# Persian: Date



## Daffodil100

Hello,

The following dialogue is excerpted from my textbook. 
لا له : پروین ٬ امروز چندو است ؟
پروین : امروز نوز دهم است
لاله :‌ چه ماهی ؟
پروین :‌ ماه بهمن

I wonder whether or not the following Persian sentences I translate are correct.

1. What is date today? (Include month, and date)

امروز چیست ؟
2. What is your birthday? (- Include month and date)

روز تولد شما چیست؟ 


And how to ask a person's full date of birth  including day, month, and year?

Thank you!


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## IMANAKBARI

Daffodil100 said:


> The following dialogue is excerpted from my textbook.
> لا له : پروین ٬ امروز چندم است ؟
> پروین : امروز نوز دهم است
> لاله :‌ چه ماهی ؟
> پروین :‌ ماه بهمن
> 
> I wonder whether or not the following Persian sentences I translate are correct.
> 
> 1. What is date today? (Include month, and date)
> 
> امروز چیست ؟
> *امروز چندمه / چندم است ؟ *
> 2. What is your birthday? (- Include month and date)
> 
> روز تولد شما چیست؟
> * تولدتون چه روزی است ؟  *
> 
> And how to ask a person's full date of birth  including day, month, and year?
> * تاریخ دقیق تولدتون چیه ؟ ***
> *!**  تاریخ تولدتون رو با سال, ماه و روز دقیقش بگید ** *


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## Daffodil100

Thank you very much for your help.

*امروز چندمه / چندم است ؟ *

Then, why did Parveen answer her only with day but not month?


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## IMANAKBARI

Oops, so, in this case :
*امروز چندم ماه است ؟*
*امروزه 5 خرداد است*


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## Treaty

Because Laleh asked her only of the day. So Perveen assumed that Laleh already knew the month. So she only answered with the day. Or perhaps they were aware of being characters of a language textbook .

Anyway, امروز چندم است؟ or امروز چندم ماه/برج است؟ does not mean "what date is today?" but "what day *in month* is today?". So the answer will be the ordinal number and, if you are lucky, the name of the month. Because when you ask such questions, you suggest that you already know the month. For guaranteeing the date, you'd better use تاریخ:

امروز چه تاریخی است؟ = What date is today?
تاریخ ِ امروز چیست؟ = what is the date [of today]?

In English, they usually ask "*when *is your birthday?" (not "what"). In Persian, it would become:

ـ [روز] تولد شما *کِی* است؟ = when is your birthday? (you will get a sufficient clue, like "next Monday" or the date itself)
For getting the day, as suggested by Iman:
تولد شما *چه روزی* است؟ = what day is your birth[day]? (you will usually get both day and month)

I'm not sure about روز تولد چیست؟. For me it's like someone asking me to fill the "DD" part of the date in a registration form. Or, maybe like always it is my personal feeling 

For a guaranteed answer of date, you would use Iman's suggestions with تاریخ.


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## Daffodil100

Thank you very much for the replies of you two. 



> *امروزه 5 خرداد است*



1. what does 5 stand for?

2. what does *ه* after *امروز* mean?



> روز] تولد شما *کِی* است




what does *کِی* mean ?

P.S. If you or anyone esle know some forum in English where Iranians and non-Iran flock, and I can learn about Persian culture, Iranian lives,  Iranian pop music, etc., please let me know. I spent some time to search it, but came across nothing, except for some for tourists, and Iran Military Forum, which I tried to register but failed time and again. I don't know why.


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## IMANAKBARI

Daffodil100 said:


> 1. what does 5 stand for?
> 
> This is the answer to the question
> *امروز چندم ماه است ؟ : Yu Yang   *
> *امروز 5 / پنجم / پنج خرداد است : Zhao Xuri*
> 
> 
> 2. what does *ه* after *امروز* mean? *Oh excuse me it's just a typo !!! *


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## Treaty

Daffodil100 said:


> Thank you very much for the replies of you two.
> 
> what does *کِی* mean ?
> 
> P.S. If you or anyone esle know some forum in English where Iranians and non-Iran flock, and I can learn about Persian culture, Iranian lives,  Iranian pop music, etc., please let me know. I spent some time to search it, but came across nothing, except for some for tourists, and Iran Military Forum, which I tried to register but failed time and again. I don't know why.



