Learn Farsi: چرا همه‌ی کارگرها می‌خواهند بخوابند؟

The word همه means all. When we connect it to a noun to say all the workers, we use the ezafe connector. Because همه ends in a short e vowel sound, the ezafe takes the form of the letter ی to bridge the two words, creating همه‌ی کارگرها which translates to all of the workers.

Does همه always require a plural noun like کارگرها?

When you are talking about countable nouns like workers, yes. You use همه‌ی followed by the plural noun. If you were talking about an uncountable noun like water or rice, the noun after همه‌ی would stay singular.

Why is the second verb بخوابند instead of an infinitive like in English?

In English we say want to sleep, but Farsi does not use the infinitive here. When an action follows the verb to want, the second verb must be in the subjunctive form. We replace the normal می prefix with بـ so می‌خوابند becomes بخوابند. Also, since the subject is all the workers, both verbs must take the they ending ـند.

I see a و in می‌خواهند. How do I pronounce it?

The letter و in می‌خواهند is completely silent. The present stem for the verb to want is خواه which is pronounced khah. The silent و is just a traditional spelling rule you have to memorize for this specific verb, so the whole word is simply pronounced mi-khahand.