Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "برای" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce برای in Farsi?

برای is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /bæɾɒːje/. It means “for.” Say "ba-RAH-yeh": a quick unstressed "ba," then the main beat on a long "RĀH," finishing with a light, fast "yeh."

Say "ba-RAH-yeh": a quick unstressed "ba," then the main beat on a long "RĀH," finishing with a light, fast "yeh."

برای /bæɾɒːje/

barāye

Stress lands on the middle syllable, "RĀ" — the final "-ye" is historically an ezafe ending and stays light and unstressed even though it's now fused into one fixed word.

Listen: برای

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Sound it out

ب Like English "b" in "bar."

ر A tapped "r," like Spanish "r" in "pero."

ا A long "ā" vowel, like "a" in "father" — this is the stressed syllable.

ی A light, quick "yeh" glide, unstressed, tacked onto the end.

Hear it in a sentence

این هدیه برای شماست.

In hediye barāye shomāst.

This gift is for you.

Listen: این هدیه برای شماست.

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"In hediye barāye shomāst" (این هدیه برای شماست) shows barāye followed directly by its object with no further ezafe needed, since barāye is itself already a complete preposition ("for"). Note shomāst is a contraction of shomā + ast ("is"), common in Persian when a word ending in ā or i meets the copula.

Where English speakers slip

Learners sometimes stress the final "-ye" as if it were its own strong syllable ("ba-rā-YEH"), but native speakers keep the weight on "RĀ" and let the ending trail off quickly — over-stressing the tail makes it sound foreign.