کی /key/ means "when", and is used as both interrogative word and conjunction (mainly for making objective noun clause):
As interrogative: ـ [شما] *کی *می روی؟ = *When *do you go?
As objective conjunction: من می دانم [که شما] *کی *می روی= I know *when *you go. (the clause is used always at the end of the sentence).
An exceptional structure: *اینکه کی* = the fact when ...
*اینکه کی *می روی مهم است = *The fact when *you go, is important. 
*اینکه کی *می روی را می دانم = I know *the fact when *you go. 

Indeed, it is upsetting that we do not see English forums about Iran. We live in world of supply and demand. If there is no popular demand for Iranian culture around the globe, you won't probably see websites about it in English. However, we say جوینده یابنده است "searcher is finder". You may not find a forum like here with a part of a sub-sub-forum dedicated to Iranian languages, but you may find many Iranians are members of various cultural forums. Just keep in mind, many of cultural topics are matters of division among people. You may not always hear the whole story.


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## Daffodil100

IMANAKBARI & Treaty, thank you very much again.

*ام






			روز چندم ماه است ؟ : Yu Yang 
امروز 5 / پنجم / پنج خرداد است : Zhao Xuri
		
Click to expand...

*

What do Yu Yang, Zhao Xuri mean?

Are those Chinese phonetic symbols?


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## IMANAKBARI

Daffodil100 said:


> What do Yu Yang, Zhao Xuri mean?
> 
> Are those Chinese phonetic symbols?


No, I chose just two Chinese name for this conversation ! 
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Xuri
 http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Yang


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## Daffodil100

IMANAKBARI said:


> No, I chose just two Chinese name for this conversation !
> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Xuri
> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Yang



How are the Chinese names relevant to my question about 5?


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## Treaty

Daffodil100 said:


> How are the Chinese names relevant to my question about 5?


It is common in Iran to bring examples that are more familiar for the listener. This is either for avoiding unnecessary focus on translating the less important details, or for making the examples more interesting for the listener. The Chinese names are probably more familiar to you than Parvin and Laleh.


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## Daffodil100

*ز چندم ماه است ؟ : Yu Yang 
امروز 5 / پنجم / پنج خرداد است : Zhao Xuri


*Could you explain what 5 means here?

Today 5 which date?

Previously I didn't realize it makes a dialogue. 


Thanks


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## Treaty

Daffodil100 said:


> *ز چندم ماه است ؟ : Yu Yang
> امروز 5 / پنجم / پنج خرداد است : Zhao Xuri
> *Could you furthur illustrate how the Chinese works on the above sentences?
> Thanks!



It is just an example. The mindset was that you may feel cozier with these Chinese names since your first language is Chinese; or, it may be easier for you to imagine this conversation visually, because you may have better pictures of those Chinese people in your mind than pictures of two Iranian girls. However, it seems that it has worked conversely, and confused you. Anyway, let me bring you examples of good old day math:

1- A has two apples and B has three. If C gives an apple to each, how many apples will A and B have?
2- John has two apples and Liza has three. If Chris gives an apple to each, how many apples will John and Liza have?

In example #2, John, Liza and Chris are introduced to make the abstract mathematical A,B & C more familiar for the student. However, if the examples were for an Arab, Chinese or Persian student, the names would have been changed into names of their own languages. In IMAN's examples, the Chinese names were added because he had thought that you may be easier to grasp the main idea of "month days" if names are in your own language. 

In addition, it is probable that he wanted to display a friendly gesture by exchanging some Chinese words. Since you are devoting your time for learning our language and culture, we wanted to show our respect by using something from your culture and that we also care about your culture.


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## Daffodil100

Thank you for taking time to explain. There is no cultural gap for me about adopting Chinese names to me. It is worldwide thing, and not only just in Iran. 

Casting aside names, could you translate this sentence into English? I am very confused by 5.

*امروز 5 / پنجم / پنج خرداد است

（*Let's focus on this sentence only)


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## Treaty

Sorry, I've not seen your edited post when I started to write my last reply.

I'm not sure what you mean by confusing "5". It means 5. It seems to me that you might have been confused about "چندم", because many languages like English do not have synonyms for it. Anyway, this is the translation:

*امروز 5 خرداد است
Today is *(the) *5*(th)* of Khordad.*

*امروز 28 مِی است*
*Today is *(the) *28*(th) *of May.*

You can write the number in letters, either ordinal or cardinal.
*امروز پنجِ خرداد است*
*Today is *(the)* five of Khordad.

امروز پنجمِ خرداد است
Today is* (the)* fifth of Khordad.*


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## Daffodil100

Thank you very much. I finally understood. I didn't know why I was stumbled by 5. It refers to 5th of  Khordad, which is a new word for me.


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