Questions & Answers about گفتن خبر و شنیدن جواب مشکل است.
The English translation uses 'Saying' and 'hearing', but گفتن and شنیدن are infinitives. Can infinitives translate to '-ing' words?
Yes! In Farsi, the infinitive form, which always ends in -tan or -dan, also acts as a verbal noun (like words ending in '-ing' in English). So گفتن can mean 'to say' or 'saying', and شنیدن can mean 'to hear' or 'hearing'.
How do we extract the present stem from the infinitives گفتن and شنیدن?
While the past stem is easily found by dropping the final -n from the infinitive, present stems in Farsi are often irregular and must be memorized. For گفتن, the present stem is گو and for شنیدن, the present stem is شنو.
Is there a hidden sound connecting 'saying' to 'the news'?
Exactly! This is the ezafe rule in action, which you might remember from linking nouns to adjectives. To connect the verbal noun to its object, you add a short '-e' sound. So saying the news is pronounced goftan-e khabar, and hearing the answer is shenidan-e javāb.
Does the word مشکل mean 'difficult' or 'problem'?
It can mean both! The word مشکل can be used as a noun meaning a problem, or as an adjective meaning difficult. In this sentence, it is used as an adjective right before است to mean 'is difficult'.