Iranian Alphabet

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Writing System

Type of writing system: abjad - includes letters only for consonants. Vowels, when indicated, are written with diacritics and/or combinations of consonant letters

Direction of writing: right to left in horizontal lines; numerals written from left to right.

Used to write: Persian (İÇÑÓی)

Vavoul Sound

Persian has seven vowel sounds: â (/ɒː/), a (/æ/), e (/e/), I (/iː/), o (/o/), u (/uː/), ow (/ou/)

"Alef" has no particular sound. At the beginning of words by means of diacritics it can denote "â" (آ), "a" (اَ), "e" (اِ), "o" (اُ) but elsewhere, it always denotes "â". However, only the diacritic of "â" (آ) is commonly written and you just have to memorize the pronunciation. For example: آب (âb) – water, اسب (asb) – horse, امید (omid) – hope, امشب (emšab) - tonight