Scalar یک ... هم with Negation | Farsi Grammar

Persian یک ... هم plus a negative predicate means “not even one ...”: یک نفر هم نیامد “not even one person came.” The construction places the lowest imaginable quantity—one—inside the scope of negation. Because even that minimum is excluded, the listener infers zero. Here هم is a focus particle meaning “even,” not its familiar additive meaning “also.”

The construction

Role	Form	Result
subject	یک + اسم مفرد + هم + فعل منفی	not even one subject did it
nonspecific object	یک + اسم مفرد + هم + فعل منفی	not even one instance was affected
specific/delimited object	یک + گروه اسمی + را + هم + فعل منفی	not even one part of that known set
overt scalar marker	حتی یک + اسم مفرد + هم + فعل منفی	explicitly “not even one”

یک نفر هم به پیشنهاد مدیر اعتراض نکرد.

yek nafar ham be pishnehâd-e modir e'terâz na-kard.

Not even one person objected to the manager’s proposal. (neutral standard; subject minimizer)

دیشب یک ساعت هم نخوابیدم.

dishab yek sâ'at ham na-khâbidam.

I didn’t sleep for even one hour last night. (neutral conversation; measure phrase)

The verb remains negative because the scalar phrase participates in Persian negative concord. An affirmative verb changes the construction’s interpretation; یک ساعت هم خوابیدم can mean “I also slept for an hour,” not “not even one hour.”

Why one noun stays singular

Numeral یک selects a singular count noun: یک نفر، یک صفحه، یک دقیقه. Persian does not add ـها merely because English uses a plural after zero or because the larger context contains many possible items. The construction tests one member at a time and rejects even that minimum.

از این کتاب یک صفحه هم جا نیفتاده است.

az in ketâb yek safhe ham jâ na-yoftâde ast.

Not even one page is missing from this book. (formal-neutral; singular count noun)

در آن محله یک داروخانه هم باز نبود.

dar ân mahalle yek dârukhâne ham bâz na-bud.

Not even one pharmacy was open in that neighborhood. (neutral narrative)

With measure nouns, the same form emphasizes a surprisingly low threshold: یک دقیقه هم “even one minute,” یک ریال هم “even one rial,” یک قدم هم “even one step.”

برای این جلسه حتی یک دقیقه هم وقت اضافه نداریم.

barâ-ye in jalase hattâ yek daqiqe ham vaqt-e ezâfe na-dârim.

We do not have even one extra minute for this meeting. (careful spoken standard; emphatic threshold)

💡

Do not translate English not a single with a plural noun. Persian keeps the noun singular after یک, even though the whole clause entails that the quantity is zero.

هم marks the focused minimum

هم normally follows the entire focused phrase. In یک سؤال سخت هم, the minimum unit is “one difficult question,” so هم comes after the adjective. In speech, the phrase receives a clear focus accent, often on یک or the noun, and a slight prosodic boundary may follow هم.

از مصاحبه یک سؤال سخت هم یادم نمانده.

az mosâhebe yek so'âl-e sakht ham yâd-am na-mânde.

I don’t remember even one difficult question from the interview. (neutral conversation; the whole noun phrase is focused)

او یک بار هم مسئولیت اشتباهش را قبول نکرد.

u yek bâr ham mas'uliyat-e eshtebâh-ash râ qabul na-kard.

Not even once did he accept responsibility for his mistake. (neutral, critical tone; frequency minimizer)

The second sentence does not count an object. It places the frequency expression یک بار هم under negation. This shows the productive principle: the focused phrase can denote an entity, an amount, a duration, or an occurrence, provided “one” is a meaningful lower endpoint.

Adding حتی makes the scalar reading explicit and more emphatic. It is optional because هم plus negation already creates the “even” interpretation.

Object marking and specificity

Nonspecific “not even one” objects normally appear without را:

در تعطیلات یک ایمیل کاری هم جواب ندادم.

dar ta'tilât yek imeyl-e kâri ham javâb na-dâdam.

During the holidays, I didn’t answer even one work email. (neutral; nonspecific object, no را)

When the phrase picks a part from a known, delimited object, را can mark the complete object phrase and هم follows را:

حتی یک بند از قرارداد را هم نخوانده بودم.

hattâ yek band az qarârdâd râ ham na-khânde budam.

I had not read even one clause of the contract. (formal-neutral; delimited partitive object)

The difference is not “objects take را.” It is discourse status. یک ایمیل کاری هم introduces no particular email; یک بند از قرارداد را هم ranges over the identifiable clauses of a known contract. See Differential Object Marking with را for the broader system.

Do not place هم inside the noun phrase before its modifiers or between the noun and را. It attaches after the constituent whose low endpoint is being highlighted.

Minimal contrasts

آرزو یک مقاله هم خواند.

ârezu yek maqâle ham khând.

Arezu read an article too. (affirmative; additive هم)

آرزو یک مقاله هم نخواند.

ârezu yek maqâle ham na-khând.

Arezu did not read even one article. (negative; scalar هم)

Only the negative prefix changes, but the interpretation of هم changes with it. In the affirmative sentence, هم adds an item or event to the discourse. Under negation, it marks a low scalar endpoint.

— کسی برای تمیز کردن سالن ماند؟ — نه، یک نفر هم نماند؛ همه با هم رفتند.

— kasi barâ-ye tamiz kardan-e sâlon mând? — na, yek nafar ham na-mând; hame bâ ham raftand.

— Did anyone stay to clean the hall? — No, not one person stayed; everyone left together. (neutral dialogue)

In همه با هم, the second هم belongs to the separate expression “together.” Context and position prevent confusion.

💡

Use a zero-inference test: if excluding one entails excluding every larger quantity, هم is scalar “even.” If the sentence merely adds another item to something already mentioned, هم is additive “also.”

Common Mistakes

1. Making the noun plural after یک

❌ یک پیام‌ها هم دریافت نکردیم.

Incorrect — the noun after the numeral یک must be singular.

✅ یک پیام هم از طرف برگزارکننده دریافت نکردیم.

yek payâm ham az taraf-e bargozâr-konande daryâft na-kardim.

We did not receive even one message from the organizer.

2. Leaving the verb affirmative

⚠️ یک صندلی هم خالی بود.

yek sandali ham khâli bud.

Grammatical, but with the affirmative copula it says that an additional chair was empty; it cannot mean ‘not even one chair was empty.’

✅ در سالن یک صندلی هم خالی نبود.

dar sâlon yek sandali ham khâli na-bud.

Not even one chair in the hall was empty.

3. Misplacing را and هم

❌ حتی یک را از نامه هم خط نفهمیدم.

Incorrect word order — را follows the complete delimited object phrase, and scalar هم follows را.

✅ حتی یک خط از یادداشت را هم نفهمیدم.

hattâ yek khat az yâddâsht râ ham na-fahmidam.

I did not understand even one line of the note.

4. Building the negative imperfective in the wrong order

❌ او یک روز هم مرخصی می‌نگیرد.

Incorrect prefix order — نمی‌ precedes the present stem.

✅ او حتی یک روز هم مرخصی نمی‌گیرد.

u hattâ yek ruz ham morakhkhasi nemi-girad.

He does not take even one day off.

Key Takeaways

یک + singular noun + هم + negative predicate excludes even the minimum quantity and therefore implies zero.
Under negation, هم means scalar “even”; in an affirmative clause it is commonly additive “also.”
Nonspecific minimizer objects usually lack را; a delimited object can take را هم after the full phrase.
حتی makes the scalar meaning overt but is not required.
Focus prosody belongs on the یک ... هم constituent, not inside the negative verb.

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