Word
مردم به خاطر زلزلهی شدید میترسیدند.
Meaning
The people were afraid because of the severe earthquake.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of مردم به خاطر زلزلهی شدید میترسیدند.
ترسیدنtarsidan
to fear
مردمmardom
people
شدیدshadid
severe
به خاطرbe khâter-e
because of / for the sake of (often for a person's sake)
Questions & Answers about مردم به خاطر زلزلهی شدید میترسیدند.
How does the phrase be khâter-e work in this sentence?
be khâter-e means 'because of' or 'for the sake of'. The -e at the end is an ezâfe, which acts like a bridge connecting the preposition to the noun phrase that follows it, which is zelzele-ye shadid (the severe earthquake).
Could I use be dalil-e instead of be khâter-e here?
Yes, you can! be dalil-e means 'due to' or 'for the reason of'. In this context, be dalil-e zelzele-ye shadid means exactly the same thing as be khâter-e zelzele-ye shadid and they are completely interchangeable.
Why is there a -ye attached to zelzele?
That is the ezâfe connecting the noun zelzele (earthquake) to its adjective shadid (severe). Because zelzele ends in a silent letter heh, the ezâfe becomes a -ye sound to make it flow smoothly into the next word.
The word mardom doesn't have a plural ending. Why is the verb mi-tarsidand plural?
Just like the English word 'people', mardom is a collective noun. Even though it doesn't have a plural marker like -hâ, it refers to a group of individuals and therefore takes the plural verb ending -nd (they).
Why is the verb used instead of the simple past tense ?