Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "بسته" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce بسته in Farsi?

بسته is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /bæste/. It means “closed.” Say "bas-TEH", with a short, clear "eh" at the end — that final ه is a real vowel here, not a silent letter.

Say "bas-TEH", with a short, clear "eh" at the end — that final ه is a real vowel here, not a silent letter.

بسته /bæste/

baste

Stress is on the final syllable, -TE; the ه at the end of this word represents a short "e" vowel sound (not an "h" consonant), a common spelling pattern in Persian for words ending in that vowel.

Listen: بسته

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Sound it out

بسـ "b" as in "boy" plus "s" as in "sun", with a short "a" vowel like the one in "cup".

تـ A "t" as in "top".

ه Here the letter functions as a short "e" vowel, like the e in "bed", rather than as an "h" sound — this is a very common word-final spelling in Persian.

Hear it in a sentence

مغازه بسته است.

Maghāze baste ast.

The shop is closed.

Listen: مغازه بسته است.

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"Maghāze baste ast" (The shop is closed) pairs baste with maghāze ("shop, store"); this baste is the passive participle of the verb bastan ("to close"), so literally the sentence reads "the shop is [in a] closed [state]" — a pattern shared by many Persian adjectives that double as past participles.

Where English speakers slip

Because the final ه looks like it could be silent to English readers (as h's often are at the end of English words), learners frequently drop it and say something closer to "bast"; pronouncing that trailing short "e" clearly is essential; without it, baste can be misheard as the unrelated word bast.