Palabra Lexi · common words in Spanish

How to say "happy" in Spanish

"Happy" in Spanish is feliz, pronounced feh-LEETH (stress on the syllable in capitals).

Pronunciation is spelled out in English, one syllable at a time, with the stressed syllable in capitals. The speaker button uses your browser's built-in Spanish voice.

How to pronounce feliz

Feliz is pronounced feh-LEETH, in IPA /feˈliθ/ in Spain and /feˈlis/ in Latin America. Feliz has two syllables, feh-LEETH, with the stress on the second. There is no written accent because the word follows the basic rule: words ending in a consonant other than -n or -s are stressed on the last syllable.

• Z, and c before e or i, is th (as in "think") in most of Spain and s in Latin America.

Listen: normal and slow speed, in your browser's Spanish voice. IPA: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Example sentences

Ella es feliz
She is happy

Estoy muy feliz hoy.
I'm very happy today.

Hoy estoy muy feliz.
Today I'm very happy.

"Happy" in Spain and Latin America

Regional words and roots: Diccionario de la lengua española (RAE). Spanish varies by region, so treat these as the most common patterns, not strict rules.

How to remember feliz

feliz [feh-LEETH] sounds like the English “Felix”. Picture this:

Happy as Felix the cat: found a sunbeam and owns the whole windowsill.

A sound-alike plus a vivid scene is the keyword method, a well-studied way to learn vocabulary. How it works.

Practice feliz

Two quick games, right here: no sign-up, nothing is sent anywhere.

Word web: feliz

Words that live next to feliz in the Palabra word web, each with its own English sound-alike and scene. Learning them together makes each one easier to recall.