यह यात्रा सफल रही।

Here is the breakdown:

• यह = this
• यात्रा = journey / trip
• सफल = successful
• रही = a feminine past form of रहना that helps express remained/turned out to be/was

So the sentence literally feels something like:

This journey successful remained.

Natural English: This journey was successful.

In Hindi, every noun has a grammatical gender, even if it refers to a thing rather than a person.

• यात्रा is a feminine noun.
• Because of that, words that agree with it may also appear in feminine form.

That is why the sentence has रही and not रहा.

रही agrees with the feminine singular noun यात्रा.

Compare:

• यात्रा सफल रही। = The journey was successful.
  
  • यात्रा is feminine singular, so रही
• सफ़र सफल रहा। = The trip/journey was successful.
  
  • सफ़र is masculine singular, so रहा
• यात्राएँ सफल रहीं। = The journeys were successful.
  
  • feminine plural, so रहीं

So the form of रहना changes to match the noun.

Because सफल is one of many Hindi adjectives that are often unchangeable in form.

Some adjectives change for gender and number, such as:

• अच्छा (masculine singular)
• अच्छी (feminine singular)
• अच्छे (masculine plural / some oblique uses)

But सफल usually stays सफल whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural.

Examples:

• यात्रा सफल रही।
• प्रयास सफल रहा।
• योजनाएँ सफल रहीं।

In all of them, सफल stays the same.

In this sentence, रही is best translated naturally as was, but its nuance is a little broader.

The verb रहना often literally means to stay, to remain, or sometimes helps express a resulting state. In sentences like this, it can give the sense that something turned out to be or remained a certain way.

So:

• यात्रा सफल रही।
  = The journey was successful.
  = The journey turned out to be successful.

Both are good ways to understand it.

You can say यह यात्रा सफल थी, and it is also natural.

There is a small difference in feel:

• यह यात्रा सफल थी = This journey was successful.
• यह यात्रा सफल रही = This journey was successful / turned out successful / remained successful

Very often, रही can sound a bit more like an outcome or overall result, while थी is a more straightforward was.

In many everyday situations, the difference is small, and both are acceptable.

Hindi often follows Subject + Complement + Verb order.

So here:

• यह यात्रा = subject
• सफल = complement/adjective
• रही = verb

That gives:

यह यात्रा सफल रही।

This is very normal Hindi word order. Since the verb usually comes at the end, Hindi often feels different from English.

English:

• This journey was successful.

Hindi:

• This journey successful was.

Yes, depending on context.

In this sentence, यह clearly means this, because it directly modifies यात्रा:

• यह यात्रा = this journey

But यह can also work like this/it/he/she in other contexts, especially when pointing to something nearby or already understood.

Examples:

• यह अच्छा है। = This is good. / It is good.
• यह मेरी किताब है। = This is my book.

So here it is specifically a demonstrative adjective: this.

In standard Hindi, with a singular noun like यात्रा, the expected form is:

• यह यात्रा सफल रही।

You may hear ये used in speech for this, especially in colloquial Hindi, but for learners it is best to remember:

• यह = this
• ये = these

So the standard sentence is यह यात्रा सफल रही।

A simple pronunciation guide is:

yah yaatraa safal rahee

A few notes:

• यह is often pronounced more like yah in everyday speech.
• यात्रा has a long aa sound: yaa-traa
• रही has a long ee sound at the end: ra-hee

So you can say it roughly as:

yah yaa-traa sa-fal ra-hee

No. Hindi has several words with similar meanings, but they are not always identical in tone or usage.

For example:

• यात्रा = journey, travel, trip; often slightly formal or literary, but also very common
• सफ़र = journey/trip; very common in speech
• ट्रिप = trip; borrowed from English, common in informal contexts

So you might also hear:

• यह सफ़र सफल रहा।
• यह ट्रिप सफल रही। (informal, and ट्रिप is often treated as feminine)

But यह यात्रा सफल रही is a very good, natural sentence.

If you want to say These journeys were successful, you would say:

ये यात्राएँ सफल रहीं।

Changes:

• यह → ये for these
• यात्रा → यात्राएँ for plural
• रही → रहीं to agree with feminine plural

So the singular/plural contrast is:

• यह यात्रा सफल रही। = This journey was successful.
• ये यात्राएँ सफल रहीं। = These journeys were successful.