Question 1

Why is "we are cold" translated as سردمان است instead of ما سرد هستیم?

Accepted Answer

In Farsi, physical sensations like being cold, hot, or hungry use a special "experiencer" structure. Instead of saying "we are cold," Farsi essentially says "our cold is." The adjective سرد (cold) takes the possessive ending مان (our), followed by the fixed 3rd-person singular verb است (is).

Question 2

If the sentence starts with ما (we), why does the sentence end with است (is) instead of هستیم (are)?

Accepted Answer

Because the verb است actually belongs to the state of being cold, not to ما. In the phrase سردمان است, the grammatical subject is the feeling of "coldness," which is singular. You can think of the full structure as ما خیلی سردمان است (As for us, our cold is).

Question 3

How would سردمان است change if I wanted to say "she is very cold" instead?

Accepted Answer

You only need to change the pronoun ending attached to سرد. The verb است stays exactly the same because the literal structure remains "[her] cold is." So, "she is very cold" would be خیلی سردش است.

Question 4

Why do we use the subjunctive verb برویم (that we go) in the first half of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

The phrase مجبور هستیم means "we are forced" or "we have to." Just like other verbs expressing necessity or obligation (such as باید), it requires the action that follows to be in the subjunctive mood. The word که (that) connects them, literally translating to: "We are forced that we go."

ما مجبور هستیم که به سونا برویم، چون خیلی سردمان است.

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