The Persian language has several consonants that are very difficult for English speakers to grasp. These sounds relate to the letters "qeyn", "qaf", "xeh" (all guttural sounds), "eyn" (a glottal stop), "zhe" (a "French" j) and "re" (Persians roll their R's). On this page, we have carefully chosen some cool words that have all these impossible sounds in them.

The easiest way to learn them is to print out this page, then rush out and grab a native Persian speaker and ask them to help you pronounce these words.

Let's break down the sentence above. The first line (read from right to left) is "bAq, buq, bix". We chose these words not only because they have three of the most difficult consonants, but also because they all start with "b" and each one uses one of the three long vowels in the Persian language. Learn to pronounce these words, and you will have the tough consonants and long vowels in one go!

Here is our handy transliteration chart from the transliteration page:

	x	A guttural sound that doesn't occur in English. Similar to "ch" in the German "ich" or Scottish "loch".
	q	A guttural "g" accompanied by a rattling. The French "r" is an approximation. Some use "gh" to transliterate this. We use "q".
	q	A strong guttural like the sound made while gulping. We also show this as "q".
	'	This is a glottal stop. We show it with an apostrophe ('). However, in some cases when you see this letter, it is just acting as a placeholder for a short vowel sound.
	r	Persian's roll the "r". It sounds much more dramatic than the English "r".
	zh	This is the French "j" as in "je" or the "s" in "treasure". We show it as "zh". Many Persian names with this sound are written with "j" (Like "Bijan" or "Jaleh"), but you need to French-ify it.

"qeyn" and "qaf" sound almost the same.

Some people say they ARE the same. I like to preserve the slight difference with "qeyn" as a French "r". Others don't. I think this is all part of the Persian tendency to simplify sound in language. This is the same force behind pronouncing all those different Arabic letters as "z" (see the "redundancy" page).

Yes, this section still under Construction.

As we develop the "phonics" section, it will help to clarify this section. Because it's not just about specific consonants, but also consonant combinations that are common in Persian but add to the difficulty for a foreign speaker.

In the meantime, as mentioned, the best way to get these sounds down is to go and harass your Persian friends and get them to help you say the words on this page. And here are a few more fun ones: