Pronunciation
The regular letters used for written Farsi stand for some different sounds. It is usually difficult to tell how a word is pronounced just by looking at how it is spelled. Therefore, it is useful to show the pronunciation of each word separately, using a system of symbols in which each symbol stands for one sound only. The pronunciations of letters and words are given within two slashes.
This book uses a simple spelling system to show how letters and words are pronounced, using the symbols listed below.
Symbol | Example | Symbol | Example |
a | hat /hat | m | move /muv |
â | cut / cât | n | need /nid |
ay | time /tâym | o | gorgeous /gorjes |
ch | church /church | ô | coat/ côt |
d | dog /dâg | u | mood /mud |
e | men /men | p | park /park |
ey | name /neym | r | rise /rais |
f | free /fri | s | seven /seven |
g | get /get | n | nation /neishen |
h | his /hiz | t | train /treyn |
i | feet /fit | v | vary /vari |
iyu | cute /kiyut | y | yet /yet |
j | jeans /jinz | z | zipper /zipper |
k | key /ki | zh | measure /mezher/ |
kh | loch /lakh | ‘ | تعظیم/ ta’zim |
l | loss /lâs |