هیچکدامتان مثل او حریص نیستید.hich-kodâmetân mesl-e u haris nistid.
None of you are greedy like him.
Breakdown of هیچکدامتان مثل او حریص نیستید.
او
he/she
بودنbudan
to be
مثلmesl
like, such as
هیچکدامhichkodâm
neither / none
حریصharís
greedy
Questions & Answers about هیچکدامتان مثل او حریص نیستید.
How is هیچکدامتان formed to mean "none of you"?
It is made up of the indefinite pronoun هیچکدام (none / neither, literally "no which") plus the second-person plural possessive enclitic ـتان (-etân, "your"). Instead of using an ezafe and a separate pronoun like هیچکدامِ شما, Farsi frequently attaches the possessive enclitic directly to the quantifier to mean "none of your group" or "none of you".
Why is the verb نیستید in the second-person plural? Shouldn't "none" take a third-person singular verb?
In Farsi, when a pronominal partitive takes a possessive enclitic like ـتان (-etân), the verb typically agrees with that enclitic. Because the enclitic represents "you (plural)", the verb must also be in the second-person plural (نیستید). If the sentence was "none of us", it would use ـمان (-emân) and the first-person plural verb نیستیم.
Why is the verb negative (نیستید) if هیچکدامتان already means "none"?
Farsi heavily utilizes negative concord (double negatives). Any sentence containing a هیچ (no/none/any) word requires a negative verb to be grammatically correct. Here, the هیچ prefix pairs with the negative verb نیستید to create the complete meaning "none of you are".
How does مثل او connect in this sentence to mean "like him"?
مثل (mesl) acts as a preposition meaning "like" or "similar to". Like many prepositions in Farsi, it requires an ezafe (the hidden "e" sound) to link to the noun or pronoun that follows it, making the pronunciation mesl-e u.
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