Breakdown of میخوام یه جوک بگم، اما واهمه دارم که حضار نخندن.
اماammâ
but
یکyek
one / a, an
گفتنgoftan
to say / to tell
خندیدنkhandidan
to laugh
Questions & Answers about میخوام یه جوک بگم، اما واهمه دارم که حضار نخندن.
Why is the verb for "won't laugh" in the subjunctive mood (نخندن) here, even though it translates to a future/conditional idea in English?
In Farsi, verbs expressing fear, worry, or apprehension—like واهمه دارم که (I have apprehension that)—require the verb in the following clause to be in the subjunctive mood. Even though English says "won't laugh", Farsi uses the present subjunctive نخندن to show the uncertainty or hypothetical nature of the feared outcome.
Where is the subjunctive بـ (be-) prefix on نخندن?
When you make a subjunctive verb negative, the negative prefix نـ (na-/ne-) replaces the subjunctive بـ (be-) prefix entirely. You never use both together. So, the affirmative بخندن (that they laugh) simply becomes نخندن (that they don't laugh).
The word for audience is حضار. Why doesn't it have a standard Farsi plural ending like ـها or ـان?
حضار (hozzar) is an Arabic "broken plural" commonly used in Farsi. It is the plural of حاضر (hazer), meaning "present" or "attendee." At the B2 level, you will frequently encounter these Arabic plurals where the internal vowels and structure of the word change instead of adding a standard Farsi suffix.
This sentence uses a lot of colloquial spoken forms. What would the exact formal written version of میخوام یه جوک بگم and نخندن be?
In formal written Farsi, میخوام becomes میخواهم, becomes , becomes , and becomes . Notice how the spoken form regularly drops the final (d) on the third-person plural ending of .