LingoDrop
Farsi · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "کی" in Farsi?
Say "kee" but with a shorter, lighter vowel than English "key" — think a clipped "ki" rather than a drawn-out "kee."
ki
A one-syllable word, so no stress placement is needed; the important thing is the short i vowel, distinguishing it from its look-alike کِی ("when").
Listen: کی
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
کی هستید؟
Ki hastid?
Who are you?
Listen: کی هستید؟
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"کی هستید؟" (Ki hastid?) means "Who are you?" — a simple question-word-plus-verb structure, with هستید ("are") at the end as usual.
Where English speakers slip
This is the trickiest of the question words because کی ("who," pronounced ki) is spelled identically to کِی ("when," pronounced key) in normal, unvocalized writing — the diacritic that distinguishes them is almost never written outside textbooks, so you have to tell them apart from context and from how they're spoken aloud. Don't assume every written کی is "who"; check whether the sentence is asking about a person or a time.