Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "داشتن" in Farsi?

Say dahsh-TAN, with the first syllable rhyming with 'gosh' said with an open 'ah', and stress on the second syllable.

داشتن /dɒːʃˈtæn/

dāshtan

As an infinitive, dāshtan stresses the final syllable -tan, following the regular infinitive pattern.

Listen: داشتن

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Sound it out

دا 'dā' — a plain d followed by a long open ā, like the 'a' in 'father'.

ش sh, exactly like English 'sh' in 'shoe'.

تن 'tan', with a crisp unaspirated t; rhymes roughly with 'John' but starts with t not j.

Hear it in a sentence

یک برادر دارم.

Yek barādar dāram.

I have a brother.

Listen: یک برادر دارم.

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In 'یک برادر دارم' (yek barādar dāram, 'I have a brother'), dāram is the present-tense 1st-person form. Unlike almost every other Persian verb, dāshtan's present tense never takes the mi- prefix — dāram, dāri, dārad are already complete present forms.

Where English speakers slip

The single most common mistake is adding mi- by analogy with other verbs (saying 'midāram' instead of 'dāram') — dāshtan is one of the few verbs whose present tense is always bare, with no mi-.