Persian is written in an extended version of Arabic script, known as Perso-Arabic, in Iran and Afghanistan and with a variant of Cyrillic alphabet in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Here, Persian will be written in a variant of Latin alphabet so that anybody can learn about it without the need to learn its native script. Furthermore, since Persian speakers are completely familiar with Latin alphabet and use it in chat rooms, forums, e-mails and text messages, you can easily communicate with Persian speakers in Latin alphabet.

NOTE These pages talk about the Persian of Iran. However, Persian dialects are widely intelligible and knowing one of them, you can communicate well with all Persian speakers. Especially that here, the written Persian is discussed, which is quite identical in all regions.

Vowels

letter phonetic value sound example
â ɒ: hot âb (water)
a æ cat abr (cloud)
e e egg pedar (father)
i i: eagle fil (elephant)
o o forty gol (flower)
u u: rule ruz (day)
ow oʊ American English show mowz (banana)

Consonants

letter phonetic value sound example
b b book barâdar (brother)
ch t͡ʃ chain chehel (forty)
d d door dar (door)
f f fall fil (elephant)
g g game gol (flower)
gh ɣ similar to French «r» e.g. rire Afghânestân (Afghanistan)
h h hat haft (seven)
j d͡ʒ job jens (type)
k k key kafsh (shoe)
kh x Scottish loch, German Buch, Spanish ojo khub (good)
l l leg lab (lip)
m m meal mâdar (mother)
n n no nân (bread)
p p pen pedar (father)
r r rug (thrilled as in Spanish and Italian) ruz (day)
s s sad sâl (year)
sh ʃ shoe shab (night)
t t tea tup (ball)
v v van vâlibâl (volleyball)
y j yes yek (one)
z z zoo zânu (knee)
zh ʒ s in measure zhele (jelly)
` ʔ glottal stop ma`ni (meaning)