Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "شهر" in Farsi?

Say "shahr" as one syllable with a consonant cluster at the end — think "shar" with a breathy h squeezed in right before the r, not two separate syllables.

شهر /ʃæhr/

shahr

Single syllable; the challenge is the consonant cluster -hr at the end, not stress placement.

Listen: شهر

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Sound it out

ش English "sh" as in "shoe".

ه A plain "h" sound, blended tightly with the following r rather than forming its own syllable.

ر A light tapped r immediately following the h, closing out the single syllable.

Hear it in a sentence

این شهر خیلی زیباست.

In shahr kheyli zibāst.

This city is very beautiful.

Listen: این شهر خیلی زیباست.

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"این شهر خیلی زیباست" ("This city is very beautiful") contracts زیبا + است into زیباست in casual and even standard written Persian, a common contraction where است fuses onto a preceding vowel-final word.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often split this into two syllables, "sha-har", because English doesn't like hr consonant clusters. Persian keeps it as one syllable — squeeze the h and r together right after the vowel, don't insert an extra vowel between them.