Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "پسر" in Farsi?

Say "PEH-sar", stress on the first syllable, with a short crisp "e" like in "pet".

پسر /pe.sær/

pesar

پسر also belongs to the small kinship-word set (with مادر, پدر, برادر, خواهر, دختر) stressed on the first syllable rather than the usual final one.

Listen: پسر

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Sound it out

پ English "p" as in "pen", kept distinct from ب.

س English "s" as in "sun".

ر A light tapped r, unstressed in the final syllable.

Hear it in a sentence

پسرم پنج ساله است.

Pesaram panj sāle ast.

My son is five years old.

Listen: پسرم پنج ساله است.

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"پسرم پنج ساله است" ("My son is five years old") shows the Persian age construction: number + سال ("year") + the suffix -e (ezafe) + است, literally "five-year-of is", quite different from English "is five years old".

Where English speakers slip

As with the other kinship terms, the pull of English intonation makes learners stress the second syllable ("pe-SAR"). Keep the stress up front: PE-sar. Also don't confuse it with پدر (father) — the two look and sound similar to beginners.