When discussing social pressures, moral obligations, or external forces, you often need to express that someone was compelled or forced to take action. Formal Farsi uses specific verbs to convey this causation, mapping the relationship between the force, the person affected, and the resulting action.
Compelling Action: واداشتن
The verb واداشتن means "to compel" or "to force." The standard structure for compelling someone to do something is: [Subject] + [Direct Object] + را + به + [Action] + واداشتن
Because the person (or group) being forced is the direct object of the sentence, they are immediately followed by the direct object marker را. The action they are forced into is introduced by the preposition به.
| Society compels us to conform to the norms. | جامعه ما را به انطباق با هنجارها وامیدارد.jâme'e mâ râ be entebâq bâ hanjârhâ vâmidârad. |
| Did the fear of isolation compel you to hypocrisy? | آیا ترس از انزوا تو را به ریاکاری واداشت؟âyâ tars az enzevâ to râ be riyâkâri vâdâsht? |
Forcing Action: مجبور ساختن
Another common formal construction uses the compound verb مجبور ساختن. You may already know مجبور کردن (to force or oblige) from everyday speech. In formal, academic, or journalistic registers, the everyday light verb کردن is frequently replaced with ساختن (literally "to make" or "to build") to elevate the tone.
The grammatical structure remains exactly the same: [Subject] + [Direct Object] + را + به + [Action] + مجبور ساختن
| It is said that custom forces women into sacrifice. | گفته میشود که عرف، زنان را به فداکاری مجبور میسازد.gofte mishavad ke 'orf, zanân râ be fedâkâri majbur misâzad. |
| Due to discrimination, managers forced the employees into silence. | به دلیل تبعیض، مدیران کارمندان را به سکوت مجبور ساختند.be dalil-e tab'iz, modirân kârmandân râ be sokut majbur sâkhtand. |
Nouns and Long Infinitives
What exactly follows the preposition به? The "action" that someone is forced into must act as a noun. Most often, this is a standard action-noun, such as "suppression" or "conformity."
| Fear of scandal compelled him to suppress the truth. | ترس از رسوایی، او را به سرکوب حقیقت واداشت.tars az rosvâ'i, u râ be sarkub haqiqat vâdâsht. |
If you need to express forcing someone to perform an action that doesn't map perfectly to a simple noun, you can use the "long infinitive." This is simply the full dictionary form of the verb ending in ن, which functions as a gerund (similar to the English "-ing" form or "to [verb]").
| This sacrifice compelled the mother to endure discrimination. | این فداکاری، مادر را به تحمل کردن تبعیض واداشت.in fedâkâri, mâdar râ be tahammol kardan tab'iz vâdâsht. |