Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "کثیف" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce کثیف in Farsi?

کثیف is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kæˈsiːf/. It means “dirty.” Say "ka-SEEF," with a short first syllable and a long "ee" on the stressed second syllable.

Say "ka-SEEF," with a short first syllable and a long "ee" on the stressed second syllable.

کثیف /kæˈsiːf/

kasif

Stress falls on the final syllable, SIF; despite the Arabic-looking letter ث, everything here is pronounced in a straightforward, regular way.

Listen: کثیف

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Sound it out

ک k, as in English "kite," followed by a short "a" as in "cat."

ث pronounced simply as s, like English "sun" — this letter looks like it should be a "th" sound (as it is in Arabic), but in Persian it's always just a plain s.

یف a long "ee" as in "see," plus f as in "fun," closing the word with the stress.

Hear it in a sentence

دستانم کثیف است.

Dastān-am kasif ast.

My hands are dirty.

Listen: دستانم کثیف است.

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"Dastān-am kasif ast" ("My hands are dirty") attaches -am to dastān ("hands") to mean "my hands," the same possessive-suffix pattern seen with otāgh-am ("my room") earlier — a good sign that this suffix works the same way across nouns.

Where English speakers slip

Because ث looks like it should make a "th" sound (as in Arabic loanwords), English speakers who know a little Arabic sometimes mistakenly pronounce it as "th"; in Persian it is always a plain s, with no exceptions. Also keep the stress on the second syllable, not the first.