SpeakMetry
Start free

Pronunciation · For farsi speakers

English pronunciation for farsi speakers

In short

For Farsi speakers the key fixes are /w/ (Farsi only has /v/ — 'we' → 've'), the helper 'e' before initial s-clusters ('star' → 'estar'), the ship/sheep merger, and the strut vowel ('but' drifting towards 'bot').

Your priority sounds, in order

Ordered by impact on being understood — not by how noticeable the error is. (That's why the famous 'th' is rarely first: it's heard often but changes meaning almost never.)

  1. 1

    /w/ — w as in we

    no /w/ in Farsi — 'we' → 've', 'wine' → 'vine'

    Fix: Round your lips into a tight circle, as if about to whistle. Practise: vest vs west

  2. 2

    /ɪ/ — i as in sit

    /ɪ/ tenses to /iː/ — 'bit' → 'beet', 'live' → 'leave'

    Fix: Relax your lips and jaw — no smile. Practise: ship vs sheep

  3. 3

    /ʌ/ — u as in cup

    /ʌ/ shifts towards /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ — 'but' → 'bot', 'luck' → 'lock'

    Fix: Relax your lips completely — no rounding, no spreading. Practise: cat vs cut

  4. 4

    /ŋ/ — ng as in sing

    /ŋ/ gains a hard g — 'singer' → 'sing-ger'

    Fix: Raise the back of your tongue to the soft palate — the /k/ /ɡ/ position. Practise: thin vs thing

  5. 5

    /θ/ — th as in think

    /θ/ → /t/ or /s/ — visible but secondary

    Fix: Place the tip of your tongue lightly between your top and bottom teeth. Practise: think vs sink, three vs tree

  6. 6

    /ə/ — a as in about (schwa)

    full vowels in unstressed syllables flatten the rhythm

    Fix: Relax everything: lips, jaw, tongue in the neutral middle position.

Beyond sounds: stress and rhythm

Suprasegmentals — stress, rhythm, intonation — transfer from Farsi (Persian) in predictable ways, and research shows fixing them improves real-world comprehensibility more than sound polish does.

  • Kill the prosthetic 'e': 'star', 'school', 'street' start on /s/ — practise s-clusters in isolation.
  • Farsi final-syllable stress transfers — learn English patterns for common words (TAble, STUdent, deVELop).
  • Open the mouth more overall; narrow articulation reads as mumbling in English.

Quick wins to start this week

  • ✓w-drill: tight round lips, no teeth — 'we went west' ten times daily.
  • ✓s-cluster onset practice: whisper 'sssstar', then shorten the s until natural.
  • ✓Record 'ship/sheep, live/leave' pairs weekly and listen for the short relaxed /ɪ/.

Keep exploring

Frequently asked questions

What are the hardest English sounds for farsi speakers?
The highest-impact challenges are /w/ (no /w/ in farsi); /ɪ/ (/ɪ/ tenses to /iː/); /ʌ/ (/ʌ/ shifts towards /ɑ/ or /ɔ/). These are ordered by how much they affect intelligibility, not by how noticeable they are.
Do farsi speakers need to lose their accent for IELTS?
No. IELTS explicitly accepts every standard accent — the descriptors only mention L1 accent at Band 8, and only through its effect on intelligibility. The goal is clarity, not sounding native.
Where should I start?
w-drill: tight round lips, no teeth — 'we went west' ten times daily.

Next step

Get a personal sound map for your Farsi (Persian) accent

Record a two-minute sound check in SpeakMetry and the AI maps your actual weak sounds — usually a shorter list than the one above — then coaches you through them.

Get your free sound check