Breakdown of روانشناس به من کمک کرد تا خودم به شناخت بهتری برسم.
من
I
بهbe
to
کمک کردنkomak kardan
to help
تاtâ
so that
Questions & Answers about روانشناس به من کمک کرد تا خودم به شناخت بهتری برسم.
How is خودم (khodam) functioning in this sentence? Is it reflexive or emphatic?
It is acting as an emphatic pronoun here. The sentence could just say تا به شناخت بهتری برسم (so that I reach a better understanding) because the verb ending ـم (-am) already shows that "I" am doing the reaching. Adding خودم (khodam) emphasizes that I am doing it myself, rather than the psychologist doing it for me.
Why do we say به من کمک کرد (be man komak kard) instead of using the direct object marker and saying من را کمک کرد (man râ komak kard)?
In Farsi, the compound verb کمک کردن (komak kardan - to help) does not take a direct object. Instead, you "give help to someone", so it always requires the preposition به (be - to). Literally, this phrase translates to "did help to me".
Why is the second verb برسم (beresam) in the subjunctive form?
The conjunction تا (tâ) here translates to "so that" or "in order to". When تا is used to express a purpose or intention, the verb that follows it must be in the subjunctive mood. The prefix بـ (be-) attached to the present stem رسـ (res-) shows that this is the present subjunctive of رسیدن (residan - to reach).
In the phrase شناخت بهتری (shenâkht-e behtari), why is the indefinite suffix ـی (-i) attached to the adjective instead of the noun?
The suffix ـی (-i) means "a" or "an". When you have a noun linked to an adjective with the vowel (like for "better understanding"), the indefinite suffix attaches to the very end of the entire phrase, not to the noun itself. Therefore, it attaches to the adjective to mean "a better understanding".