Breakdown of ظاهراً این دایناسور فقط گیاه خورده است.
این
this
خوردنkhordan
to eat / to drink
فقطfaqat
only, just
ظاهراًzâheran
apparently
دایناسورdâynâsor
dinosaur
گیاهgiyâh
plant
Questions & Answers about ظاهراً این دایناسور فقط گیاه خورده است.
Why does the Farsi sentence use the Present Perfect tense (خورده است) when the English translation just says 'ate' (simple past)?
This is the main point of this lesson! In Farsi, when you are talking about a past event that you didn't personally see or witness, you often use the Present Perfect tense. Because no human was around to see the dinosaur eat, we are stating an inference based on evidence like fossils. Therefore, we use خورده است instead of the simple past خورد.
What is the little double dash symbol at the end of ظاهراً?
That symbol is called a tanvin (ـاً). It is a grammar feature borrowed from Arabic that turns a word into an adverb. Here, it changes ظاهر (appearance) into ظاهراً (apparently). It is always pronounced as -an.
The English translation says 'plants', but گیاه is singular. Why isn't it plural (گیاهان)?
In Farsi, when you talk about a general category or a type of substance rather than specific, individual items, you usually use the singular form. Since we mean plant matter in general as a diet, گیاه is used, even though in English it feels more natural to use the plural 'plants'.
Why is فقط placed right before گیاه?
The word فقط (only) is usually placed immediately before the specific word or phrase it restricts. Here, it emphasizes that the dinosaur's diet was restricted to plants and not meat, so it sits right before گیاه.
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