Breakdown of گنجشک هم دانه و هم میوه میخورد، در عوض اردک ماهی میخورد.
و
and
خوردنkhordan
to eat / to drink
میوهmive
fruit
همham
also, too / both ... and / together / each other
Questions & Answers about گنجشک هم دانه و هم میوه میخورد، در عوض اردک ماهی میخورد.
How does dar avaz work here? Doesn't it usually mean 'in return'?
It literally translates to 'in exchange' or 'in return', but when you are contrasting two different subjects and their behaviors—like the sparrow and the duck here—it is used to mean 'on the other hand' or 'whereas'.
Why is there a va between the two ham words in ham dâneh va ham miveh?
The structure ham X va ham Y is the standard way to say 'both X and Y' in Farsi. While native speakers sometimes drop the va in fast, casual speech (ham dâneh ham miveh), keeping it is grammatically correct and very common in both writing and speaking.
The verb mi-xorad is used twice. Could we drop the second one to avoid repetition?
It is much better to keep it. In Farsi, when you use a contrast coordinator like dar avaz, you are linking two complete, independent clauses. Unlike English, Farsi strongly prefers to keep the verb in both halves rather than omitting the second one.
Can I put dar avaz at the very end of the sentence?
No, dar avaz acts as a conjunction connecting the two ideas. It needs to sit at the beginning of the second clause, right before the new subject (ordak), setting up the contrast immediately after the comma.