Question 1

How do we form the words for "stronger" and "weaker" in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Just like in English where you add "-er" to an adjective, in Farsi you add the suffix -tar. So qavi (strong) becomes qavitar (stronger), and za'if (weak) becomes za'iftar (weaker).

Question 2

I thought az meant "from". Why is it translated as "than" here?

Accepted Answer

You are right that az usually means "from". However, when making comparisons in Farsi, az is the exact word used for "than". You can think of "stronger than me" as meaning "stronger from my level".

Question 3

Why is the word order az man qavitar (than me stronger) instead of "stronger than me"?

Accepted Answer

In Farsi, the thing you are comparing against (along with az) comes before the comparative adjective. So instead of saying "stronger than me", you literally say "than me stronger" (az man qavitar). You can see the exact same pattern in the second half of the sentence: az to za'iftar (than you weaker).

Question 4

Why does the verb ast (is) appear in the first half, but the second half uses nistam?

Accepted Answer

The word ast means "he/she/it is", which matches the subject "my brother" in the first half. In the second half, the subject changes to "I" (man). The word for "I am not" is nistam, which combines the negative base nist- with the "I" ending -am.

Question 5

How do we say "my brother" since there is no separate word for "my" in the sentence?

Accepted Answer

You use the ezāfe connector! Even though it is not written as a separate letter, there is a short "e" sound connecting barādar (brother) and man (I/me). Pronouncing it as barādar-e man literally means "brother of me", which is how Farsi shows possession.

برادر من از من قوی‌تر است اما من از تو ضعیف‌تر نیستم.

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