Eid al-Fitr Pronunciation: How to Say Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha

The usual English pronunciation of Eid al-Fitr is EED al FIT-er, and Eid al-Adha is EED al AHD-hah. In both names Eid rhymes with need, and al is a short, unstressed word that sounds like the name Al or like ul.

English dictionaries differ a little on the details, because both names come from Arabic and contain sounds English does not have. This guide gives the dictionary pronunciations, explains the Arabic behind them, and covers the other spellings you will see.

Eid al-Fitr pronunciation

Say it in three parts: EED, then al, then FIT-er. The stress falls on Eid and on the first syllable of Fitr.

Dictionaries record two versions of the last word. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary gives Eid ul-Fitr as /iːd ʌl fɪtə(r)/, with a short i as in fit. Dictionary.com gives Eid al-Fitr as eed uhl-FEE-truh (/id əlˈfi trə/), with a longer ee sound and a light uh at the end. Either will be understood. The short-i version, FIT-er, is closer to the Arabic word.

The one common mistake is the first word. Eid is a single syllable, EED. It is not said eye-d or ee-id.

How to pronounce Eid al-Adha

Say EED al AHD-hah. The first syllable of Adha has an open ah sound, as in father, and carries the stress. Dictionary.com writes it as eed uhl-AHD-hah (/id əlˈɑd hɑ/).

The part people stumble on is the dh. It is not the th of this or the. It is a d followed by a separate h, so the word breaks as AHD-hah, with a small breath starting the second syllable.

Some English speakers drop the h altogether. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary records that simpler British pronunciation of Eid ul-Adha as /iːd ʌl ʌdə/, roughly EED ul UD-uh. If you can manage the h, AHD-hah is nearer to the original.

A quick pronunciation of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, side by side

If you only need the short version, use these.

• Eid: EED, one syllable, rhymes with need.
• al: a quick al or ul, never stressed.
• Fitr: FIT-er. The r is light.
• Adha: AHD-hah. A d, then an h.
• Eid Mubarak, the usual greeting: EED moo-BAH-rak.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most slips come from reading the spelling as if it were an English word. These are the ones heard most often.

• Saying Eid as eye-d. The ei is a long ee.
• Stressing al. It is the Arabic word for the, and it stays quick and quiet: EED-al-FIT-er, not eed-AL-fitter.
• Turning the dh in Adha into a th. Keep the d and the h apart.
• Saying ad-HA with a flat a, as in add. The first vowel is the ah of father.
• Dropping Eid and saying only al-Fitr or al-Adha. In English the festivals are named with all three parts, or shortened to just Eid.

How the names are said in Arabic

Scholars write the Arabic names as ʿīd al-fiṭr and ʿīd al-aḍḥā. According to Dictionary.com, the first means festival of the breaking of the fast and the second means festival of sacrifice, and both names are first recorded in English in the 1730s.

The extra marks in that spelling stand for Arabic consonants with no English equivalent. The ʿ at the start of ʿīd is a consonant made deep in the throat, which English simply leaves out. The dots under the t, d and h mark heavier, throatier versions of those letters. That is why English dictionaries simplify the names, and why no English spelling captures them exactly.

Two things carry over well from Arabic into English: the long ee in Eid, and the long ah at the end of Adha. Fitr in Arabic has no vowel between the t and the r, so it is closer to FITR than to FIT-er, but English speakers nearly always add one.

Why you also see Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Azha

These are the same two festivals. The spellings differ because Arabic is being written in Latin letters by speakers of different languages.

Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are common in British English and across South Asia, and both Oxford and Dictionary.com list the ul forms alongside the al forms. In Pakistan, English-language newspapers such as Dawn write Eidul Azha, with a z, which reflects how the word is said in Urdu. You may also see Id, without the first e.

None of these is wrong. If you are writing for a US audience, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are the most widely used forms.

What the two names refer to

Eid al-Fitr is the festival that begins the day after Ramadan ends. Eid al-Adha begins on the tenth day of the last month of the Islamic calendar, during the Hajj pilgrimage. We explain each in full in our guides to Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and compare them in Eid al-Fitr vs Eid al-Adha.

If you are learning the names so you can greet a friend, colleague or neighbor, our guide to Eid greetings covers what to say and when.

More than the name

Getting the name right is a small courtesy, and people notice it. Both Eids are also days of giving, when Muslims make sure that families with little can share in the meal. If you would like to mark Eid that way, you can give to families in Gaza through our local partner teams.