Questions & Answers about کاش شرایط ایدهآل بود و ما امنیت داشتیم.
The lesson says we use the Past Continuous for present wishes, but bud and dâshtim are in the Simple Past. Why?
The verbs 'to be' (budan) and 'to have' (dâshtan) are important exceptions. While most verbs need the continuous prefix mi- for present unreality, these two verbs simply use their Simple Past forms (bud and dâshtim) to say 'were' and 'had' for a present wish.
Sharâyet (conditions) is plural, so why does it use the singular verb bud instead of budand?
In Farsi, plural inanimate subjects (things that are not people or animals) usually take a singular verb. Since sharâyet is not human, the verb defaults to the third-person singular bud.
Is sharâyet a regular plural noun? It does not end with the usual plural suffixes.
It is an 'Arabic broken plural.' Farsi borrowed many Arabic words along with their irregular plural forms. The singular word is shart (condition), and its broken plural is sharâyet. You could use the regular Farsi plural shart-hâ, but sharâyet is much more common in this context.
What does the -iyat ending on amniyat (security) do?
The -iyat suffix is borrowed from Arabic and is used to create abstract nouns, very much like the '-ity' ending in English. Here, it attaches to the root amn (safe or peace) to create (safety or security).