Persian Writing and Pronunciation

Persian writing uses an extended version of the Arabic alphabet. However, besides the four additional letters, some of the other letters are pronounced differently from Arabic.

Additional Letters

The Persian alphabet has four additional letters. Furthermore, Persian ه can carry a hamza (thus becoming هٔ‬), in addition to the usual ؤ ,إ ,أ and ئ.

English Persian
ye هٔ
ch چ
g گ
p پ
Hard z /
French j		 ژ
Additional written forms found in the Persian alphabet.

Identical Sounds

Letter Arabic
Transcription		 Persian
Transcription / Sound
ه h h
ح h
Identical h sound.
Letter Arabic
Transcription		 Persian
Transcription / Sound
ت t t
ط t
Identical t sound.
Letter Arabic
Transcription		 Persian
Transcription / Sound
ز z z
ذ dh
ظ dh
ض d
Identical z sound.
Letter Arabic
Transcription		 Persian
Transcription / Sound
س s s
ص s
ث th
Identical s sound.

Consonants with Different Sounds from Arabic

Letter Arabic Persian
Classical Dari Iranian
و‬ w w v
ی a y

Vowels

Row Letters Transcription IPA Transcription
Arabic &
Classical Persian		 Classical Dari Iranian Iranian
1 a a a æ
2 a a: ɒ̝ː ɒ
4 e e:
5 i i
6 i i:
8 o o:
9 u u
10 u u:
11 ai, ay aj
12 aw, au aw