Breakdown of مادر سیبزمینیها را پخت.
مادرmâdar
mother
راrâ
definite direct object marker
پختنpokhtan
to cook
سیبزمینیsib-zamini
potato
Questions & Answers about مادر سیبزمینیها را پخت.
What is the literal translation of سیبزمینی?
The word سیبزمینی literally translates to earth apple. سیب means apple, and زمینی means relating to the earth or ground. The ها at the very end is the regular plural marker, making it potatoes.
Why do we need the word را after the potatoes?
In Farsi, را is used to mark a specific direct object. Because the mother cooked specific potatoes (the potatoes), we must put را directly after سیبزمینیها. If she was just cooking potatoes in general, we would leave را out.
Why doesn't the verb پخت have a personal ending to show it is a she doing the cooking?
Because this sentence is in the simple past tense. In Farsi, the third-person singular (he/she/it) form of the simple past tense is just the past stem of the verb itself. The infinitive is پختن (to cook), so the past stem is پخت, and we do not add any extra ending.
There is no word for 'the' before Mother, so how do we know it doesn't mean 'a mother'?
Farsi does not have a definite article like the English word 'the'. A noun by itself, like مادر, is usually assumed to be definite (the mother) based on context unless it has an indefinite marker. If we wanted to say 'a mother', we would add the indefinite suffix ی to make it مادری.
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