Question 1

Why do both halves of this sentence use the past perfect tense (نشده بود and رفته بود)?

Accepted Answer

In Farsi, the third conditional (talking about an imaginary situation in the past) typically uses the past perfect tense in both the condition clause after اگر and the result clause. This is different from English, which mixes 'had done' and 'would have done'.

Question 2

The translation says 'had not been fertile', but doesn't نشده بود mean 'had not become'?

Accepted Answer

Exactly! The verb شدن literally means 'to become', so the past perfect نشده بود means 'had not become'. In Farsi, it is very common to use شدن with adjectives like حاصلخیز (fertile) to describe reaching a state. English sounds more natural translating this as 'had not been', but 'had not become' is the literal Farsi structure here.

Question 3

How does the phrase از بین رفته بود work here to mean 'would have been destroyed'?

Accepted Answer

The base compound verb is از بین رفتن, which literally translates to 'to go from in-between'. This is the standard Farsi idiom for 'to be destroyed', 'to die', or 'to perish'. To form the past perfect for the third conditional result, only the main verb part changes, giving us رفته بود.

Question 4

Does به دلیل آفت need an ezafe to connect it?

Accepted Answer

Yes! The phrase is pronounced 'be dalil-e aafat'. The word دلیل (reason) is connected to آفت (pest) using the invisible ezafe vowel 'e'. The whole phrase literally translates to 'for the reason of the pest' or simply 'because of the pest'.

اگر خاک حاصلخیز نشده بود، گیاه به دلیل آفت از بین رفته بود.

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