Word
ما اینجا چهل دانشجو هستیم.
Meaning
We are forty students here.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of ما اینجا چهل دانشجو هستیم.
ما
we
دانشجوdâneshju
university student
اینجاinjâ
here
بودنbudan
to be
Questions & Answers about ما اینجا چهل دانشجو هستیم.
Is the word for forty, چهل, related to the word for four?
Yes! Forty is چهل (chehel) and four is چهار (chahār). In Farsi, the tens (20-100) often share similar starting sounds with their single digits. Paying attention to these starting sounds is a great trick for memorizing the tens.
Why is دانشجو (student) singular if there are forty of them? Shouldn't it be plural?
This is a strict and very useful rule in Farsi! After any specific number greater than one, the noun always stays singular. So Farsi literally says forty student (چهل دانشجو) instead of forty students.
If دانشجو is singular, why does the verb هستیم (we are) have a plural ending?
The verb always matches the main subject of the sentence, not just the word right next to it. The subject here is ما (we), so the verb must take the matching first-person plural form هستیم.
Why is اینجا (here) placed right after ما (we) instead of at the end of the sentence like in English?
Farsi sentences almost always put the verb at the very end. Words that show time or place, like اینجا, usually go near the beginning of the sentence, right after the subject. So the literal word order is: We here forty student are.