Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "بودن" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce بودن in Farsi?

بودن is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /buːˈdæn/. It means “to be.” Say boo-DAN, with a long 'oo' as in 'boot' and the stress on the second syllable. This is the bare infinitive 'to be' — in real sentences you'll mostly meet its irregular conjugated forms like ast/hastam instead.

Say boo-DAN, with a long 'oo' as in 'boot' and the stress on the second syllable. This is the bare infinitive 'to be' — in real sentences you'll mostly meet its irregular conjugated forms like ast/hastam instead.

بودن /buːˈdæn/

budan

Like all Persian infinitives, budan stresses its final syllable -dan, not the bu- root.

Listen: بودن

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

ب A plain b, exactly like English 'b' in 'boy'.

و A long 'u' vowel, like the 'oo' in 'boot' — hold it a beat longer than an English short 'u'.

دن 'dan', with a crisp unaspirated d and a short a like the 'u' in 'cup'; this syllable carries the main stress.

Hear it in a sentence

او خوشحال است.

U khoshhāl ast.

He/She is happy.

Listen: او خوشحال است.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

The example 'او خوشحال است' (u khoshhāl ast, 'He/she is happy') doesn't use budan itself — it uses ast, the irregular present-tense form of 'to be'. Persian 'to be' is suppletive: ast, hastam, hastim etc. are the everyday forms, and the infinitive budan mainly shows up in compound tenses and dictionaries.

Where English speakers slip

Learners often try to attach the present-tense mi- prefix to forms of 'to be' (e.g. inventing 'mibāsham'), but ast/hastam and friends never take mi- in normal speech — they're already complete present-tense forms on their own.