Breakdown of دانشآموزها گاهی زیاد میخوابند.
دانشآموزdânesh-âmuz
student
خوابیدنkhâbidan
to sleep
گاهیgâhi
sometimes
زیادziyâd
a lot
Questions & Answers about دانشآموزها گاهی زیاد میخوابند.
How do we build the verb میخوابند here?
This follows the rule for the present indicative tense. It starts with the prefix می (mi-), which shows a habitual action. Next is the present stem of the verb to sleep, which is خواب (khāb). Finally, we add the ending ـند (-and) for 'they', because our subject is the plural 'students'.
Is the letter و pronounced in میخوابند?
No, the و is silent here. When you see the letters خوا together at the beginning of a root, it is traditionally pronounced 'kha' (like in 'khaab'), not 'khwaab'. This is a common spelling quirk you will see in a few Farsi words.
I see ـها at the end of دانشآموزها. Is that how we make words plural?
Yes! The suffix ـها (-hā) is the most common regular way to make a noun plural in Farsi. دانشآموز means student, so adding ـها makes it students.
Why do the words گاهی (sometimes) and زیاد (a lot) come right before the verb?
Because Farsi is a Subject-Object-Verb language, the verb almost always goes at the very end of the sentence. Adverbs describing when or how much an action happens usually go in the middle, naturally stacking up right before the verb.