Breakdown of آنها دارند ارتباط برقرار می‌کنند، اما ماهواره خراب است.
آنها
they
بودنbudan
to be
اماammâ
but
داشتنdâshtan
to have
Questions & Answers about آنها دارند ارتباط برقرار می‌کنند، اما ماهواره خراب است.
How does the present progressive tense work with a long compound verb in this sentence?
To show an action is happening right at this very moment, Farsi uses a conjugated form of داشتن as an auxiliary verb, paired with the present continuous main verb. Here, دارند (they have) is used with می‌کنند (they are doing). Notice how the auxiliary verb is separated from the main verb by the other parts of the compound verb (ارتباط برقرار).
What exactly makes up the phrase ارتباط برقرار می‌کنند?
This comes from the complex compound verb ارتباط برقرار کردن. It combines ارتباط (connection or communication), برقرار (established or active), and the light verb کردن (to do/make). Even though it translates to the single English word 'establishing', in Farsi you conjugate the light verb at the very end and keep the noun and adjective stacked before it.
Because both دارند and می‌کنند have the 'they' ending (-ند), is the word آنها (they) mandatory?
No, you can safely drop آنها and just say دارند ارتباط برقرار می‌کنند. Because both the auxiliary and the main verb are conjugated for the 3rd person plural, the subject is already perfectly clear. Adding آنها just provides a little extra emphasis or context.
Could I use خراب (xarâb) if the satellite was physically smashed into pieces?