Breakdown of برادر بزرگ من نوزده ساله است.
من
I
بودنbudan
to be
بزرگbozorg
big / large
برادرbarâdar
brother
سالهsâle
years old
نوزدهnuzdah
nineteen
Questions & Answers about برادر بزرگ من نوزده ساله است.
Why are the words in the order برادر بزرگ من (brother big me)?
In Farsi, adjectives (like بزرگ, big) and possessive pronouns (like من, my) come after the noun they describe. They are connected by a short "e" sound called the Ezafe. So, برادر بزرگ من (barādar-e bozorg-e man) literally translates to "brother-of big-of me".
The word for year is سال (sāl). Why does it have a ه at the end here (ساله)?
Adding the suffix ه (which makes an "eh" sound) turns the noun "year" (سال) into the adjective "year-old" (ساله, sāleh). So نوزده ساله translates exactly to "nineteen-year-old".
Do Farsi speakers use the verb "to be" to talk about age, like in English?
Yes! Unlike some languages that use the verb "to have" for age, Farsi uses the verb "to be" (است, ast), just like English. Because Farsi puts the verb at the end of the sentence, the literal word order is "nineteen-year-old is".
How is the number nineteen (نوزده) pronounced? Does the و make a "v" sound?
In the word نوزده, the letter و (vav) makes an "oo" sound here, not a "v". It is pronounced "nooz-dah". In casual everyday speech, you might also hear Iranians pronounce it as "nooz-deh".
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