Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "غلط" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce غلط in Farsi?

غلط is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɣælæt/. It means “wrong.” Say "gha-LAT", where "gh" is a raspy sound made in the back of the throat, closer to a French "r" or gargling than an English "g".

Say "gha-LAT", where "gh" is a raspy sound made in the back of the throat, closer to a French "r" or gargling than an English "g".

غلط /ɣælæt/

ghalat

Stress is on the final syllable, -LAT; the opening غ consonant is the trickiest part — it's not the hard "g" of "go" but a soft, buzzy throat sound.

Listen: غلط

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Sound it out

غ In standard Tehrani Persian this merges with ق into one raspy, back-of-the-throat sound — similar to gargling water or the French "r" in "Paris", not the hard g of English "go".

لـ An "l" as in "lot", with a short "a" vowel like the one in "cup".

ط A plain "t" as in "top" — this Arabic-derived letter is pronounced identically to the ordinary Persian ت.

Hear it in a sentence

این جواب غلط است.

In javāb ghalat ast.

This answer is wrong.

Listen: این جواب غلط است.

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"In javāb ghalat ast" (This answer is wrong) is the direct opposite of the previous entry's example sentence, javāb-e shomā dorost ast, and unlike that sentence it uses no ezafe — javāb here stands alone as the subject with no possessive attached, since "this answer" needs no linking -e.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers almost always substitute a hard English "g" for غ, saying something like "ga-lat"; that hard-g pronunciation is a very noticeable foreign-accent marker in Persian, so practicing the raspy, uvular version is worth the extra effort.