Questions & Answers about خسته نیستی؟ چرا، خیلی خستهام.
Doesn't چرا usually mean "why"? Why does it mean "yes" in this sentence?
You are right that چرا generally means "why". However, when you are replying to a negative question (like "Aren't you tired?"), Farsi uses چرا to mean "yes, I am" or "on the contrary". If you used the regular word for yes (بله) here, it would sound very unnatural to a native speaker.
Why is there an extra letter (Alef) in the middle of خستهام?
The word for tired is خسته (khaste), which ends in a silent "h" that makes an "e" sound. To say "I am tired", we add the ending for "I am", which is م (-am). Because we can't join the ending directly to the silent "h", Farsi adds an Alef (ا) as a visible bridge in writing. It is pronounced "khaste-am".
The English translation says "Aren't you..." and "I am...", but the Farsi words for "you" (تو) and "I" (من) are missing. Is this normal?
Yes, this is completely normal and very common! Because the verb endings in Farsi already tell us who the subject is, pronouns are usually dropped in everyday speech. The -ی at the end of نیستی means "you", and the -ام on خستهام means "I".
How exactly is the word نیستی (nisti) formed?
It is the negative form of the verb "to be" for the informal "you". The positive form is هستی (hasti = you are). To make it negative, Farsi replaces the beginning of the word with the negative prefix نیـ (ni-), giving us نیستی (you are not).
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