Questions & Answers about آیا دستهایت تمیز است؟
How does the word for your hands (دستهایت) break down?
The base word is دست (hand). To make it plural, we add ها to get دستها (hands). To say your hands, we add the possessive ending for your, which is normally -at. However, because دستها ends in a vowel sound, we must insert a y sound as a bridge. This makes the ending -yat, giving us دستهایت.
Why does the sentence use the singular verb است (is) when talking about plural hands?
In Farsi, plural nouns that refer to inanimate objects or body parts usually take a singular verb. Since hands are not people, the sentence grammatically treats them as a singular subject, taking است instead of a plural verb.
Is the word آیا required to ask this question?
No, it is optional. آیا is a question marker used mostly in formal speech or writing to clearly signal a yes or no question at the very beginning of the sentence. In everyday conversation, you can just say دستهایت تمیز است؟ and simply raise the pitch of your voice at the end to show it is a question.
Why isn't there a connecting sound between دستهایت and تمیز?
You would use that connecting sound (called the ezâfe) if you were saying clean hands as a single noun phrase. However, in this sentence, we are stating that the hands are clean. Because تمیز acts as the description right before the verb rather than attaching directly to the noun as a phrase, no connecting sound is used.