Breakdown of آیا کنترل کردنش به مراتب سختتر است؟
است
is
او
he/she
آیاâyâ
whether (question particle)
سختsakht
difficult / hard
Questions & Answers about آیا کنترل کردنش به مراتب سختتر است؟
How does kontrol kardanash express "controlling him" instead of just using the pronoun u?
The verbal noun (long infinitive) kontrol kardan acts as a noun here meaning "controlling". Rather than using an ezafe and a separate pronoun like kontrol kardan-e u (the controlling of him), Farsi elegantly attaches the possessive enclitic -ash directly to the infinitive to act as the logical direct object.
What is the literal meaning of the phrase be marâteb?
It means "by far" or "considerably". Literally, marâteb is the Arabic broken plural of martabe (degree, rank, or level). So be marâteb essentially means "by many degrees". It is a very natural phrase to place right before comparative adjectives like saxt-tar (harder) to emphasize the intensity.
Could I just say xeili (much/a lot) instead of be marâteb?
Absolutely. Saying xeili saxt-tar (much harder) is perfectly correct and very common. However, be marâteb is an excellent B2-level phrase that adds a slightly more formal, emphatic nuance, similar to choosing "by far" or "exponentially" over "a lot" in English.
With a compound verb like this, could the -ash attach to the noun part (kontrol) instead?
Yes, in spoken Farsi you will frequently hear the enclitic jump to the non-verbal part of the compound, forming kontrolash kardan. Both are understood, but keeping it on the infinitive (kontrol kardanash) is slightly more standard for writing and neatly treats the whole compound action as one unbroken concept.