Breakdown of خواهر او چهارده ساله است.
او
he/she
بودنbudan
to be
خواهرkhâhar
sister
سالهsâle
years old
چهاردهchahârdah
fourteen
Questions & Answers about خواهر او چهارده ساله است.
The text literally says خواهر او (sister he/she). How does that mean "his sister"?
In Farsi, you show possession by linking the noun and the owner with an "e" sound, called the Ezafe. Even though it usually isn't written in the text, you pronounce it as khahar-e oo. This literally translates to "the sister of him" or "his sister".
The translation says "his" sister, but doesn't او just mean "he" or "she"?
Yes, the Farsi pronoun او is completely gender-neutral. Depending on who you are talking about, خواهر او could mean "his sister" or "her sister". The English translation just uses "his" as one possible correct example.
Why is there an extra letter at the end of سال (year) making it ساله?
Adding the short "eh" sound at the end of a time word turns it into an adjective. While چهارده سال means "fourteen years", چهارده ساله means "fourteen-year-old". The sentence is literally saying "His sister is a fourteen-year-old."
Why is the word است (is) at the very end of the sentence?
Farsi is a Subject-Object-Verb language, meaning the verb almost always goes at the very end of the sentence. Here, the subject is خواهر او (his sister), the description is چهارده ساله (fourteen-year-old), and the verb است (is) finishes the thought at the end.
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