Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "-م" in Farsi?

A quick, unstressed "-am" tacked onto the end of a word, rhyming with English "jam" but said lightly and fast.

-م /-æm/

-am

Always unstressed — this enclitic suffix rides on the noun it attaches to and never pulls the stress toward itself.

Listen: -م

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Sound it out

م A short, unstressed "-am" ending glued directly onto a noun to mean "my" — like tacking "'s mine" onto the end of a word instead of saying a separate word.

Hear it in a sentence

این خانه‌ام است.

In khāne-am ast.

This is my house.

Listen: این خانه‌ام است.

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"In khāne-am ast" (این خانه‌ام است) attaches -am to khāne ("house") to mean "my house"; because khāne already ends in the vowel ه (e), a small connecting hamza-like glide is written before -am (خانه‌ام), though it's still pronounced as one smooth unit, roughly "khāne-am."

Where English speakers slip

English speakers instinctively reach for a separate word like "my" placed before the noun, but Persian possessive enclitics like -am attach directly onto the end of the noun instead — there is a separate standalone word (mal-e man) too, but the suffix form is far more common in everyday speech and shouldn't be skipped in favor of always using the separate word.