Word
تو میتوانستی رکورد قدیمی را بشکنی.
Meaning
You could break the old record.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of تو میتوانستی رکورد قدیمی را بشکنی.
تو
you (singular)
راrâ
definite direct object marker
توانستنtavânestan
to be able to
شکستنshekastan
to break
Questions & Answers about تو میتوانستی رکورد قدیمی را بشکنی.
How does mi-tavânesti express "could" in this sentence?
To talk about past ability (what you "could" or "were able to" do), Farsi uses the past continuous form of tavânestan (to be able to). Since the subject is to (you, singular), we add the -i ending to the stem mi-tavânest-, giving us mi-tavânesti.
Why is the verb for "break" (beshkani) in the present subjunctive form when the sentence is about the past?
In Farsi, the modal verb tavânestan always takes a second verb in the present subjunctive, no matter what tense the modal verb is in. So, even though mi-tavânesti is in the past, beshkani (from shekastan, to break) must take the subjunctive be- prefix and the present -i ending matching the subject "you".
Why does the direct object marker râ come after qadimi instead of right after rekord?
The word râ marks the entire specific direct object. Here, the object isn't just the record (rekord), it is the old record (rekord-e qadimi). The marker râ always goes at the very end of the noun phrase, after any connected adjectives.
Why are the two verbs (mi-tavânesti and beshkani) separated from each other by the object?