Question 1

Why does the second part of the sentence use برداشت می‌کردیم (which looks like a past continuous verb) to mean 'would have harvested'?

Accepted Answer

In Farsi third conditionals (talking about unreal situations in the past), the 'if' clause takes the past perfect, like خریده بودیم (had bought). However, the result clause commonly uses the past continuous/imperfect tense to express 'would have [done]'. Therefore, برداشت می‌کردیم translates perfectly to 'we would have harvested'.

Question 2

Just to review, how is the past perfect verb خریده بودیم formed in the 'if' clause?

Accepted Answer

It is built by taking the past participle of the main verb (خریده, meaning 'bought') and adding the simple past conjugation of بودن (to be). Since the subject is ما (we), we use بودیم, giving us خریده بودیم (we had bought).

Question 3

Why is there an ی at the very end of محصول بهتری?

Accepted Answer

That is the indefinite ی (meaning 'a' or 'an'). The phrase means 'a better crop'. When you have a noun followed by an adjective, this indefinite ی attaches to the end of the adjective, not the noun. If it didn't have the ی, محصول بهتر would just mean 'the better crop'.

Question 4

I know برداشت کردن means 'to harvest' here, but does برداشت have other meanings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. While in an agricultural context it means 'harvest' or 'reaping', in daily life برداشت is also frequently used to mean a 'withdrawal' (like taking money from a bank account) or an 'interpretation' or 'take' on a situation.

اگر ما کود طبیعی خریده بودیم، محصول بهتری برداشت می‌کردیم.

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