Breakdown of پیش از اینکه مشتریها بیایند، میوهها را روی ترازو میگذارم.
رویruye
on
ازaz
from
آمدنâmadan
to come
میوهmive
fruit
Questions & Answers about پیش از اینکه مشتریها بیایند، میوهها را روی ترازو میگذارم.
Why is بیایند in the subjunctive mood here?
It follows پیش از اینکه (pish az inke), which means 'before'. In Farsi, phrases meaning 'before doing something' trigger the present subjunctive for the verb that follows them. This is why we use the subjunctive بیایند instead of the normal present indicative میآیند.
Could I use قبل از اینکه instead of پیش از اینکه here?
Yes, they are completely interchangeable and mean exactly the same thing. Both of them mean 'before' and both require the following verb to be in the subjunctive mood. قبل comes from Arabic while پیش is originally Persian, but everyday speakers use both freely.
Why is there a را (ra) after میوهها (miveh-ha)?
The word را is the specific direct object marker. Because the sentence says you put 'the' fruits on the scale rather than just putting some general, unspecified fruit down, میوهها is treated as a specific, known object and must be followed by را.
How does روی ترازو (ruye tarazu) translate to 'on the scale' without a word for 'the'?
Farsi does not have a direct equivalent to the English definite article 'the'. Whether ترازو means 'a scale' or 'the scale' is understood purely from context. Here, روی (on) connects to ترازو (scale) using the invisible linking vowel called ezafe, giving us 'ruye tarazu' (on the scale).