Word
قربانیها به جنگل برده شده بودند.
Meaning
The victims had been taken to the forest.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of قربانیها به جنگل برده شده بودند.
بودنbudan
to be
بهbe
to
بردنbordan
to take (away, carry)
شدنshodan
to become
Questions & Answers about قربانیها به جنگل برده شده بودند.
How do we build the past perfect passive form borde shode budand in this sentence?
You start with the past participle of the main verb, bordan (to take), which is borde. Then, to make it past perfect passive, you add the past perfect form of the helper verb shodan (to become), which is shode budand (they had been). Put them together and you get borde shode budand (they had been taken).
The verb bordan can also mean to win. How do we know it means taken here?
It is true that bordan means to win in games or competitions, but its other everyday meaning is to take or carry away. The prepositional phrase be jangal (to the forest) indicates a destination, making it clear that physical movement is happening, so it must mean taken.
Since Farsi often uses singular verbs for plural subjects, could we use the singular shode bud here?
While plural inanimate objects (like cars or trees) usually take a singular verb in Farsi, ghorbāni-hā (victims) refers to human beings. When the plural subject is human, the verb must also be plural, which is why we must use the plural ending in shode budand.
Does the word ghorbāni only mean victim?
No, ghorbāni originally means a sacrifice or an offering. However, in modern Farsi, its most common everyday translation is victim, whether that refers to victims of a crime, an accident, or a war.