Breakdown of اگر آنها زمین را شخم نزده بودند، محصول به خاطر علفهای هرز از بین رفته بود.
آنها
they
بودنbudan
to be
راrâ
definite direct object marker
زمینzamin
ground
محصولmahsul
crop / harvest
اگرagar
if
به خاطرbe khâter-e
because of / for the sake of (often for a person's sake)
شخم زدنshokhm zadan
to plow
علف هرزalaf-e harz
weed
از بین رفتنaz beyn raftan
to be destroyed
Questions & Answers about اگر آنها زمین را شخم نزده بودند، محصول به خاطر علفهای هرز از بین رفته بود.
Why is the main clause in the Past Perfect tense (از بین رفته بود) instead of a conditional tense?
In Farsi, the third conditional (talking about an unreal past) uses the Past Perfect tense in both halves of the sentence. While English says 'If X had happened, Y would have happened', Farsi literally says 'If X had happened, Y had happened'. So the Past Perfect از بین رفته بود (had been destroyed) naturally translates to 'would have been destroyed' in this context.
Why is the negative prefix attached to زده rather than the auxiliary verb بودند in شخم نزده بودند?
For compound verbs in the Past Perfect tense, the negative prefix نـ (na-) attaches to the main past participle, not the auxiliary verb بودن (to be). Since the compound verb here is شخم زدن (to plow), the past participle زده becomes نزده, making the full negative form شخم نزده بودند (had not plowed).
How does از بین رفته بود mean 'would have been destroyed'?
The verb از بین رفتن literally means 'to go from between'. In Farsi, this is a very common idiom used to mean 'to be destroyed', 'to disappear', or 'to die'. Conjugated in the Past Perfect for this third conditional sentence, it means the crop would have been completely lost or destroyed.
How is the phrase for 'weeds' (علفهای هرز) formed here?
علف means 'grass' or 'herb', and هرز means 'useless', 'vain', or 'waste'. Connected by the ezāfe (the hidden 'e' sound that links nouns to adjectives), علفهای هرز literally translates to 'useless grasses', which is the standard Farsi term for weeds.
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