Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "عشق" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce عشق in Farsi?

عشق is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [eʃɣ]. It means “love.” "eshgh" — like English 'esh' (as in the middle of 'freshener') followed directly by that same gargled 'gh' sound at the very end.

"eshgh" — like English 'esh' (as in the middle of 'freshener') followed directly by that same gargled 'gh' sound at the very end.

عشق [eʃɣ]

eshgh

One syllable; note that the initial ع is technically a glottal stop, but in casual speech it's barely audible — many Iranians pronounce this word starting almost directly on the vowel.

Listen: عشق

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Sound it out

عِ 'e' — technically begins with ع, a glottal catch in the throat similar to the pause in English 'uh-oh', but in fast speech it's usually just a plain short 'e' as in 'set'.

شق 'shgh' — 'sh' as in 'she' followed directly by the gargled 'gh' sound, with no vowel between them.

Hear it in a sentence

عشق او به خانواده‌اش زیاد است.

Eshgh-e u be khānevāde-ash ziād ast.

His love for his family is great.

Listen: عشق او به خانواده‌اش زیاد است.

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عشق او به خانواده‌اش زیاد است ("His love for his family is great") shows the ezafe عشق-ِ او ("his love"), the preposition به ("for/to"), and زیاد ("great, a lot") right before the closing verb.

Where English speakers slip

Learners often try to split the ending -shgh into two separate sounds with a vowel in between ("esh-egh") — Persian runs them together into a single consonant cluster with no vowel at the end of the syllable.