Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "وقتی" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce وقتی in Farsi?

وقتی is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /væɣˈtiː/. It means “when.” Say "vakh-TEE," but replace the "kh" with the raspy, back-of-throat sound you'd use for خ — like clearing your throat gently while saying "vah."

Say "vakh-TEE," but replace the "kh" with the raspy, back-of-throat sound you'd use for خ — like clearing your throat gently while saying "vah."

وقتی /væɣˈtiː/

vaghti

Stress falls on the final syllable, -تی ("-ti"), giving it a rising, forward-leaning feel rather than the flat stress English "WHEN" gets.

Listen: وقتی

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Sound it out

و A "v" sound here, not "w" — و can be either depending on the word, but in وقتی it's a clear English "v" as in "van."

ق The "gh" sound — a raspy, uvular scrape made at the back of the throat, similar to a French "r" or the sound of gargling; it's the same sound غ makes.

تی A crisp "ti" like the end of "party," with the stress landing right here.

Hear it in a sentence

وقتی به خانه می‌رسم، غذا می‌پزم.

Vaghti be khāne miresam, ghazā mipazam.

When I get home, I cook.

Listen: وقتی به خانه می‌رسم، غذا می‌پزم.

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In وقتی به خانه می‌رسم، غذا می‌پزم, وقتی works just like English "when" to introduce a time clause, and again the time clause comes first, before the main action. Both verbs, می‌رسم ("I arrive") and می‌پزم ("I cook"), use the می‌ prefix that marks ongoing or habitual present action — a useful pattern to notice since وقتی-clauses very often pair with this everyday, habitual verb form.

Where English speakers slip

Learners frequently flatten ق into a plain English "g" or "k," saying something like "vak-ti" — but that loses the distinctive raspy quality that makes the word recognizably Persian. It's also easy to mix وقتی up with وقت ("time," no -ی), which is the noun this word is built from but is pronounced without the final "ti" syllable.