نسبت مردان به زنان در این شرکت شصت به چهل است.

From Lesson 299:Percentages (darsad)·Farsi

Questions & Answers about نسبت مردان به زنان در این شرکت شصت به چهل است.

How do we express the ratio 'X to Y' in Farsi? Does it translate literally?
Yes, it translates word-for-word! Just like in English, Farsi uses the preposition به (be), meaning 'to', between the two items or numbers. You can see it twice here: مردان به زنان (men to women) and شصت به چهل (sixty to forty).
Why do 'men' and 'women' end in ـان (-ān) here instead of the standard plural ـها (-hā)?
The suffix ـان (-ān) is used for pluralizing people in a slightly more formal or written register. Since statistics and demographics are usually discussed in a formal context, you will frequently see مردان (mardān) and زنان (zanān) instead of مردها (mard-hā) and زن‌ها (zan-hā).
The sentence mentions plural 'men' and 'women', so why is the verb singular (است)?
The grammatical subject of the sentence is not the men or the women, but the word نسبت (nesbat), meaning 'proportion' or 'ratio'. Because 'proportion' is singular, it takes the singular verb است (ast, is).
How is the word نسبت (proportion) linked to the rest of the phrase?
It is linked using the invisible ezafe vowel (pronounced 'e'). The phrase نسبت مردان (nesbat-e mardān) literally means 'proportion of men'.

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