شب بخیر
“شب بخیر” (shab bekheyr) — good night in Persian. Phrase, level A0, topic — greetings and goodbyes. Said when parting for the night, not when meeting at ten. Shab is night; the same word runs through shab-e mahtab, a moonlit night. In a live sentence: “شب بخیر, خداحافظ!” — Good night, goodbye! Written with the characters ش, ب, ب, خ, ی, ر. One of 8 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” in the Persian course.
In short
| Written in Persian | شب بخیر |
| Read in Latin letters | shab bekheyr |
| Translation | good night |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Said when parting for the night, not when meeting at ten. Shab is night; the same word runs through shab-e mahtab, a moonlit night
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- شب بخیر, خداحافظ!shab bekheyr, khâdâhâfez!Good night, goodbye!
Nearby words: greetings and goodbyes
Every conversation starts here, and so does every first impression: say hello in the local language and you stop being a stranger in about a second.
- سلامsalâmhithe final long a reads "o": salaam, never "sa-lyam"
- صبح بخیرsâbh bekheyrgood morningLiterally "morning [be] without grief". Wishes are built as time word + bekheyr, and the answer comes back in the same shape
- خداحافظkhâdâhâfezgoodbyeLiterally "God [be your] keeper" — khoda is God, hafez protects. In speech it wears down to khodafez
- حالت چطوره؟hâlet châtâre؟how are you?Literally "your state, how is it?" The -et on the end is "your"; to someone respected it becomes haale shoma, your state
- خوبمkhubamI am wellLiterally "well-I": the link verb -am glues straight onto the word, no separate "am" needed. The full answer runs khubam, mamnun
- میبینمتmi-binemetsee youLiterally "I see you" — subject, verb and object in one word. A warm sign-off between friends, lighter than khodahafez
- عصر بخیرasr bekheyrgood eveningThe evening slot of the bekheyr family. Asr stretches through the late afternoon, so it opens the post-work hour too
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “greetings and goodbyes”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “good night” in Persian?
Said when parting for the night, not when meeting at ten. Shab is night; the same word runs through shab-e mahtab, a moonlit night
- How do you say “good evening” in Persian?
The evening slot of the bekheyr family. Asr stretches through the late afternoon, so it opens the post-work hour too
- How do you say “see you” in Persian?
Literally "I see you" — subject, verb and object in one word. A warm sign-off between friends, lighter than khodahafez
- How do you say “I am well” in Persian?
Literally "well-I": the link verb -am glues straight onto the word, no separate "am" needed. The full answer runs khubam, mamnun
- How do you say “how are you?” in Persian?
Literally "your state, how is it?" The -et on the end is "your"; to someone respected it becomes haale shoma, your state
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “good night” in Persian?
«شب بخیر», read “shab bekheyr”. In a live sentence: “شب بخیر, خداحافظ!” — Good night, goodbye! Phrase, level A0, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”; written with the characters ش, ب, ب, خ, ی, ر.
How is “شب بخیر” written in Latin letters?
shab bekheyr. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Said when parting for the night, not when meeting at ten. Shab is night; the same word runs through shab-e mahtab, a moonlit night. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.