Learn Farsi: اگر کلیدها را به طور صحیح می‌فشردم، نوار پاره نمی‌شد. - If I pressed the keys correctly, the ribbon would not tear.

The phrase به طور translates literally to 'in the manner of'. By adding the ezafe connector and an adjective like صحیح (correct), you create an adverbial phrase of manner. So, به طور صحیح means 'in a correct manner' or simply 'correctly'.

Could I use به صورت صحیح instead of به طور صحیح in this sentence?

Yes! به صورت ('in the form of') functions almost exactly like به طور for creating adverbs. Saying به صورت صحیح would also mean 'correctly' and is perfectly natural here.

Why are both verbs in this sentence, می‌فشردم and نمی‌شد, in the past continuous tense?

This is a classic unreal conditional sentence. In Farsi, when you talk about a hypothetical or contrary-to-fact situation, you use the past continuous tense (the می prefix + past stem + ending) in both the 'if' clause and the result clause to show that the action didn't actually happen.

I usually see فشار دادن for 'to press'. Is می‌فشردم from a different verb?

Yes, می‌فشردم comes from the simple verb فشردن (to press). While the compound verb فشار دادن is much more common in everyday spoken Farsi, فشردن is slightly more literary but still widely used in written contexts or formal speech.

Why is the result clause using instead of ?