Things to know about Farsi
Farsi, also known as Persian, is the official language of Iran. Persian reigned as the language of culture and education for centuries throughout the Middle East and has a literary tradition that dates back to the 10th century. Farsi belongs to the Indo-European family of languages.
If your Farsi lessons require you to type Farsi characters, follow the instructions immediately below to do so. If your lessons use transliterated Farsi, see the Using Transliterated Farsi Lessons section further down.
Using Farsi Lessons
The Farsi alphabet consists of 32 letters. Farsi is written in a flowing script that runs from right to left, the opposite of English. Most Farsi letters connect to the letters preceding and following them, just as in English cursive writing. Therefore, letters often change shape depending on their placement within a word. Farsi is usually written using only consonants and long vowels, although there are small marks which can be used above or below letters to indicate short vowels.
To type Farsi characters:
- Position your cursor somewhere where you can type, and verify that the virtual keyboard layout is set to Farsi.
- Locate the character you want on the virtual keyboard, then click on it or press the corresponding key on your physical keyboard. The virtual keyboard shows the stand-alone form of each letter, but the characters will automatically change form to connect to one another as you type.
Pressing the Shift key will allow you to see certain punctuation marks, such as the question mark and the quotation marks, along with vowel marks and special characters such as tashdid (which indicates a doubled consonant). If you have to type both a tashdid and a vowel mark with the same consonant, you should normally type the tashdid before you type the vowel mark. However, there is one exception: if the vowel mark in question is zir (which represents a short vowel), you must type the zir before you type the tashdid to have the character display correctly.
Certain additional characters are available by clicking 
beside the virtual keyboard.
See Typing special scripts for details.
Using Transliterated Farsi Lessons
Some Farsi lessons in this application may be transliterated - written with the letters of the Latin alphabet, from left to right. Transliterated lessons can help you master vocabulary and pronunciation before tackling a new writing system.
You do not have to type actual Farsi characters in transliterated Farsi lessons. You can type the transliterations in any activity or assessment that requires typed answers. Transliterated Farsi does not require any special characters.