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?
Even though dāyi (uncle) and hamsar (spouse) are singular words on their own, the word va (and) connects them to form a plural subject. Since we are talking about two people in total, they act as they, so we must use the third-person plural verb .