Learn Farsi: این کاسه یک سفال کوچک است. - This bowl is a small piece of pottery.

It is between سفال (pottery) and کوچک (small), pronounced as sofâl-e kučak. The ezafe links a noun to its adjective. Notice there is no ezafe after یک (a/one) because numbers and articles come before the noun and don't take an ezafe.

Why does the English translation include the words "piece of" when there is no Farsi word for "piece" here?

The word سفال (sofâl) translates broadly to "pottery" or "earthenware". In Farsi, you can use the material itself as a countable noun to refer to an object made of that material. So, یک سفال naturally means "a piece of pottery" without needing an extra word for "piece".

Is the word order for یک (a/one) and کوچک (small) different from English?

The article is the same, but the adjective is different. Just like in English, the article یک comes before the noun. However, descriptive adjectives like کوچک come after the noun in Farsi. This creates the structure: [article] + [noun] + ezafe + [adjective].

How would this sentence sound in everyday spoken Farsi?

A few words soften in casual speech. یک usually shortens to یه (ye). The adjective کوچک (kučak) is almost always pronounced کوچیک (kučik). Finally, the formal verb است (ast) attaches to the previous word as an "-e" sound, making the spoken sentence sound like: in kâse ye sofâl-e kučik-e.