to text your Iranian friends or read comments on Iranian social media, you also need to know how Finglish works.

Keep reading and I’ll explain exactly how to read and write it.

What is finglish?

Finglish (a mix of the words Farsi and English) is the practice of writing Persian words using the Latin (English) alphabet.

Sometimes it is also called Pinglish (Persian + English).

It is not a separate language. It is simply a different way to write the exact same Persian words you already know. For example, instead of typing “سلام” on a Persian keyboard, you just type “salam” on an English keyboard.

Why do we use finglish?

You might be wondering: Why don’t Iranians just use the Persian keyboard?

Years ago, early cell phones and computers did not have Persian keyboards installed on them. If an Iranian person wanted to send a text message or write an email, they had no choice but to use English letters to sound out their Persian words.

Today, almost all smartphones have a Persian keyboard. However, many people still use Finglish because it is faster to type, and they are already used to it!

Note on regional variations: Finglish is heavily used by Persian speakers in Iran. In Afghanistan, Dari speakers might also use English letters online occasionally, but “Finglish” is primarily an Iranian internet culture term. In Tajikistan, Persian (Tajik) is written using the Cyrillic alphabet, so Finglish is not used there.

How to write Persian sounds with English letters

Because Persian has some sounds that do not exist in English, Finglish uses combinations of letters to represent those specific sounds.

There are no strict “official” rules for Finglish spelling. Some people might spell a word slightly differently than someone else (for example, khoob vs. khub), but everyone still understands what it means!

Here is a simple table showing how to write the trickiest Persian consonants in Finglish:

You also need to know how to handle Persian vowels. In the Persian script, short vowels are usually invisible. But in Finglish, we must write them out so the word makes sense!

Common finglish texting abbreviations

Just like how English speakers text “brb” (be right back) or “idk” (I don’t know), Iranians love to shorten their Finglish words when texting.

Usually, they do this by removing the vowels completely.

Here are a few common texting abbreviations you will see:

• Slm: Short for salam (hello)
• Mrc: Short for merci (thanks)
• Khb: Short for khoob (good)
• Fln: Short for felan (for now / bye for now)
• Khy: Short for kheili (very)
• Bkhshd: Short for bebakhshid (excuse me / sorry)

Finglish conversation examples

Now let’s put it all together! Here are some examples of what a casual Finglish text conversation looks like.

Notice how the Finglish transliteration helps you sound out exactly what is being said in Persian.

سلام، چطوری؟

Salam, chetori?

Hello, how are you?

خوبم، مرسی. چیکارا میکنی؟

Khoobam, mersi. Chikara mikoni?

I'm good, thanks. What are you doing?

هیچی. امشب میای مهمونی؟

Hichi. Emshab miay mehmooni?

Nothing much. Are you coming to the party tonight?

آره، میبینمت فعلا!

Are, mibinamet felan!

Yes, see you later!

Once you get the hang of reading the letters “kh” and “gh”, Finglish becomes incredibly easy to read. In fact, many beginners find Finglish helpful when they are still memorizing the traditional Persian alphabet.