محافظت کردن از اماکن عمومی یکی از اهداف ما است.

From Lesson 235:Arabic broken plurals·Farsi

Questions & Answers about محافظت کردن از اماکن عمومی یکی از اهداف ما است.

The word اماکن (amāken) means "places". What is its singular form, and is this a common plural pattern?
The singular form is مکان (makān). اماکن is an Arabic "broken plural," meaning the word's internal structure changes instead of just adding a regular Persian suffix like -ها (-hā). This specific pattern (a-ā-e) is frequently used for words related to locations or institutions, such as مرکز (markaz - center) becoming مراکز (marākez).
I see اهداف (ahdāf) means "goals". Is this also an Arabic broken plural?
Yes! The singular form is هدف (hadaf - goal). The pattern used here (starting with 'a' and adding 'ā' before the final consonant) is extremely common for short Arabic loanwords. Other frequent examples you will encounter include شخص (shakhs - person) becoming اشخاص (ashkhâs) and وقت (vaqt - time) becoming اوقات (ouqât).
Why do we use the preposition از (az) after محافظت کردن (mohāfazat kardan) instead of treating "public places" as a direct object with را (rā)?
In Persian, many compound verbs require a specific preposition rather than a direct object marker. محافظت کردن (to protect) always pairs with از (az). You can think of it literally as "doing protection from [something]". When learning new compound verbs, it is highly recommended to memorize them alongside their required prepositions.
In the phrase یکی از اهداف ما (yeki az ahdāf-e mā), why do we need the ی (i) on the end of یک (yek)?
Adding the suffix ی (i) to یک (yek) turns the number "one" into the pronoun "one" (meaning "a certain one" or "one entity"). Whenever you want to say "one of [a plural group]" in Farsi, you must use this set structure: یکی از (yeki az).

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