Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

To describe someone's ideological inclinations or the goals they pursue, Farsi uses a highly productive suffix: **خواه**.

### The Suffix: خواه

Derived from the verb for "to want" or "to seek," the suffix **خواه** attaches to a noun to create adjectives (and sometimes nouns) meaning "-seeking," "pro-," or "advocating for."

For example, combining **آزادی** (freedom) with **خواه** creates **آزادی‌خواه** (freedom-seeking or freedom fighter).

{{item:814251}}

### Social Movements and Activism

When discussing activism, you will frequently use these terms alongside vocabulary for protests, such as **راهپیمایی** (rally/march), **شعار** (slogan), and **پلاکارد** (placard). 

Another common descriptor in these contexts is **تحول‌خواه** (progressive / reform-seeking), built from **تحول** (transformation/change).

{{item:814253}}

{{item:814256}}

{{item:814263}}

### Goals and Values

You can attach **خواه** to many abstract nouns to describe specific political or social stances. Notice how these function perfectly as adjectives to describe people, groups, movements, or politicians:

- **عدالت** (justice) + **خواه** = **عدالت‌خواه** (justice-seeking)
- **صلح** (peace) + **خواه** = **صلح‌خواه** (peace-seeking / pacifist)
- **استقلال** (independence) + **خواه** = **استقلال‌خواه** (independence-seeking)
- **برابری** (equality) + **خواه** = **برابری‌خواه** (egalitarian / equality-seeking)

{{item:814268}}

{{item:814272}}

{{item:814274}}

{{item:814278}}

Inclination and seeking suffix (-khâh)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

phrase

prefix

preposition

pronoun

sentence

suffix

verb

Singular pronouns and copula (man, -am)

Plural pronouns and copula (mâ, -im)

Subject pronoun omission

Singular demonstratives (in, ân)

Plural demonstratives (inhâ, ânhâ)

Independent copula (hastam, hast)

Negative present copula (nistam, nist)

Yes/No questions (âyâ)

Regular plurals (-hâ)

Animate plurals (-ân)

Indefiniteness (yek)

Indefinite marker (-i)

Describing nouns (-e / -ye)

Possession (-e / -ye)

Singular possessives (-am, -at, -ash)

Plural possessives (-emân, -etân, -eshân)

Basic prepositions (dar, be, az, bâ)

Spatial prepositions (ru-ye, zir-e...)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yek, do, se...)

Numbers and singular nouns

Numbers 11 to 20 (yâzdah, davâzdah...)

Counting by tens to 100

Telling time (sâ'at)

The verb to have (dâram)

Negative to have (nadâram)

Basic word order (SOV)

Infinitives and present stems (-an)

Present indicative (mi-)

Negative present indicative (nemi-)

Compound verbs

Question words (che, kojâ)

How many (chand)

The definite object marker (râ)

Object pronouns (man râ, to râ)

Singular commands (be-)

Formal and plural commands (be- ... -id)

Negative commands (na-)

The present subjunctive (be-)

The negative present subjunctive (na-)

Must (bâyad)

Might (shâyad)

Wanting to do something (khâstan)

Being able to do something (tavânestan)

Forming the past stem

The simple past of to be (budan)

The simple past tense

Negative simple past (na-)

Attached object pronouns on verbs (-am, -at, -ash)

Comparative adjectives (-tar)

Basic conjunctions (va, ammâ, yâ)

Giving reasons (chon)

Adverbs of frequency and degree (hamishe, hargez, kheyli, kam)

Everyday actions (kâr kardan, bâz kardan)

Non-human plural subjects

Indefinite pronouns (kasi, chizi, jâyi)

Negative indefinite pronouns (hich-kas, hich-chiz, hich-jâ)

Reciprocal pronouns (hamdigar, yekdigar)

Reflexive pronouns (khod-)

Reflexive direct objects (khod râ)

Emphatic pronouns (khod)

The quantifier every (har)

The quantifier all (hame)

The quantifier some (ba'zi)

Another and other (-i digar)

Which (kodâm)

How much (cheghadr)

Comparisons of equality (mesl-e)

Superlative adjectives (-tarin)

Irregular comparatives and superlatives

Ordinal numbers (-om)

Pre-nominal ordinal numbers (-omin)

Fractions and percentages

Prepositions of theme (dar mored-e)

Prepositions of time (ghabl az, ba'd az)

Preposition of exclusion (bedun-e)

