Q: Why does the second part of the sentence use میشد?

میشد is the past continuous form of شدن (to become). In Farsi second conditionals, the result part of the sentence takes the past continuous tense. This tense acts exactly like 'would do something' in English. Here, it gives us 'would become' (would win).

Question 1

Why do we use the past tense نداشتند (didn't have) if this is an imaginary present situation?

Accepted Answer

In Farsi, just like in English, we use the simple past tense to talk about unreal or imaginary situations in the present (this is called the second conditional). Because the situation isn't true right now (they actually do have magical power), we use اگر (if) followed by the simple past نداشتند.

Question 2

Why does the second part of the sentence use می‌شد?

Accepted Answer

می‌شد is the past continuous form of شدن (to become). In Farsi second conditionals, the result part of the sentence takes the past continuous tense. This tense acts exactly like 'would do something' in English. Here, it gives us 'would become' (would win).

Question 3

How exactly does پیروز می‌شد mean 'would win'?

Accepted Answer

Farsi relies heavily on compound verbs! پیروز means 'victorious.' To say 'to win,' Farsi uses پیروز شدن (literally: to become victorious). When we put the 'to become' part into the past continuous conditional (می‌شد), the whole phrase means 'would win'.

Question 4

Why does جادویی have that extra 'ee' sound at the end?

Accepted Answer

The base word is the noun جادو (magic). By adding the suffix ی (-yi), it turns into the adjective جادویی (magical). When spoken, it connects to the word before it with an invisible 'ezafe' vowel: ghodrat-e jaadooyi (magical power).

اگر آنها قدرت جادویی نداشتند، دشمن پیروز می‌شد.

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