Question 1

How does the Arabic passive participle pattern work in مشهور (mashhur)?

Accepted Answer

مشهور follows the ma-C1-C2-u-C3 pattern, which creates passive participles (words describing who or what receives an action) from Arabic three-letter roots. The root here is ش-ه-ر (sh-h-r), relating to making something known. Placed into the pattern, it becomes مشهور (ma-sh-h-u-r) — literally "made known," which translates to "famous."

Question 2

Does منفور (manfur) also use this same Maf'ul pattern?

Accepted Answer

Yes! The root here is ن-ف-ر (n-f-r), which involves concepts of aversion or repulsion. By putting it into the ma-C1-C2-u-C3 pattern, we get منفور (ma-n-f-u-r), meaning "repulsed" or "hated." In this sentence, contrasting it with مشهور, it translates nicely to "notorious."

Question 3

The word چه usually means "what." How is it being used twice here to mean "whether... or..."?

Accepted Answer

When you repeat چه before two parallel words or clauses (like چه مشهور چه منفور), it creates a correlative conjunction meaning "whether [A] or [B]." It is a very common, native-sounding way to show that the outcome stays the same regardless of which condition applies.

Question 4

As a refresher, why is the word for "news" اخبار (akhbar) instead of using a standard Persian plural suffix?

Accepted Answer

اخبار is an Arabic "broken plural" of the word خبر (khabar, meaning "news item" or "report"). Broken plurals change the internal vowel structure of the word rather than adding a standard suffix like ـها (-ha). These Arabic plurals are extremely common in journalistic and formal Persian.

چه مشهور چه منفور، او همیشه در اخبار است.

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