The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Persian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Persian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Persian.

Consonants[1]
IPA Letter Examples English approximation
b ب برادر beet
d د د‫وست‬ den[2]
ج جوان jazz
f ف فشار fast
ɡ گ گروه gate
ɣ غ
[3] ق
باغ between gate and hat
ɢ قلم
h ه
ح
هفت hat
j ی یا yard
k ک کشور cat
l ل لب land
m م مادر man
n ن نان neck
p ‫پ‬ ‫پدر‬ pen
ɾ ر ایران Rolled R (Spanish/Italian R)[4]
s س
ص
ث
سایه sock
ʃ ‫ش‬ ‫شاه‬ shah
t ت
ط
تا tall[2]
چ چوب chip
v و ویژه oven
x خ خانه loch (Scottish)
z ز
ذ
ض
ظ
آزاد jazz
ʒ ژ ژاله vision
ʔ ع
ء
معنا As in water, better, Let's go! in (Cockney) - department, not now! in RP - See T-glottalization
Marginal consonants
ŋ نگ رنگ sing
Stress
ˈ [5] ایران
[iˈɾɒːn]
again
आईपीए: /əˈɡeɪn/
Vowels
IPA Letter Examples English approximation
Monophthongs[6]
æ [7][8] نه bat
ɒː ا تا As in the interjection aw but slightly shorter in length - similar to caught (American English)
e [7][8] که between bate and bet
ی کی beat
o [7][9] تو boat (but shorter)
و تو boot
Diphthongs
ei ی کی bay, they
ou و نو flow
  1. Persian consonants can be geminated, especially in words from Arabic. This is represented in IPA by doubling the consonant: [sejjed].
  2. The Persian alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ are either apico-alveolar or apico-dental. The unvoiced stops /p, t, tʃ, k/ are aspirated much like their English counterparts: they become aspirated when they begin a syllable, though aspiration is not contrastive. Farsi does not have syllable-initial consonant clusters, so unlike in English, /p, t/ are aspirated even following /s/, as in /hastam/ "I am".
  3. In Classical Persian, غ and ق denoted [ɣ] and [q], respectively. In modern Tehrani Persian (which is used in the Iranian mass media), there is no difference in the pronunciation of غ and ق; both represent [ɣ] or [ɢ], which are in complementary distribution depending on their position in the word. When /ɣ/ occurs at the beginning of a word, it is realized as a voiced uvular plosive [ɢ]. However, the classic pronunciation difference for غ and ق is preserved in the eastern variants of Persian (i.e. Dari and Tajiki), as well as the southern dialects of the modern Iranian variety (e.g. Yazdi and Kermani dialects).
  4. An alveolar flap ɾ, which is used in many American and Australian accents for intervocalic /t/; also often heard for /r/ in Scotland. In Persian, as in Spanish, Catalan, and other Romance languages, it has a trilled allophone [r] at the beginning of a word.
  5. One syllable in each word (or breath group) is stressed; stress falls on the last stem syllable of most words. For the various exception and other clarifications, see Persian phonology#Stress
  6. Diachronically, Persian possessed a distinction of length in its underlying vowel inventory, contrasting the long vowels /iː/, /uː/, /ɒː/ with the short vowels /e/, /o/, /æ/ respectively.
  7. In the modern Persian script, the "short" vowels /æ/, /e/, /o/ are usually not written; only the long vowels /ɒː/, /iː/, /uː/ are represented in the text. This, of course, creates certain ambiguities. Consider the following: kerm "worm", karam "generosity", kerem "cream", and krom "chrome" are all spelled ‹کرمk-r-m in Persian. The reader must determine the word from context. The Arabic system of vocalization marks known as harakat is also used to indicate the Persian short vowels, though some of the symbols have different pronunciations. For example, an Arabic damma is pronounced [ʊ], while in Iranian Persian it is pronounced [o]. This system is not used in mainstream Persian literature; it is primarily used for teaching and in some (but not all) dictionaries.
  8. Word-final /æ/ is very rare in Iranian Persian, except for /næ/ "no." The word-final /æ/ in Early New Persian mostly shifted to /e/ in contemporary Iranian Persian (often romanized as ‹eh›), but is preserved in the Eastern dialects.
  9. Word-final /o/ is rare except for /to/ "you (singular)".