Breakdown of حتی رعد و برق هم هولناک بود.
بودنbudan
to be
همham
also, too / both ... and / together / each other
حتیhattâ
even
رعد و برقra'd o barq
thunder and lightning / thunderstorm
Questions & Answers about حتی رعد و برق هم هولناک بود.
Why do we need both hattâ and ham in this sentence?
In Farsi, to say "even [something]", you typically wrap the focused word or phrase in a pair of particles. hattâ is placed immediately before the focused phrase (ra'd o bargh), and ham (or sometimes niz in formal writing) goes immediately after it. This "sandwich" structure strongly emphasizes what was surprising or extreme.
The English translation just says "lightning". Doesn't ra'd o bargh literally mean "thunder and lightning"?
Yes, literally ra'd is thunder and bargh is lightning. However, in Farsi, these two are almost always grouped into this fixed phrase. Even if a speaker is primarily referring to a bright flash of lightning, they will naturally use the combined phrase ra'd o bargh rather than isolating just the word for lightning.
Why is hattâ (حتی) spelled with a "ی" at the end if it's pronounced with an "â" sound?
The word hattâ is an Arabic loanword that ends in a specific letter called an alef maqsura (written as a dotless "ی" in Arabic, though Farsi fonts often just display the standard "ی"). In these specific loanwords, this final letter is pronounced as a long â. You will also see this in common names like Mûsâ (موسی).
I already know the word tarsnâk for "scary". How is hulnâk different?
tarsnâk is your everyday word for "scary" or "frightening". hulnâk is a more descriptive, intense, and slightly more literary word. It is better translated as "terrifying", "horrific", or "dreadful", emphasizing the extreme nature of the storm in this sentence.