Free Relatives هر کس که and هرچه | Farsi Grammar

A free relative contains a relative clause but no separate antecedent noun. هر کس که زودتر برسد means “whoever arrives first” or “anyone who arrives first”; هرچه لازم داری means “whatever you need.” The whole expression can serve as a subject, object, or other argument in the larger sentence.

English builds whoever and whatever as single wh-words. Persian usually makes the human expression transparently from هر “each/every” plus کس “person,” optionally followed by که; the nonhuman هرچه is written as a fused form. Their characteristic meaning is open-ended and generalizing: the statement applies regardless of which eligible person or thing fills the description.

The construction map

Pattern	Core meaning	Typical role	Register
هر کس (که) + clause	whoever; everyone/anyone who	human subject or other argument	neutral standard
هر کسی (که) + clause	any/every person who	human, often before را	neutral standard
هر کس را (که) + clause	whoever(m) as object	object inside or across the relative construction	neutral standard
هرچه (که) + clause	whatever; everything that	nonhuman or propositional argument	neutral standard
هرکی / هرچی	whoever / whatever	same broad functions	informal, regional: Tehran

هر کس زودتر رسید، پنجره‌ها را باز کند.

har kas zud-tar resid, panjare-hâ râ bâz konad.

Whoever arrives first should open the windows. (neutral standard)

هرچه لازم داری بردار.

harche lâzem dâri bardâr.

Take whatever you need. (neutral standard)

Neither sentence contains a head noun meaning “person” or “thing” outside the relative expression. هر کس زودتر رسید as a whole is the subject of باز کند; هرچه لازم داری as a whole supplies what is to be taken.

Human free relatives with هر کس

هر کس ranges over people who meet the condition stated in the following clause. Inside that relative clause, it is grammatically singular: هر کس می‌خواهد, not هر کس می‌خواهند. The larger statement may apply to many people, but it evaluates them distributively, one eligible person at a time.

هر کس این کارت را پیدا کرد، به پذیرش تحویل بدهد.

har kas in kârt râ peydâ kard, be pazirosh tahvil bedahad.

Whoever finds this card should hand it in at reception. (formal-neutral instruction)

هر کسی که تجربه‌ی مرتبط دارد می‌تواند درخواست بدهد.

har kasi ke tajrobe-ye mortabet dârad mi-tavânad darkhâst bedahad.

Anyone who has relevant experience may apply. (formal/public language)

هر کس اشتباه کند باید مسئولیتش را بپذیرد.

har kas eshtebâh konad bâyad mas'uliyyat-ash râ bepazirad.

Whoever makes a mistake must accept responsibility for it. (generic statement)

The last sentence does not refer to one already identified person. It states a general rule. This generic force distinguishes هر کس from affirmative کسی, which merely introduces “someone.”

کسی این پوشه را جابه‌جا کرده است.

kasi in pushe râ jâbe-jâ karde ast.

Someone has moved this folder. (existential: at least one unidentified person)

هر کس این پوشه را جابه‌جا کرده، لطفا برگرداندش.

har kas in pushe râ jâbe-jâ karde, lotfâ bar-gardânad-ash.

Whoever moved this folder, please put it back. (open free relative addressed to the responsible person)

For the existential series, see Indefinite کسی، چیزی، جایی.

💡

Use کسی to assert that some unidentified person exists; use هر کس (که) when the larger statement is meant to apply no matter who satisfies the description.

Optional که

After هر کس/هر کسی, که is common and often helps expose the relative boundary, especially in longer or formal noun phrases. It can also be omitted in compact, fluent, and proverb-like patterns. Both following structures are current standard Persian:

هر کس که این پیام را می‌بیند، به بقیه خبر بدهد.

har kas ke in payâm râ mi-binad, be baqiyye khabar bedahad.

Whoever sees this message should let the others know. (explicit که; neutral standard)

هر کس بیشتر تمرین کند، روان‌تر صحبت می‌کند.

har kas bishtar tamrin konad, ravân-tar sohbat mi-konad.

Whoever practices more speaks more fluently. (که omitted; generic maxim)

Omission does not erase the relative relation. Word order and the following finite clause still identify هر کس as the open human variable. With multiple embeddings or a long modifier, retaining که usually improves processing.

هرچه که also occurs, often with added emphasis: هرچه که گفتی “whatever it was that you said.” Plain هرچه is frequently sufficient.

Object marking with را

The predicate that takes the expression as its object determines the role of را. In the next example, هر کس is the object of دیدی inside the free relative, so را comes before that predicate:

هر کس را دیدی، نام و شماره‌اش را ثبت کن.

har kas râ didi, nâm va shomâre-ash râ sabt kon.

