What it means
شش (shesh) is the cardinal number 6 in Persian. It descends from the Indo-European root that also gave English “six,” Latin “sex,” Greek “hex,” and Sanskrit “shash.” Pronounced with two soft sh sounds, often blurred together in fast speech. The same spelling شش also means “lung,” a separate word with the same root letters but different etymology, distinguished only by context.
How to use it
- شش تا تخممرغ (shesh tâ tokhm-e morgh) “six eggs”
- شش نفر (shesh nafar) “six people”
- ساعت شش صبح (sâ’at-e shesh-e sobh) “six in the morning”
- شش ماه پیش (shesh mâh pish) “six months ago”
- ششدانگ (shesh-dâng) “full ownership” (literally “six parts of six”)
How counters work
Shesh follows the same counter rules as every Persian number above one. The classifier تا is the default for general objects: shesh tâ sandali (“six chairs”). For people you use نفر: shesh nafar (“six people”). For animals you can use رأس (ra’s) in formal contexts. The noun stays singular after the number, so “six children” is shesh tâ bachche, not shesh tâ bachche-hâ.
Cultural note
The number six anchors several Iranian expressions. ششدانگ (shesh-dâng) literally means “six parts out of six,” a real-estate term for full undivided ownership of a property, descended from old land-measurement units where ownership was tracked in sixths. Iranians use it metaphorically for full attention: ششدانگ حواسم بود (shesh-dâng havâsam bud), “my full attention was on it.” The ششگوشه (shesh-gushe), “six-cornered” or hexagon, appears in Persian tile work and in the term ششگوشه برای حسین (shesh-gushe barâye Hoseyn), referring to the hexagonal shrine in Karbala. In music, the دستگاه ششگاه (dastgâh-e shesh-gâh) is one of the seven main modes of classical Persian music. The shape and number recur in carpets, architectural ornament, and in the homophone with شش (lung), which gives the idiom ششهاش حال نداره (shesh-hâsh hâl nadâre), “his lungs are weak.” The phrase شش جهت (shesh jahat), “six directions,” appears in classical cosmology to describe the full extent of physical space (front, back, right, left, up, down). And in everyday Iranian speech, شش ماهه شدم خبر ندارم (shesh mâhe shodam khabar nadâram), “it’s been six months and I have no news,” is the half-joking complaint a parent makes to an adult child who hasn’t called in too long.
References
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