Resultative conjunctions (banâbarin, pas)

Hortative construction (biyâ, biyâyid)

The present progressive tense (dâram mi-)

The past continuous tense (mi-)

Negative past continuous (ne-mi-)

Past continuous of to have (dâshtam)

The past progressive tense (dâshtam mi-)

The past participle (-e)

Present perfect tense (-e-am, -e-ast)

Negative present perfect (na-)

Question	Answer
freedom-seeking / freedom fighter	آزادی‌خواهâzâdikhâh
He is a freedom-seeking man who writes about society.	او مردی آزادی‌خواه است که درباره‌ی جامعه می‌نویسد.u mardi âzâdikhâh ast ke darbâre-ye jâme'e minevisad.
rally / march	راهپیماییrâhpeymâyi
The freedom-seeking people participated in the rally.	مردم آزادی‌خواه در راهپیمایی شرکت کردند.mardom-e âzâdikhâh dar râhpeymâyi sherkat kardand.
We are going to a big rally tomorrow.	ما فردا به یک راهپیمایی بزرگ می‌رویم.mâ fardâ be yek râhpeymâyi bozorg miravim.
progressive / reform-seeking	تحول‌خواهtahavvol-khâh
The progressive students are going to the rally.	دانشجوهای تحول‌خواه میرن راهپیمایی.dâneshju-hâ-ye tahavvol-khâh miran râh-peymâyi.
This company needs a progressive manager.	این شرکت به یک مدیر تحول‌خواه نیاز دارد.in sherkat be yek modir tahavvol-khâh niyâz dârad.
slogan	شعارsho'âr
They chanted slogans in the street.	آن‌ها در خیابان شعار دادند.ânhâ dar khiyâbân sho'âr dâdand.
Nobody except my friend was chanting slogans.	هیچ‌کس جز دوست من شعار نمی‌داد.hich-kas joz dust man sho'âr nemidâd.
placard	پلاکاردpelâkârd
The young man raised a heavy placard.	مرد جوان یک پلاکارد سنگین را بالا برد.mard-e javân yek pelâkârd-e sangin râ bâlâ bord.
They wrote beautiful slogans on the placards.	آن‌ها شعارهای زیبایی روی پلاکاردها نوشتند.ânhâ sho'ârhâye zibâyi ruye pelâkârdhâ neveshtand.
justice	عدالتedâlat
Justice is important for a healthy society.	عدالت برای یک جامعه‌ی سالم مهم است.edâlat barâye yek jâme'e-ye sâlem mohem ast.
The judge must speak about justice.	قاضی باید درباره‌ی عدالت صحبت کند.qâzi bâyad darbâre-ye edâlat sohbat konad.
justice-seeking	عدالت‌خواهedâlat-khâh
That justice-seeking man started the movement.	آن مرد عدالت‌خواه جنبش را شروع کرد.ân marde edâlat-khâh jonbesh râ shoru' kard.
A justice-seeking group is like a big family.	یک گروه عدالت‌خواه مثل یک خانواده‌ی بزرگ است.yek goruh-e edâlat-khâh mesle yek khânevâde-ye bozorg ast.
peace-seeking / pacifist	صلح‌خواهsolh-khâh
My grandfather is a peace-seeking man and hates war.	پدربزرگ من یک مرد صلح‌خواه است و از جنگ بدش می‌آید.pedarbozorg-e man yek mard-e solh-khâh ast o az jang badash mi-âyad.
The peace-seeking politician negotiated with the enemy.	سیاستمدار صلح‌خواه با دشمن مذاکره کرد.siyâsatmadâr-e solh-khâh bâ doshman mozâkere kard.
independence-seeking / pro-independence	استقلال‌خواهesteqlâl-khâh
The independence-seeking people fought for their country.	مردم استقلال‌خواه برای کشور خود مبارزه کردند.mardom esteqlâl-khâh barâye keshvar-e khod mobârezeh kardand.
Is this party independence-seeking?	آیا این حزب استقلال‌خواه است؟âyâ in hezb esteqlâl-khâh ast?
egalitarian / equality-seeking	برابری‌خواهbarâbari-khâh
The egalitarian movement helps women.	جنبش برابری‌خواه به زنان کمک می‌کند.jonbesh-e barâbari-khâh be zanân komak mikonad.
Our professor is a true egalitarian.	استاد ما یک برابری‌خواه واقعی است.ostâd-e mâ yek barâbari-khâh-e vâghe'i ast.