Question 1

Why do we use ke here instead of vaqti ke to mean "when"?

Accepted Answer

This is the classic narrative interruption structure. You use vaqti ke when you want to set the time frame at the beginning of a statement (e.g., "When we arrived, they were..."). But to say an ongoing background action was suddenly interrupted, Farsi uses the Past Continuous (mi-boridand), followed by a simple ke, and then the surprising or interrupting event in the Simple Past (residim). It acts more like "when suddenly."

Question 2

How can I tell mi-boridand means "they were cutting" and not "they were taking"?

Accepted Answer

It all comes down to the past stem. "To cut" is boridan (past stem: borid), making the past continuous mi-boridand. "To take" is bordan (past stem: bord), which would be mi-bordand (می‌بردند). That extra ی (the 'i' vowel sound) in mi-boridand completely changes the verb!

Question 3

Is gorikhtand the standard everyday way to say "they fled"?

Accepted Answer

The verb gorikhtan is slightly formal and literary. In casual everyday conversation, you are much more likely to hear the compound verb farâr kardan (so, farâr kardand). However, gorikhtan is very common in storytelling, news reports, and written narratives, which perfectly matches the dramatic, descriptive tone of this sentence.

Question 4

Could we drop the pronoun ânhâ before gorikhtand?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you could. Because Farsi is a pro-drop language, the -and ending in gorikhtand is already enough to mean "they." However, keeping ânhâ here helps balance the rhythm of the sentence after explicitly mentioning "we" (mâ) in the previous clause, and it makes the contrast between the two groups slightly sharper.

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