Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "نوشتن" in Farsi?

Say ne-vesh-TAN, three syllables, with short e's like 'bed', stress on the last syllable.

نوشتن /neveʃˈtæn/

neveshtan

As an infinitive, neveshtan stresses its final syllable -tan; but its present tense is built from an entirely different stem, nevis- (see sentence note).

Listen: نوشتن

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Sound it out

نو 'ne' — plain n plus a short e like 'bed'; despite the spelling, this syllable is pronounced 'ne', not 'no'.

شت 'vesh' — v like English 'v', sh like English 'sh', short e.

ن 'tan', stressed, crisp unaspirated t plus short a.

Hear it in a sentence

او یک نامه می‌نویسد.

U yek nāme minevisad.

He/She is writing a letter.

Listen: او یک نامه می‌نویسد.

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'او یک نامه می‌نویسد' (u yek nāme minevisad, 'He/she writes a letter') uses minevisad, built on the present stem nevis- — completely different from the infinitive/past stem nevesht-. Stress falls on MI-nevisad.

Where English speakers slip

Learners naturally try to build the present tense from the infinitive, guessing 'minevesham', but the correct present stem is nevis- (minevisam, minevisi, minevisad) — this stem change is irregular and simply has to be memorized.