Questions & Answers about سی مرد و چهل زن در پارک هستند.
Why are مرد (man) and زن (woman) in their singular forms if there are thirty and forty of them?
In Farsi, whenever you use a number before a noun, the noun must remain singular. So instead of saying "thirty men", Farsi literally says "thirty man" (سی مرد) and "forty woman" (چهل زن).
Since the nouns are singular, why is the verb هستند (are) in the plural form?
Even though the nouns drop their plural endings after a number, the total subject (thirty men and forty women) still logically refers to multiple people. Because the subject refers to living human beings, the verb takes the plural form هستند to match the meaning.
The numbers here are سی (30) and چهل (40). Do Farsi "tens" end in a standard suffix like "-ty" in English?
Not all of them! While higher tens like seventy or eighty share a consistent pattern, the lower tens like بیست (20), سی (30), چهل (40), and پنجاه (50) are unique words you just have to memorize.
How is the word for "and" (و) pronounced in this sentence?
While formally pronounced "va", in everyday spoken Farsi it is almost always pronounced as a short "o" sound attached to the previous word. You will hear "mard-o chehel zan" rather than "mard va chehel zan".