When describing a chaotic amusement park ride—like bumper cars crashing or people holding onto one another on a rollercoaster—you need to say "each other." Farsi has two reciprocal pronouns for this: همدیگر and یکدیگر. They mean exactly the same thing and are entirely interchangeable.
Reciprocal Pronouns with Prepositions
When "each other" is the object of a preposition (such as "with" or "to"), simply place the preposition right before the pronoun. For example, "with each other" is با همدیگر and "at each other" is به همدیگر.
| The bumper cars always collide with each other. | ماشینهای برقی همیشه با همدیگر برخورد میکنند.mâshin-hâ-ye barghi hamishe bâ hamdigar barkhord mikonand. |
| The passengers inside the cabins looked at each other and screamed. | مسافران داخل کابینها به همدیگر نگاه کردند و فریاد زدند.mosâferân-e dâkhel-e kâbin-hâ be hamdigar negâh kardand va faryâd zadand. |
Reciprocal Pronouns as Direct Objects
Just like regular nouns and independent pronouns, when همدیگر or یکدیگر acts as the direct object of a sentence, it must be followed by the specific direct object marker را.
| When the cabins turned upside down, they didn't see each other. | وقتی کابینها وارونه شدند، یکدیگر را ندیدند.vaghti kâbin-hâ vârune shodand, yekdigar râ nadidand. |
| They hugged each other because they were afraid. | آنها همدیگر را بغل کردند زیرا میترسیدند.ânhâ hamdigar râ baghal kardand zirâ mitarsidand. |
In conversational, spoken Farsi, you will often hear the object marker را pronounced as رو.
| The children hug each other in the cabins. | بچهها تو کابینا همدیگر رو بغل میکنن.bache-hâ to kâbinâ hamdigar ro baghal mikonan. |