به

See also: ته, بہٕ, په, پہ, تۀ, بە, تہٕ, and تھ

Malay

Etymology 1

Noun

به (plural به-به or به۲, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)

1. Jawi spelling of bah (“flood”)‎

Etymology 2

Noun

به (plural به-به or به۲, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)

1. Jawi spelling of bah (“father”)‎

Etymology 3

Noun

به (plural به-به or به۲, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)

1. Jawi spelling of bah (“father”)‎

Etymology 4

Noun

به (plural به-به or به۲, informal 1st possessive بهکو, 2nd possessive بهمو, 3rd possessive بهڽ)

1. Jawi spelling of bah (“language”)‎

Etymology 5

Preposition

به

1. Jawi spelling of bah (“under, below”)‎

Pashto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba/

Particle

به • (ba)

1. will (indicating future action)

Persian

Etymology 1

From Middle Persian 𐭯𐭥𐭭 (pʿn) / PWN (pad, “to, at, in, on”), from Old Persian 𐎱𐎫𐎡𐎹 (patiy), from Proto-Iranian *pati-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ba]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [bä]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [bä]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [bä]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [bä]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [be]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [bä]

Readings
Classical reading?	ba
Dari reading?	ba
Iranian reading?	be
Tajik reading?	ba

• Audio (Iran):

  (file)

Preposition

Dari	به
Iranian Persian
Tajik	ба

به • (be)

1. Expresses the indirect object: to; for

   به من بگو. ― be man begu. ― Tell me.

   نصیحت من به شما این است.

   nasihat-e man be šomâ in ast.

   This is my advice to you.

2. Expresses the direction of movement: to; towards; into

   راه‌های رسیدن به خوشحالی

   râh-hâ-ye residan be xošhâli

   ways to reach happiness

   وزیر خارجه ترکیه به تهران رفت.

   vazir-e xâreje-ye torkiye be tehrân raft.

   The Foreign Minister of Turkey went to Tehran.

3. Forms adverbial phrases of manner: by, -ly

   به سرعت ― be sor'at ― quickly

   به زور ― be zur ― by force, forcibly

4. Indicates the language of a text, speech, etc.: in

   به فارسی ― be fârsi ― in Persian

5. Used to form vows: by, in

   به نام خدا ― be nâm-e xodâ ― in the name of God

Usage notes

(Orthography)

• Until the early 1900s, به (be) was almost always written joined to the next word:

  باو (be u)

Instead of modern

به او (be u)

However, this is now done only for common adverbial constructions formed with به (be), and even that not consistently. In other cases, it is always written as a separate word. When older works are republished, به (be) is often edited to be separate.

(Use with inflectional enclitics)

• While in literary Persian inflectional endings are never attached to prepositions, in many spoken varieties of Persian this is not the case. In the dialect of Tehran, the preposition به (be) has a /h/ inserted before inflectional endings starting with a vowel, while the dialect of Mashhad has a /z/ instead. For example, while one may say "to him" as به او (be u) (or archaically بدو (bed-u)) in literary Iranian Persian, in spoken dialects one would instead typically attach the inflectional ending ـش (-aš, pronounced in most dialects as -eš), forming بهش (beheš) in Tehrani and بذش (bezeš) in Mashhadi. See the table below for other examples:

English	Literary Persian	Tehran	Mashhad
"to me"	به من (be man)	بهم (beham)	بذم (bezem)
"to you" (singular)	به تو (be to)	بهت (behet)	بذت (bezet)
"to him/her"	به او (be u) بدو (bed-u)	بهش (beheš)	بذش (bezeš)
"to us"	به ما (be mâ)	بهمون (behemun)	بذمون (bezemun)
"to you" (plural)	به شما (be šomâ)	بهتون (behetun)	بذتون (bezetun)
"to them"	به ایشان (be išân) بدیشان (bed-išân)	بهشون (behešun)	بذشون (bezešun)

• Note that this is not unique to به (be), and other prepositions such as با (bâ) and از (az) are also inflected in many spoken varieties of Persian.

Alternative forms

• بد (bed, bad), بذ (bez, baz) (archaic or dialectal, Mashhad)
• بم (bəm) (dialectal, Herati)

Further reading

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “pad”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 62

Etymology 2

Dari	به
Iranian Persian
Tajik	беҳ

From Middle Persian [script needed] (byh /⁠bēh⁠/, “quince”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Alternative forms

• بهی (behi)
• بی (beyy) (in Isfahani dialect)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [bih]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [be̞ʱ]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [be̞ʱ]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [biː]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [bi]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [beʱ]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [beʱ]

Readings
Classical reading?	bih
Dari reading?	beh
Iranian reading?	beh
Tajik reading?	beh

Noun

به • (beh)

1. quince

Descendants

• → Avar: бигь (bih)
• → Georgian: ბია (bia)
  • → Abkhaz: а-биа (a-bja)
  • → Laz: ბიჲა (biya) — Chkhala
  • → Mingrelian: ბია (bia)
  • → Ossetian: биа (bia) — Digor
• → Lak: бигь (bih)
• → Northern Kurdish: bîhok

References

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “bēh”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 18

Etymology 3

From Middle Persian [Term?] ŠPYL / wyh (weh, “better, good”), from Old Persian 𐎺𐎢 (vahu, “good”), from Proto-Iranian *Hwáhuš, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hwásuš, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wésus (“good”). Related to Old Armenian վեհ (veh, “sublime”), an Iranian borrowing.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [bih]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [be̞ʱ]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [be̞ʱ]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [be̞]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [bi]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [beʱ]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [beʱ]

Readings
Classical reading?	bih
Dari reading?	beh
Iranian reading?	beh
Tajik reading?	beh

Adjective

Dari	به
Iranian Persian
Tajik	беҳ

به • (beh)

1. (archaic) good, excellent

   Synonym: خوب (xub)

2. (archaic) better

   Synonym: بهتر (behtar)

   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 2925:

     بَاغْبَان هَم دَانَد آن رَا دَر خَزَان / لیک دِیدِ یَک بِهْ اَز دِیدِ جَهَان

     bāğbān ham dānad ān rā dar xazān / lēk dīd-i yak bih az dīd-i jahān

     The Gardener knows that (difference) even in autumn, but the One's sight is better than the world's sight.

3. (archaic) elegant
4. (archaic) safe, sound

Derived terms

• بهتر (behtar)
• بهدین (behdin)
• بهروز (behruz)
• بهشهر (behšahr)
• بهنام (behnâm)
• بهینه (behine)
• به‌آفرید (beh-âfarid)

 

References

• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892) “به”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul
• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “weh”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 89