ه — he
«he» is a consonant of the Persian script, read as “h (light)”. The lightest h — a plain breath of air like the h of "hand", fainter than خ and made in the mouth, not the throat; word-finally it is barely audible. For example, in the word “هفته” — week. The Persian alphabet has 32 letters in total. One loop. Two h sounds are behind you already: the breathy ح and the rough خ — this is the quiet one. هفته "week". It appears, for example, in the word “بله” — yes.
In short
| Character | ه |
| Name | he |
| Sound | h (light) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 33rd of 33: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, before it comes ن, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type ه
- On a phone: add the Persian keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0647 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0647.
- Unicode code point: U+0647. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The lightest h — a plain breath of air like the h of "hand", fainter than خ and made in the mouth, not the throat; word-finally it is barely audible
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| initial | هـ | — |
| medial | ـهـ | — |
| final | ـه | — |
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- هفتهhafteweek
The character in the “ف ک گ ل م ن ه — the light consonants” group
Consonants with skeletons of their own that nothing can be confused with. ک and گ differ from ق in depth: ک is an ordinary k, ق sounds from the throat. And the third h of the script: ه is a plain breath of air, the quietest one.
Words with this character
- بلهbaleyes
- نهneno
- حالت چطوره؟hâlet châtâre؟how are you?
- خواهش میکنمkhâhesh mi-kânamyou are welcome
- اسمت چیه؟esmet chie؟what is your name?
- شماهاshâmâhâyou (all)
- اهل کجایی؟âhle kâdzhayi؟where are you from?
- من روس هستمman Rus hastamI am Russian
- تهرانTehrânTehran
- نفهمیدمnafahmidamI did not understand
- دوبارهdâbâresay it again
- آهستهترâhestetarslower
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «he» it is “h (light)”, as in the word “هفته”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 32 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Persian character ه read?
As “h (light)” — it is a consonant of the Persian script. The lightest h — a plain breath of air like the h of "hand", fainter than خ and made in the mouth, not the throat; word-finally it is barely audible. For example, in the word “هفته” — week.
What is the letter ه called?
He. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Persian script: it is called “he” and reads as “h (light)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.