Breakdown of این پادشاه بود که شرق و غرب را فتح کرد.
و
and
این
this
بودنbudan
to be
راrâ
definite direct object marker
کهke
that (conjunction)
پادشاهpâdeshâh
king
شرقsharq
east
غربgharb
west
فتح کردنfath kardan
to conquer
Questions & Answers about این پادشاه بود که شرق و غرب را فتح کرد.
Why do we use in (this) at the beginning of the sentence when the translation says 'It was'?
In Farsi, cleft sentences used to emphasize a specific part of a sentence start with in (literally 'this') instead of a direct equivalent to the dummy 'it' used in English. So, in padeshah bud ke... literally translates to 'This was the king that...', which means 'It was the king who...' in natural English.
Does ke always mean 'who' in this structure?
The word ke is a very versatile relative pronoun. In this cleft sentence structure (in ... bud ke), it simply connects the emphasized part to the rest of the sentence. It can translate to 'who', 'whom', 'which', or 'that' depending on what is being focused on. Because we are emphasizing padeshah (the king), 'who' is the most natural English translation here.
Why does the specific object marker ra only appear after gharb (west) and not also after shargh (east)?
When you have a pair or list of nouns joined by 'and' acting as a single direct object, the object marker ra only goes at the very end of the whole phrase. Here, the entire object phrase is shargh o gharb (east and west), so ra is placed right after gharb.
How should I pronounce the و (and) between east and west?
In natural spoken Farsi and fluid reading, the conjunction و (and) is almost always pronounced as an unstressed '-o' attached to the preceding word. Therefore, you should read this phrase as shargh-o gharb rather than shargh va gharb.
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