Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "زندگی" in Farsi?

"zen-deh-GHEE" — three syllables, stress on the last, ending in a hard 'g' (as in 'go') plus a long 'ee'.

زندگی [zendeˈɡiː]

zendegi

Stress falls on the final syllable gi; the middle syllable de is short and unstressed.

Listen: زندگی

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Sound it out

زَن 'zan' — 'z' plus the short flat 'a' of 'cat', plus 'n'.

دِ 'de' — like 'de' in English 'desk', short.

گی 'gi' — a hard 'g' as in English 'go' (never soft like 'giraffe'), plus a long 'ee', carrying the stress.

Hear it in a sentence

زندگی در این شهر آسان نیست.

Zendegi dar in shahr āsān nist.

Life in this city isn't easy.

Listen: زندگی در این شهر آسان نیست.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

زندگی در این شهر آسان نیست ("Life in this city isn't easy") places در این شهر ("in this city") between subject and predicate, and uses نیست, the negative form of است, to close the sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Softening گ into an English 'j' sound (as in "giraffe") is the giveaway English-speaker mistake — Persian گ is always the hard 'g' of "go," never soft, regardless of the following vowel.