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This study is a contrastive investigation between English and Persian sound-spelling systems in which the problematic areas for both English and Persian learners have been identified. Firstly, the researcher has determined the common base between the two languages, i.e. the structural phonology, and has postulated it as the tertium comparationis of the study. Through an in-depth examining of the sound-spelling characteristics of each language, the study has gone through the description stage. After that, the comparable features have been identified in the juxtaposition stage. Then, in the comparison stage, the detailed comparison and contrast of the two languages have been made in terms of the juxtaposed sound-spelling features. Finally, the EFL learners' pronunciation problems have been analyzed for the prediction stage. The results have indicated that there are a number of regularities and irregularities which can be problematic for both English and Persian learners, especially for non-native speakers learning English. Moreover, this study has some implications in TEFL for teachers to know and consider such problematic areas and teach the students these inconsistencies so as to reduce such preventative factors in their learning

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