Record the name and number of whoever you see. (هر کس is the object of دیدی)

In the following pattern, the entire phrase هر کسی که دوست داری is also the delimited object of the main verb دعوت کن. Standard Persian commonly places that object's را immediately after هر کسی, before the relative introduced by که:

برای جشن هر کسی را که دوست داری دعوت کن.

barâ-ye jashn har kasi râ ke dust dâri da'vat kon.

Invite whomever you like to the party. (neutral standard)

هر کسی که دوست داری می‌تواند بیاید.

har kasi ke dust dâri mi-tavânad biyâyad.

Anyone you like can come. (the whole expression is the subject of می‌تواند, so it has no را)

The last contrast matters: the understood person is still the object of دوست داری inside the relative clause, but the full expression is the subject of می‌تواند in the larger clause. English whoever does not visibly distinguish these layers, so learners must identify which Persian predicate licenses object marking rather than copy a fixed translation.

For nonhuman هرچه, omission of را is common when the range is open and nonspecific: هرچه لازم داری بردار. را becomes natural when a contextually delimited totality is explicitly treated as an object.

هرچه را لازم نداری در این جعبه بگذار.

harche râ lâzem nadâri dar in ja'be begzâr.

Put everything you don't need in this box. (delimited exhaustive object)

💡

Do not attach را simply because the English translation contains whoever or whatever. Add it when the Persian free-relative expression occupies a را-marked object position.

هرچه as “whatever” or “everything that”

هرچه can refer to objects, information, words, or actions treated as content. Its English translation varies with context.

هرچه شنیدی برای من تعریف کن.

harche shenidi barâ-ye man ta'rif kon.

Tell me everything you heard. (neutral standard)

هرچه گفت، باور نکردم.

harche goft, bâvar nakardam.

I didn't believe whatever he or she said. (neutral standard; content is exhaustive)

هرچه برای سفر لازم بود در یک کوله جا شد.

harche barâ-ye safar lâzem bud dar yek kule jâ shod.

Everything needed for the trip fit into one backpack. (هرچه clause as subject)

Do not confuse this free-relative هرچه with scalar هرچه بیشتر ... “the more ...,” a correlative construction with its own syntax.

Colloquial هرکی and هرچی

Everyday Tehran speech regularly uses هرکی and هرچی (informal, regional: Tehran). They are not appropriate as unmarked spellings in formal prose, but they are natural in dialogue.

هرکی زودتر رسید، برامون میز بگیره.

harki zud-tar resid, barâ-mun miz begire.

Whoever gets there first, get us a table. (informal, regional: Tehran)

هرچی لازم داری بردار، فقط سبک سفر کن.

harchi lâzem dâri bardâr, faqat sabok safar kon.

Take whatever you need; just travel light. (informal, regional: Tehran)

The standard equivalents are هر کس ... and هرچه می‌خواهی .... Register changes the surface forms, not the basic free-relative relation.

Common Mistakes

1. Adding را to a free-relative subject

❌ هر کس را زودتر رسید، در را باز کند.

Incorrect — هر کس is the subject of رسید and cannot take object marker را.

✅ هر کس زودتر به دفتر رسید، در را باز کند.

har kas zud-tar be daftar resid, dar râ bâz konad.

Whoever reaches the office first should open the door.

2. Omitting را from a human object in careful standard Persian

❌ هر کس دیدی، اسمش را بنویس.

Incorrect in the intended careful standard construction — هر کس is the specific human object of دیدی.

✅ هر کس را در ورودی دیدی، نامش را یادداشت کن.

har kas râ dar vorudi didi, nâm-ash râ yâddâsht kon.

Write down the name of whoever you see at the entrance.

3. Giving distributive هر کس plural agreement

❌ هر کس می‌خواهند می‌توانند بیایند.

Incorrect — within the generic expression, هر کس takes singular می‌خواهد and می‌تواند.

✅ هر کس می‌خواهد می‌تواند در جلسه شرکت کند.

har kas mi-khâhad mi-tavânad dar jalase sherkat konad.

Anyone who wants to may attend the meeting.

4. Copying English whoever as an interrogative

❌ هر کس این کار را کرد؟

Incorrect for the intended direct information question ‘who did this?’ — هر کس is free-relative/generic, not interrogative چه کسی.

✅ چه کسی این پرونده را جابه‌جا کرد؟

che kasi in parvande râ jâbe-jâ kard?

Who moved this file?

Key Takeaways

هر کس (که) forms a human free relative; هرچه (که) forms a nonhuman or content free relative.
The construction is antecedentless and means “whoever/whatever” or “everyone/everything that.”
که is useful but often optional in compact patterns.
Place را according to the expression's object role; subjects do not take it.
Standard هر کس/هرچه correspond to colloquial Tehran هرکی/هرچی.

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