Breakdown of آنها دلیل را به ما توضیح ندادند.
ما
we
آنها
they
بهbe
to
راrâ
definite direct object marker
دلیلdalil
reason
توضیح دادنtowzih dâdan
to explain
Questions & Answers about آنها دلیل را به ما توضیح ندادند.
How do we make a compound verb negative in the simple past, like توضیح ندادند?
In Farsi, 'to explain' is a compound verb: توضیح دادن (literally 'to give explanation'). To make it negative, you only add the negative prefix نـ (na-) to the active verb part, دادن. Since the past stem of دادن is داد and the 'they' ending is ـند, we get توضیح ندادند (they did not explain).
Why does را come right after دلیل in this sentence?
را is the specific direct object marker. Because the sentence says they didn't explain the reason (making it a specific thing being acted upon), we must put را directly after دلیل (reason) to show it is the target of the verb.
The English translation says 'explain... to us', but the Farsi words are in a different order. What is the rule here?
Farsi generally puts the verb at the very end of the sentence. The order here is Subject (آنها - they), Direct Object (دلیل را - the reason), Indirect Object (به ما - to us), and finally the Verb (توضیح ندادند - did not explain).
Could I drop آنها (they) at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes! Because the verb ending ـند (-and) in توضیح ندادند already tells us the subject is 'they', the pronoun آنها is entirely optional. The sentence دلیل را به ما توضیح ندادند means exactly the same thing and sounds very natural.
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