Breakdown of این پیام یک راز است، بخوانش!
است
is
این
this
یکyek
one / a, an
خواندنkhândan
to read / to study (a subject)
Questions & Answers about این پیام یک راز است، بخوانش!
Where is the word for "it" in بخوانش?
It is the attached ending ـَش (-ash). As you are learning in this lesson, these short pronoun endings (enclitics) can stick directly to the end of a verb to become its direct object. The verb بخوان (bekhân) means "read!", so adding the ending gives us بخوانش (bekhânash) to mean "read it!".
I thought the ending ـَش (-ash) meant "his" or "her". How can it mean "it"?
Farsi pronouns do not have grammatical gender, so ـَش (-ash) can translate to "him", "her", or "it" depending on the context. Also, while you previously learned that attaching it to a noun shows possession (like "his book"), attaching it to a verb like we do here makes it the object receiving the action (like "read it").
Why is there a letter و (vav) in بخوانش if it is pronounced "bekhânash"?
That letter و is actually silent! In a small group of common Farsi words that start with خوا (including the verbs for "to read" and "to want"), the و is written but skipped in pronunciation. You just say the "kh" sound followed immediately by the "â" vowel.
How do we form the command "read!" (بخوان)?
To tell someone to do something, you usually add the command prefix بـ (be-) to the present stem of the verb. The dictionary form of "to read" is خواندن (khândan) and its present stem is خوان (khân). Adding the prefix gives us the command بخوان (bekhân).