Learn Farsi: آیا چایش سرد است؟

The word for tea is چای (chay). To make it "his tea", we attach the third-person singular possessive ending ـش (-ash) to the end, giving us چایش (chay-ash).

Could چایش also mean "her tea"?

Yes! Farsi pronouns and possessive endings do not have gender. The ending ـش (-ash) can mean "his", "her", or "its" depending entirely on the context.

The word چای ends with the letter ی. Why doesn't it use the special possessive ending for words ending in vowels?

Even though ی often acts as a vowel, in the word چای (chay) it makes a consonant "y" sound. Because the word ends in a consonant sound, it just takes the regular ـش (-ash) ending instead of needing a buffer letter.

Do I always have to start yes/no questions with آیا (aya)?

No, you don't. While آیا is used at the beginning of yes/no questions in written or formal Farsi, native speakers usually drop it in everyday conversation. You can simply ask چایش سرد است؟ and raise the pitch of your voice at the end.

Why is the verb است (is) at the very end of the sentence?

Unlike English, Farsi is a Subject-Object-Verb language, meaning the main verb almost always goes at the very end. The literal word order here is "Question-word his-tea cold is?".