Word
داییشان و همسرش بیمار هستند.
Meaning
Their maternal uncle and his spouse are sick.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about داییشان و همسرش بیمار هستند.
Why does the ending for their attach as -shān to dāyi instead of -eshān?
Because dāyi (maternal uncle) ends in a vowel sound. When a word ends in a vowel, we drop the first vowel of the possessive ending to make it easier to pronounce. So we add -shān instead of -eshān, making it dāyi-shān.
What is the difference between the endings on dāyi-shān and hamsar-ash?
Both are possessive endings (enclitics) that attach to the end of a noun, but they show different owners. The -shān in dāyi-shān is the plural ending for their, meaning the uncle belongs to multiple people. The -ash in hamsar-ash is the singular ending for his or her, showing that the spouse belongs to just one person (the uncle).
How do we know if hamsar-ash means his wife or her husband?
Farsi is mostly a gender-neutral language. The word hamsar simply means spouse, and the ending -ash means his, her, or its. We only know it means his spouse here because the sentence is talking about a maternal uncle (dāyi). If we were talking about an aunt, hamsar-ash would automatically mean her husband.
Why is the verb hastand (are) plural if the uncle and the spouse are both singular words?