Breakdown of رام کردن ببر خطرناک است.
بودنbudan
to be
خطرناکkhatarnâk
dangerous
ببرbabr
tiger
رام کردنrâm kardan
to tame
Questions & Answers about رام کردن ببر خطرناک است.
Why doesn't this sentence use the causative suffix -ândan to mean 'to make tame'?
The causative suffixes -ândan and -ânidan are only added to the present stems of verbs. Because râm (tame) is an adjective, it has no verb stem. To make it a transitive action, Farsi uses a compound verb with kardan (to do/make). So, râm kardan acts as the equivalent of a causative for adjectives.
Why is there an invisible ezafe (the 'e' sound) between kardan and babr?
In this sentence, the infinitive kardan acts as a noun (meaning 'taming' or 'the act of taming'). When a verbal noun is followed by its logical object (the tiger), they are linked by an ezafe. You read it as râm kardan-e babr, which literally translates to 'the taming of a tiger'.
Since a tiger is being tamed, why don't we use the object marker râ after babr?
First, the word babr is being used in a general, abstract sense here ('taming a tiger' in general), and râ is only used for specific direct objects. Second, grammatically, babr is not acting as the direct object of a conjugated verb here; it is linked to the noun form of the verb via an ezafe ('the taming of a tiger').
Is it common to start a Farsi sentence with an infinitive like râm kardan?