Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "خوشحال" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce خوشحال in Farsi?

خوشحال is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /xoʃˈhɒːl/. It means “happy.” Say "khosh-HAHL," with a raspy kh at the start and a clearly pronounced h before the long final ā.

Say "khosh-HAHL," with a raspy kh at the start and a clearly pronounced h before the long final ā.

خوشحال /xoʃˈhɒːl/

khoshhāl

Stress falls on the second syllable, HĀL; unusually for Persian spelling, there are two h-type letters back to back (ش then ح), but only one h-sound is actually pronounced, right before the long ā.

Listen: خوشحال

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Sound it out

خوش "khosh": start with the raspy throat-scrape of خ (like Scottish "loch"), then a short "o" as in "go," then sh as in "shoe."

حال "hāl": a plain h as in English "hat," then a long open "ah" as in "father," then l as in "light," carrying the stress.

Hear it in a sentence

امروز خوشحالم.

Emruz khoshhāl-am.

I am happy today.

Listen: امروز خوشحالم.

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"Emruz khoshhāl-am" attaches the possessive/personal suffix -am directly to the adjective to mean "I am happy," without needing a separate word for "am" — this is a very common shortcut in Persian for describing your own current state.

Where English speakers slip

The double h-letters (ش immediately followed by ح) look intimidating in writing, but learners should not try to pronounce two separate h sounds — it's one syllable break, "khosh-hāl," with a single clear h. Also don't let the raspy خ soften into a plain English "k."