Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "خواهش می‌کنم" in Farsi?

Q: How do you pronounce خواهش میکنم in Farsi?

خواهش میکنم is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [xɒː.ˈheʃ ˈmi.ko.næm]. It means “you're welcome.” khah-HESH mee-ko-nam — note the surprising twist that stress falls on the 'mi-' prefix of the verb, not on its ending.

khah-HESH mee-ko-nam — note the surprising twist that stress falls on the 'mi-' prefix of the verb, not on its ending.

خواهش می‌کنم [xɒː.ˈheʃ ˈmi.ko.næm]

khāhesh mikonam

خواهش (a plain noun) takes ordinary final-syllable stress on 'hesh'. می‌کنم, however, follows a special Persian verb rule: the durative prefix mi- itself always attracts the primary stress, so it's MI-konam, not mikoNAM.

Listen: خواهش می‌کنم

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Sound it out

خوا Raspy 'kh' (like Scottish 'loch') plus a silent و that's just part of spelling the long 'ā' — together simply 'khā', not 'khwa'.

هش 'h' (plain, like English 'h') plus 'esh' as in 'mesh' — this syllable is stressed: khā-HESH.

می The verb prefix 'mi-', like 'me' in 'meet' but short — this is the stressed syllable of the whole verb: MI-konam.

کنم 'k' plus 'onam', said quickly and lightly with no stress: '-konam'.

Hear it in a sentence

خواهش می‌کنم، خوشحال شدم که کمک کردم.

Khāhesh mikonam, khoshhāl shodam ke komak kardam.

You're welcome, I was happy that I helped.

Listen: خواهش می‌کنم، خوشحال شدم که کمک کردم.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

'خواهش می‌کنم، خوشحال شدم که کمک کردم' uses خوشحال شدم ('I became happy', with شدن 'to become') followed by که ('that/because'), a subordinating conjunction introducing the reason — a common structure for explaining why you're glad to help.

Where English speakers slip

Because the spelling khāhesh contains a silent و, learners sometimes pronounce a 'w' sound ('khwāhesh') as in Dari/Afghan Persian — in Tehrani Persian that و is silent. The other frequent error is stressing the end of mikonam instead of the mi- prefix.