Word
هنوز هیچکس چیزی نگفته بود که مهمان سرزدهای سر رسید.
Meaning
Hardly had anyone said anything when an unexpected guest turned up.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of هنوز هیچکس چیزی نگفته بود که مهمان سرزدهای سر رسید.
گفتنgoftan
to say / to tell
مهمانmehmân
guest
کهke
that (conjunction)
هیچکسhichkas
nobody
Questions & Answers about هنوز هیچکس چیزی نگفته بود که مهمان سرزدهای سر رسید.
Why does hanuz mean "hardly" here instead of "still" or "yet"?
This is the core of the 'hardly... when' narrative sequence. When you pair hanuz with a negative Past Perfect verb (nagofte bud) in the first clause, and follow it with ke plus a Simple Past verb (sar resid) in the second, it translates to "hardly had [action 1] happened when [action 2] occurred." Literally, it is phrased as "they hadn't yet said anything, that..."
The English translation says "anyone said anything", so why is the Farsi verb nagofte bud (hadn't said) negative?
In Farsi, words like hich-kas (nobody) require a negative verb, a rule known as negative concord. Additionally, the Farsi "hardly... when" structure naturally frames the first event as something that had not yet finished happening. So, "hardly had anyone said anything" is expressed literally as "still nobody had said anything".
How does the indefinite article "a" attach to mehman-e sar-zade (unexpected guest)?
The indefinite suffix -i (meaning "a" or "an") attaches to the very end of the noun phrase. Instead of attaching directly to mehman (guest), it attaches to the adjective modifying it, creating mehman-e sar-zade-i (an unexpected guest). Because sar-zade ends in a silent 'heh' (a vowel sound), an invisible consonant glide bridges the gap to the -i suffix.
sar-zade (unexpected) and sar resid (turned up) look very similar. Are they from the same verb?
They are different compound verbs that both utilize the word sar (head). sar-zade is the past participle of (to drop by or visit unannounced), acting here as an adjective meaning "unexpected" or "uninvited". , on the other hand, is a separate verb meaning "to turn up" or "to arrive suddenly".