Breakdown of مادر در آشپزخانه آش میپخت.
مادرmâdar
mother
درdar
in
پختنpokhtan
to cook
آشپزخانهâshpazkhâne
kitchen
Questions & Answers about مادر در آشپزخانه آش میپخت.
Since the lesson is about the past progressive, why doesn't this sentence use the auxiliary dâsht, like dâsht mi-pokht?
In Farsi, the standard Past Continuous tense (mi- + past stem) naturally translates to 'was cooking' as well as 'used to cook'. Adding the auxiliary dâsht to make dâsht mi-pokht just strongly emphasizes that she was right in the middle of the action. Both versions are correct for 'was cooking', so the auxiliary isn't strictly required here.
Is there a connection between the words âshpazkhâneh (kitchen) and âsh (thick soup)?
Yes! The word âshpazkhâneh literally translates to 'cook-house'. The word for cook or chef is âshpaz, which is a combination of âsh (the traditional thick soup mentioned in this sentence) and paz (the present stem of the verb to cook). So a kitchen is literally the room of the soup-cooker!
How exactly is the verb mi-pokht formed here?
It is made by adding the continuous prefix mi- to the past stem pokht (from the infinitive pokhtan, meaning to cook). In the past tense, third-person singular subjects (he, she, or it, like mâdar) do not take any extra personal ending, so the verb is simply mi-pokht.
Why does the location dar âshpazkhâneh come before the object âsh?
In Farsi's typical word order, time and location phrases usually come right after the subject and before the direct object. So the natural flow is Subject () + Location () + Object () + Verb ().