Breakdown of معروفترین رودخانه نزدیک این دریاچه است.
است
is
این
this
نزدیکnazdik
near / close
رودخانهrudkhâne
river
Questions & Answers about معروفترین رودخانه نزدیک این دریاچه است.
Normal adjectives come after the noun with an Ezafe. Why does معروفترین come before the noun here?
This is the special rule for superlative adjectives (words ending in ـترین). Unlike normal adjectives, superlatives must go before the noun they describe, and they never use an Ezafe connector. That is why we say معروفترین رودخانه instead of putting the adjective after the noun.
Is there a hidden Ezafe connecting نزدیک (near) to the rest of the sentence?
Yes! Prepositions of place like نزدیک usually need an Ezafe to connect to the noun phrase that follows them. When speaking, you will say nazdik-e in daryacheh. As always, this Ezafe is just a short vowel sound and is not written out in the Persian alphabet.
I recognize the word دریا (sea) inside دریاچه (lake). Does the ـچه ending have a specific meaning?
Exactly! The suffix ـچه is used to make things smaller in Farsi. Adding it to دریا (sea) literally creates a little sea, which is the perfect way to describe a lake.
If I wanted to say the more famous river instead of the most famous, would the word order stay the same?
No, it would change completely! The phrase more famous uses a comparative adjective (معروفتر). Comparatives follow the normal adjective rule: they come after the noun and use an Ezafe. So, a more famous river would be رودخانهی معروفتر (rudkhaneh-ye ma'ruf-tar). Only superlatives like معروفترین jump to the front of the noun without an Ezafe.