Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "دریا" in Farsi?

"dar-YAH" — the first syllable has the short, flat 'a' of English 'cat', and the second has a long 'ah' carrying the stress.

دریا [dæɾˈjɑː]

daryā

Stress is on the final syllable yā; the initial dar is short and unstressed.

Listen: دریا

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Sound it out

در 'dar' — 'd' plus a short 'a' like the vowel in English 'cat' (Tehrani Persian pronounces this short vowel higher and fronter than the 'a' of 'father'), then a light tapped 'r'.

یا 'yā' — English 'y' as in 'yes' plus the long 'ā' of 'father', stressed.

Hear it in a sentence

دریا نزدیک شهر ماست.

Daryā nazdik-e shahr-e māst.

The sea is near our city.

Listen: دریا نزدیک شهر ماست.

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دریا نزدیک شهر ماست ("The sea is near our city") ends with ماست, a fusion of ما ("our") plus است ("is") after the ezafe on شهر-ِ ما ("our city") — a compact way Persian merges a possessive pronoun directly onto the verb 'to be'.

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is giving the first syllable the same long 'ah' as the second — dar should stay short and crisp, closer to English 'cat' than to 'car'.