Question 1

How does gonâhkârhâ turn into "the guilty" instead of just "guilties"?

Accepted Answer

In English, we usually say "the guilty" or "the guilty ones" to talk about a group of people based on a trait. In Farsi, you can take an adjective like gonâhkâr (guilty) and simply add the regular plural marker -hâ to turn it into a plural noun meaning "the guilty ones." This is a great shortcut for referring to groups!

Question 2

I know kâr usually means "work." Why is it at the end of gonâhkâr?

Accepted Answer

While kâr by itself means "work" or "job," it is also a very common Farsi suffix used to describe a person who does a specific action. Since gonâh means "sin" or "guilt," adding -kâr creates the word for "sinner" or "guilty person."

Question 3

Does the object marker râ always come right after nominalized adjectives like gonâhkârhâ?

Accepted Answer

Not automatically! It is only used here because gonâhkârhâ is the specific direct object of the sentence. They are the specific people receiving the action of being arrested. If "the guilty" were the subject doing the action (for example, "The guilty ran away"), you would not use râ.

Question 4

What exactly does dastgir mean inside the compound verb dastgir kard?

Accepted Answer

Dastgir kardan is a compound verb meaning "to arrest." The word dastgir itself is made of dast (hand) and gir (from the root of gereftan, to take or catch). So the concept of arresting someone literally translates to something like "to hand-catch" them!

پلیس دیروز گناهکارها را دستگیر کرد.

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