Questions & Answers about او یتیم است و مددکار برایش هدیهای خریده بود.
How is برایش (barâyash) formed in this sentence?
The base preposition is برای (barâ-ye). Because it ends in a vowel, attaching the pronoun ending ـَش (-ash, meaning "him" or "her") directly would be awkward to pronounce. To fix this, Farsi inserts a glide consonant, the "y" sound. So, برای (barâ) + ی (-y-) + ـَش (-ash) becomes برایش (barâyash), meaning "for him".
Why is there an extra letter before the "i" ending in هدیهای (hedye'i)?
The word for gift is هدیه (hedye), which ends in a spoken "e" vowel (written as a silent "h"). To say "a gift", we add the indefinite suffix ـی (-i). Because Farsi avoids putting two vowels directly together, a buffer letter (an Alef, often carrying a Hamza) is inserted between them, creating هدیهای (hedye'i).
Why does the sentence use خریده بود (kharide bud) instead of the simple past خرید (kharid)?
خریده بود is the past perfect tense, translating to "had bought". It is formed by taking the past participle خریده (kharide - bought) and adding the past tense of "to be", بود (bud - was). It is used here to show that the action of buying the gift happened earlier in the past, before the main timeframe being discussed.
How do we know that او and برایش mean "he" and "for him" rather than "she" and "for her"?