Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "تابستان" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce تابستان in Farsi?

تابستان is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [tɒːbestɒːn]. It means “summer.” Say it like 'TAH-bess-TAHN' — two long, open 'ah' sounds bookending a quick 'bess' in the middle; stress falls on the final syllable.

Say it like 'TAH-bess-TAHN' — two long, open 'ah' sounds bookending a quick 'bess' in the middle; stress falls on the final syllable.

تابستان [tɒːbestɒːn]

tābestān

Stress lands on the final syllable -tān, as it does in most Persian nouns; don't be tempted to stress the first syllable the way English 'SUM-mer' would suggest.

Listen: تابستان

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Sound it out

تا Pronounced 'tā' — a hard English 't' followed by the long, open 'ah' vowel found in 'father', held a beat longer than a short English 'a'.

بس Pronounced 'bes' — just like the start of English 'best' without the final 't', a clipped syllable between the two long vowels.

تان Pronounced 'tān' — another hard 't' plus the same long 'ah' as the first syllable, closed off with a simple English 'n'.

Hear it in a sentence

تابستان در ایران گرم است.

Tābestān dar Irān garm ast.

Summer in Iran is hot.

Listen: تابستان در ایران گرم است.

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Tābestān dar Irān garm ast. — 'Summer in Iran is hot.' The preposition در (dar) means 'in', and ast is the plain, unstressed verb 'is' that Persian tacks onto the end of a sentence rather than placing it after the subject the way English does. Notice there's no article ('the summer') — Persian nouns like tābestān stand alone when speaking generally about a season.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers tend to shorten both 'ā' vowels into a quick English 'a' sound, turning tābestān into something closer to 'tab-eh-stan'. Keep both a-sounds long and open like the 'a' in 'father', and keep the stress on the final syllable rather than the first.