Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "رئیس" in Farsi?

Say "ra-EES" with a tiny catch in the throat right before 'ees' — two syllables, stress on the second.

رئیس /ræˈʔis/

ra'is

Stress is on the final syllable, -is; the ئ marks a genuine glottal stop between the two syllables, so don't slide 'ra' and 'is' together.

Listen: رئیس

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Sound it out

ر 'ra', a light tapped r plus a short 'a' as in English 'cup'.

ئی a brief glottal stop (like the catch in the middle of English 'uh-oh') followed by a long 'i' as in 'see' — this is the stressed syllable.

س a plain English 's', closing the word.

Hear it in a sentence

رئیسم امروز نیامد.

Ra'is-am emruz nayāmad.

My boss didn't come today.

Listen: رئیسم امروز نیامد.

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'Ra'is-am emruz nayāmad' means 'My boss didn't come today' — ra'is-am attaches the possessive suffix -am ('my') directly to the noun, and nayāmad is the negative past of āmadan (to come), formed with the prefix na-.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers usually skip the glottal stop entirely and say a smooth 'ra-ees'; in careful Tehrani speech there's a real, if brief, break between the two syllables that shouldn't be elided.