Farsi · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "شاد" in Farsi?

Say it like "shawd" — 'sh' plus a long, open, rounded 'aw' vowel (as in British 'law'), plus 'd'. Just one syllable.

شاد /ʃɒːd/

shād

Only one syllable, so there's no stress choice to make — just hold the ā vowel noticeably longer than an English short vowel.

Listen: شاد

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Sound it out

ش Exactly like English 'sh' in 'shop'.

ا A long 'ā' vowel — like the 'aw' in British 'law' or 'father' said with rounded lips. Hold it longer than a normal English vowel.

د A crisp English 'd', as in 'dog'.

Hear it in a sentence

از دیدن شما شاد شدم.

Az didan-e shomā shād shodam.

I'm happy to see you.

Listen: از دیدن شما شاد شدم.

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

The example 'Az didan-e shomā shād shodam' uses the ezafe link -e (didan-e) to join 'seeing' and 'you', literally 'from the-seeing-of you I-became-happy.' Shād shodam ('I became happy') is the standard Persian pattern for emotion words: use shodan (to become) rather than 'to be'.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often shorten ā to a quick English 'a' as in 'shad' (the fish), but in Tehrani Persian it must stay long and back, closer to 'shawd'. Cutting the vowel short can make it sound like an unrelated word.