Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "متأسفم" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce متأسفم in Farsi?

متأسفم is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [mo.tæ.ʔæs.ˈse.fæm]. It means “sorry.” mo-ta-as-SEH-fam, with a distinct little catch-in-the-throat between 'ta' and 'as' (that's the hamza), and the stress landing just before the ending.

mo-ta-as-SEH-fam, with a distinct little catch-in-the-throat between 'ta' and 'as' (that's the hamza), and the stress landing just before the ending.

متأسفم [mo.tæ.ʔæs.ˈse.fæm]

mota'assefam

The base adjective motassef is stressed on its own final syllable; attaching the unstressed enclitic -am keeps that same stress point, which resurfaces as the 'se' syllable right before '-fam'.

Listen: متأسفم

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Sound it out

مت Unstressed 'mo-ta', both short vowels said quickly.

أ The hamze (أ) is a glottal stop — the same catch-in-the-throat as the pause in English 'uh-oh' — keeping the two vowel sounds distinct, so it's 'ta-assef', not a blended 'taassef'.

سفم 's' plus 'ef' plus 'am' — the stress lands right on this syllable: mota'as-SE-fam.

Hear it in a sentence

متأسفم، دیر کردم.

Mota'assefam, dir kardam.

I'm sorry, I'm late.

Listen: متأسفم، دیر کردم.

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'متأسفم، دیر کردم' uses another light-verb construction, دیر کردن ('to be late', literally 'to do late'), paralleling کمک کردن from earlier examples — Persian leans heavily on noun/adjective + کردن combinations instead of single verbs.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers tend to smooth over the glottal stop entirely, running the word together as 'mo-tas-se-fam'; Iranians keep that small throat-catch clearly audible between 'ta' and 'assef'.