Breakdown of آن تونل تاریک حفر شد.
آن
that
تاریکtârik
dark
تونلtunel
tunnel
حفر کردنhafr kardan
to dig (a hole, well, or trench)
Questions & Answers about آن تونل تاریک حفر شد.
Why doesn't the passive verb here use a past participle ending in -eh?
This lesson teaches making passives with a past participle plus shod, but hafr shodan is a compound verb. The first part, hafr (digging), is a noun. To make this type of compound verb passive, we just keep that noun part as it is and conjugate the helper verb shodan. You don't need to build a past participle out of the first word!
If the active verb is hafr kardan (to dig), how did we get hafr shod?
This is the easiest way to make compound verbs passive in Persian. If an active compound verb uses kardan (to do), you simply swap it with the matching tense of shodan (to become). So, hafr kard (he/she dug) perfectly translates to the passive hafr shod (it was dug).
Where is the Ezafe in this sentence?
It connects the noun tunel (tunnel) to its describing adjective taarik (dark). Even though the short -e vowel is almost never written out in the Persian script, you must pronounce it to link the words: tunel-e taarik.
Why doesn't aan (that) also connect to the noun with an Ezafe?
Demonstrative words like aan (that) and in (this) act a bit differently than adjectives. They always come directly before the noun and never take an Ezafe. It is simply aan tunel, never aan-e tunel.