Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "فهمیدن" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce فهمیدن in Farsi?

فهمیدن is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /fæhˈmiːdæn/. It means “to understand.” Say 'fah-MEE-dahn' — the stress punches on the middle 'mi' syllable.

Say 'fah-MEE-dahn' — the stress punches on the middle 'mi' syllable.

فهمیدن /fæhˈmiːdæn/

fahmidan

As with most Persian infinitives, stress falls on the syllable right before the '-dan' ending — here that's 'mi', giving fah-MI-dan, not FAH-mi-dan or fah-mi-DAN.

Listen: فهمیدن

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Sound it out

ف ه م 'fahm' — ف is 'f', ه is a plain 'h' breath (same sound as ح, no throat friction needed), م is 'm'; roughly rhymes with 'psalm' but with an 'h'.

ی د ن 'idan' — ی here is a long 'ee', so 'mi' rhymes with 'see' and 'dan' rhymes with 'John'; stress lands on this 'mi' syllable.

Hear it in a sentence

نمی‌فهمم.

Nemifahmam.

I don't understand.

Listen: نمی‌فهمم.

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'نمی‌فهمم' (Nemifahmam, 'I don't understand') packs the negative prefix ne-, the present-continuous می-, the stem فهم, and the 1st-person ending -am into one word. In this conjugated form, stress shifts onto the می- syllable — ne-MI-fahmam — a different 'mi' from the one stressed in the bare infinitive fah-MI-dan.

Where English speakers slip

Learners often stress the negative 'ne-' at the front (NE-mifahmam), but Persian negation is unstressed — the می- prefix right after it carries the beat: ne-MI-fahmam. Getting this backwards is one of the most common mispronunciations of this very common word.