Q: Literally, what does به نظر میرسد mean and how does it translate to "it seems"?

نظر means "opinion" or "sight", and میرسد is the present tense of رسیدن (to arrive). So literally, this phrase means "it arrives to sight" or "it arrives to opinion". Farsi uses this idiomatically to mean "it seems" or "it looks like".

Q: How would I say "It seemed that..." to connect with our current lessons on the past tense?

You would change the present tense میرسد to the continuous past form میرسید (it was seeming / it seemed). To put the whole sentence in the past, you would say به نظر میرسید که کارگردان مضطرب بود (It seemed that the director was anxious). Because است (is) is a state of being, it simply changes to بود (was) rather than using the auxiliary داشت.

Question 1

Literally, what does به نظر می‌رسد mean and how does it translate to "it seems"?

Accepted Answer

نظر means "opinion" or "sight", and می‌رسد is the present tense of رسیدن (to arrive). So literally, this phrase means "it arrives to sight" or "it arrives to opinion". Farsi uses this idiomatically to mean "it seems" or "it looks like".

Question 2

How would I say "It seemed that..." to connect with our current lessons on the past tense?

Accepted Answer

You would change the present tense می‌رسد to the continuous past form می‌رسید (it was seeming / it seemed). To put the whole sentence in the past, you would say به نظر می‌رسید که کارگردان مضطرب بود (It seemed that the director was anxious). Because است (is) is a state of being, it simply changes to بود (was) rather than using the auxiliary داشت.

Question 3

Why isn't there a subject pronoun like "it" before به نظر می‌رسد?

Accepted Answer

Farsi uses the verb ending to show the subject. Here, the verb می‌رسد ends in -د, which is the third-person singular (he/she/it) ending. For impersonal sentences like "it seems" or "it is raining", Farsi just builds the "it" into the verb ending rather than using a separate dummy pronoun.

Question 4

Can I drop the word که (that) in this sentence, just like we often do in English?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Just like in English where you can say "It seems the director is anxious", you can drop the conjunction که in casual, spoken Farsi. However, keeping که is considered more standard and is very common in both writing and everyday speech.

Question 5

How is the word کارگردان (director) formed?

Accepted Answer

It is a compound word made from کار (work) and the root گردان (from گرداندن, meaning to turn, manage, or run). So a کارگردان is literally someone who "runs the work" or "turns the wheels", which perfectly describes a film or theater director!

به نظر می‌رسد که کارگردان مضطرب است.

Breakdown of به نظر می‌رسد که کارگردان مضطرب است.

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