Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "قانون" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce قانون in Farsi?

قانون is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɣɑː.nuːn/. It means “law.” Say "ghah-NOON", stress on the second syllable, with the ق pronounced as a single "gh"-like sound (the same sound غ makes in Tehrani Persian) rather than an English "q".

Say "ghah-NOON", stress on the second syllable, with the ق pronounced as a single "gh"-like sound (the same sound غ makes in Tehrani Persian) rather than an English "q".

قانون /ɣɑː.nuːn/

ghānun

Regular final-syllable stress, on the long -nun.

Listen: قانون

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Sound it out

قا In Tehrani Persian ق merges with غ into one back-of-the-throat "gh" sound (a bit like gargling lightly), followed by a long "ah" vowel — not the English "kw" sound implied by the letter q in "queen".

نون "n" plus a long "oo" vowel plus "n", forming the stressed final syllable, rhyming with English "noon".

Hear it in a sentence

این کار خلاف قانون است.

In kār khalāf-e ghānun ast.

This act is against the law.

Listen: این کار خلاف قانون است.

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"این کار خلاف قانون است" ("This action is against the law") uses خلاف ("against/contrary to") as a preposition-like word before قانون, a common formal/legal phrase pattern (خلاف قانون بودن, "to be against the law") used in news, contracts, and everyday complaints about rule-breaking alike.

Where English speakers slip

The spelling with "q" misleads English speakers into pronouncing a "kw" sound as in "queen". In Iranian Persian ق is not a "k"-like sound at all — it's pronounced the same as غ, a voiced sound made further back in the throat, closer to a soft French/German uvular r than to any English consonant.