Question 1

Why are there two verbs here, داشت and می‌کرد?

Accepted Answer

This sentence uses the past continuous tense to mean 'was repairing'. In Farsi, you form this by using the past tense of dâshtan (to have) as a helper verb, followed by the main verb with its usual mi- prefix. Since the subject is third-person singular, we use dâsht and mi-kard.

Question 2

Why is there a ی attached to the end of سفینه?

Accepted Answer

That is the ezâfe, a grammatical linker that shows possession, connecting safine (spaceship) to robât (robot) to mean 'the robot's spaceship'. Because safine ends in a silent 'h', Farsi spelling rules require adding a ی (ye) to smoothly pronounce the ezâfe as 'safine-ye'.

Question 3

Where exactly does the object marker را go when using a compound verb?

Accepted Answer

The object marker râ comes immediately after the specific direct object. Here, the complete object is the phrase safine-ye robât. The main verb is the compound ta'mir kardan (to repair). Therefore, râ is placed right after the entire object phrase and right before the compound verb.

Question 4

We are learning the future tense in this lesson. How would we change this sentence to say the student will repair the spaceship?

Accepted Answer

To make this future tense, you drop the past continuous helper dâsht and the mi- prefix from the main verb. Instead, you use the conjugated future helper khâhad (from the verb khâstan) plus the short infinitive of the main verb. The sentence becomes: dâneshjoo safine-ye robât râ ta'mir khâhad kard.

دانشجو داشت سفینه‌ی ربات را تعمیر می‌کرد.

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