Learn Farsi: استاد بیان کرد که از این یافته‌های نادر باید حفاظت گردد. - The professor stated that these rare findings must be protected.

گردد is the present subjunctive form of گردیدن, a formal alternative to شدن (to become/be). In academic, official, or journalistic writing, you will often see it substituted to form the formal passive voice. Because it follows باید (must), it takes the subjunctive mood.

If we wanted to use the other formal passive auxiliary گشتن taught in this lesson, how would the sentence change?

It would look exactly the same! Both گردیدن and گشتن share the identical present stem گرد (gard). Since the verb after باید must be in the present subjunctive, both verbs conjugate to گردد. You only see a difference between them in past tense forms (like گردید vs. گشت).

Why is the preposition از used before این یافته‌های نادر (these rare findings)?

The compound verb for 'to protect' is حفاظت کردن از (hefâzat kardan az). In Farsi, the object being protected must always be introduced by از. Even when the verb is turned into the passive voice (حفاظت گردد), this preposition remains anchored to the object in the sentence.

As a quick refresher, how does the ezafe work in یافته‌های نادر?

The noun یافته (finding) is pluralized with ها to make . Because ends in the long vowel 'alef', connecting it to the adjective (rare) requires the to take the form of the consonant . Thus, it is written as and pronounced 'yâfte-hâ-ye'.