The present work is a parallel volume to the author's Colloquial Persian, first published in 1941. Whereas the earlier grammar set out to introduce the student to the spoken language only, in this book the aim is to provide a simple but comprehensive framework for the current written language. It is not, however, purely literary in concept, since much modern writing in Persian—in newspapers, novels, short stories, etc.—if not actually colloquial, is decidedly freer in style than the traditional literary forms sanctioned by the classics and still favoured by more conservative writers.

Persian grammar is relatively simple, and the lessons that follow give the essence of all grammatical principles that will be encountered in the course of reading modern Persian books and newspapers. The lessons are also designed, without unduly complicating the student's task, to give him some impression of the characteristic idiom and phraseology of the current language.

The Persian script is introduced in the first lessons, and thereafter no transcription is used (except from time to time to illustrate phonetic points), so that the student is obliged from the start to read in the original script. While this may seem to make the early stages somewhat more laborious, it will be found that, once this initial hurdle has been passed, progress in reading is much more rapid than if, after first learning the language in transcription, the student then had to re-learn it in a different alphabet.