Is there an easy trick to tell words of Persian origin?

Is there an easy trick to tell words of Persian origin?

No, there’s not a magic way (I wish there were!), but here are some clues:

- Words with the letters گ – چ – پ – ژ are good candidates to be of Persian origin as these sounds are not found in Arabic – most borrowed words are from Arabic, so once Arabic is ruled out, then we have an easier scenario, since words from other languages, e.g., European languages, are easier to tell.

- Another thing is the word structure. Words from Arabic origin can be recognizable from their Arabic consonantal roots. For example, if we see the word tadris تدریس ‘teaching’ and we already know that the word dars درس ‘lesson’ is Arabic, then we may guess that the former is also Arabic.

- The above point can be helpful with Persian words as well; for example, if I see the word daanesh دانش ‘knowledge’ and I know that daan- دان is the present stem of daanestan دانستن ‘to know’, then I may guess that the former is Persian too.

- Some letters, like ق, make the word a potential candidate for being of Arabic origin.

- A native or advanced speaker of any language automatically develops a sense of the language. For instance, when I hear an uncommon word, if it brings a familiar sound pattern/word structure to my mind, then it might be of Persian origin.

- Finally, the above clues are only guidelines (sometimes they could mislead us), so it’s always a good idea to check different sources when we’re not sure.