LingoDrop
Farsi · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "چی" in Farsi?
Say "chee," one syllable, rhyming with "tea" but starting with a ch sound.
chi
A one-syllable word, so no stress placement is needed.
Listen: چی
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
چی میخوای؟
Chi mikhāy?
What do you want?
Listen: چی میخوای؟
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"چی میخوای؟" (Chi mikhāy?) means "What do you want?" This is the everyday, colloquial spoken form: چی is the casual counterpart to formal چه, and میخوای is the contracted spoken form of میخواهی — both markers of relaxed, conversational register rather than formal writing.
Where English speakers slip
چی is what you'll hear constantly in casual speech, but formal writing and polite/written contexts use چه instead — using چی in a formal letter would sound too casual. Also don't confuse چی (what) with چرا (why) or چطور (how) — all three start with چ but ask very different questions.