Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "گاهی" in Farsi?

Say "gah-HEE," with a long "ah" first and the stress landing on the final long "ee."

گاهی /gɒːˈhi/

gāhi

Stress falls on the final syllable, -hi, because the ی here is a full adverb-forming suffix (not the unstressed native -e ending), so the regular final-stress rule applies.

Listen: گاهی

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Sound it out

گا g (hard, like "go") + a long "ā" (like father), unstressed here.

هی h + a long "ee" — the stressed syllable, -HI.

Hear it in a sentence

گاهی به سینما می‌روم.

Gāhi be sinemā miravam.

I sometimes go to the cinema.

Listen: گاهی به سینما می‌روم.

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"گاهی به سینما می‌روم" (Gāhi be sinemā miravam) means "I sometimes go to the cinema." The preposition به ("to") attaches to سینما to form "to the cinema," and the verb می‌روم ("I go") comes last, after both the adverb and the prepositional phrase — standard Persian verb-final order.

Where English speakers slip

Don't shorten the long ā in گا- to a quick English "guh" — it needs to stay open and held, like the a in "father." Learners sometimes also confuse گاهی (sometimes) with همیشه (always) since both are common frequency adverbs that get used often early on.