Questions & Answers about آنها در خانهی خود عتیقههای باارزش داشتند.
The lesson is about the Past Continuous of 'dâshtan', but داشتند (dâshtand) looks like the Simple Past. Where is the می (mi-) prefix?
The verb داشتن (to have) is a major exception in Farsi! Unlike other verbs, it generally doesn't take the می (mi-) prefix to form the Past Continuous. To say "used to have", you simply use the Simple Past form (داشتند). The listener will know from the context whether you mean a one-time "had" or an ongoing state in the past.
Why use خود (khod) here instead of just adding the suffix شان (-eshân) to mean "their house"?
خود means "self", and Farsi frequently uses it when the subject of the sentence (here, "they") is also the owner of the object. So خانهی خود literally means "the house of themselves". You could absolutely say خانهشان (their house), but using خود is a very natural and standard way to connect the ownership back to the subject.
Why is there an extra ی (ye) attached to the end of عتیقهها (atiqe-hâ)?
That is the Ezafe! It links the noun عتیقهها (antiques) to the adjective describing them, باارزش (valuable). Because the plural suffix ها (-hâ) ends in a long vowel sound, we have to add a written and pronounced ی (ye) to build that grammatical bridge.
How does the adjective باارزش (bâ-arzesh) work?
It is a compound adjective made of two pieces: the preposition (with) and the noun (value). Put together, "with value" becomes "valuable". Farsi builds a lot of adjectives this way, and spotting the prefix will help you guess the meanings of many new words!