Questions & Answers about آن آتش خطرناک است، به آن دست نزن.
How is the negative command formed in دست نزن?
The verb for "to touch" is the compound verb دست زدن, which literally means "to strike a hand". To tell someone not to do it, we use the negative imperative. We take the present stem of زدن, which is زن, and add the negative prefix نـ. Because we are giving a command to a single person informally, we don't add any extra personal endings. This gives us دست نزن.
Why is the preposition به used before the second آن?
The verb دست زدن requires the preposition به (to). In Farsi, you cannot directly "touch an object"; instead, you literally "strike a hand to an object". Because of this, you must say به آن (to it) right before the verb.
Is the negative prefix in نزن pronounced "na" or "ne"?
It is pronounced "na" making the word nazan. You might remember that for regular present and past tense verbs, the negative prefix is usually pronounced "ne". However, when making a negative command (imperative), the prefix changes its pronunciation to "na".
The word آن appears twice in this sentence. Do both instances mean the exact same thing?
They mean the same thing but do slightly different jobs. The first آن in آن آتش acts as a pointing word meaning "that" (that fire). The second آن in به آن acts as a pronoun replacing the fire, meaning "it" or "that one". Farsi conveniently uses آن for both "that" and the pronoun "it" for non-living things.