Farsi Lesson 101 – ‘Neither … Nor’ in Persian – Site stats …

Hello everyone, how are you?

Before we start our new lesson today, I have a few things to share with you:

A- I apologize for my considerably long absence. I know I have kept all of you waiting for a few weeks. This was not on purpose. Unfortunately, I spent several days in hospital and went through a surgery. The operation was almost ok but according to doctors, I might (just might!) see the operation room one more time in future. I just hope that scaring future will never come!! I am recovering from this operation now. I pray none of you will have to spend time in hospital beds. My sincere apologies.

B- Do you remember Jeanne in lesson 98? The next is one of her messages after her granddaughter operation. I wanted to keep you updated and to let you join in their happiness.

Dear Hassan,

My granddaughter and Edward had surgery on Friday. It was quite involved, and took several hours.  Edward is recovering more quickly than Amanda. His new kidney started functioning perfectly.  He will take medication to prevent rejection. The evening of surgery, he was sitting up in bed!

My granddaughter Amanda is in much more pain. She is still on a liquid diet, while Edward had regular food last evening. We are so please that things are going so well.

You might find this interesting. While we were waiting for the surgeries to be completed, we became acquainted with a lovely woman and her 2 daughters, who were waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery. This was a miracle.

They are Persian!!! They shared in our joy when the new came of the successful operations. We have made new friends!

The hospital is in Los Angeles , Beverly Hills . They live in Beverly Hills . We live in the next County…. Orange County ..

It’s a small world…

Thank you for your kindness, and prayers,

Fondly,

Jeanne

According to Jeanne’s last message to me, her granddaughter is recovering now.

You may reach Jeanne at [email protected]

C- Many of you have been eager to know about other visitors of this site and the country they come from. I don’t know if it is interesting to all of you or not. However, I am writing the name of some countries below as a short answer to many of you.

Currently, there are a little more than 40 thousands students from 104 countries. The top 20 countries in April 2004 were as follows:

1- United States of America 2- Italy 3- The Netherlands ( Holland ) 4- Canada 5- Switzerland 6- Belgium 7- United Kingdom 8- Australia 9- France 10- Germany 11- Sweden 12- Brazil 13- Greece 14- Japan 15- Turkey 16- Norway 17- New Zealand 18- Hungary 19- Israel 20- Denmark

I hope you will find this short information interesting. I still remember when I had less than 20 students per month!

D- I have introduced a few new websites on our Links page today. I think they are interesting pages and you may like them. You may find the new links at the bottom of our Links page. From among them, there is a Persian story called Yahyaa (a Persian boy’s name).

Don’t say it is impossible to learn Persian!! François has not only learned Persian but also translated this Persian story into English. He has done a nice job. I want all of you to go through the story for some preparation. I am going to discuss this translation during our next lessons in near future. So, we will have some translation lessons very soon. I am sure you will find the translation lessons interesting.

All right,

Now it’s time to start our new lesson.

Look at the following sentences:

I am neither a politician nor a businessman.

He is either a politician or a businessman.

You are both a politician and a businessman.

He is not only a politician but also a businessman.

Neither ….. Nor

Either ….. Or

Both ….. And

Not only …… But also

Today, we will work on the first one (Neither ….. Nor)

I am going to start with the first sentence: (I am neither a politician nor a businessman.)

What I am going to do with this sentence is to break it first. I break it into two short sentences as follows:

I am not a politician.

I am not a businessman.

The English grammar works like this:

1- Both sentences are negative.

2- Since these two sentences are similar, we can combine them to make one short sentence.

3- Since both sentences are negative, the best JOINT is (Neither ….. Nor)

4- To combine these two sentences, delete the similar words in one of these two sentences. Which words are similar or repeated? ‘ I AM NOT ‘ is repeated twice. Remember that ‘ a ‘, although repeated in both sentences, is an Indefinite article and should not be deleted.

5- After step 4 is taken, we have this:

I am not a politician.

a businessman.

NOTE: I have deleted the repeated words from the second sentence.

6- Find the two words that are not repeated (or, are different) in these two sentences. ‘ Politician ‘ and ‘ Businessman ‘ are the two different words.

7- Combine the two sentences in number 5 above as follows:

I am not a politician a businessman.

8- Put NEITHER before ‘a politician’. Put NOR after ‘a politician’. You will have:

I am not Neither a politician Nor a businessman.

As you know, both ‘neither’ and ‘ not ‘ are negative. Apparently, one is redundant. What is the solution then? Just delete ‘ not ‘.

So, the final work is:

I am neither a politician nor a businessman.

Was it difficult? I hope not!

Now, try to combine the following sentences according to the above explanations:

1- I am not a student. I am not a teacher.

2- I am not a lawyer. I am not a liar.

3- I am not tall. I am not short.

Please do your best first. Then see my answers below. You know our rule! No cheating!!

Answers:

1- I am neither a student nor a teacher.

2- I am neither a lawyer nor a liar.

3- I am neither tall nor short.

Very easy, isn’t it?

All right,

Now we want to see how we can translate such sentences into Persian. Ready?

I want to translate this sentence:

I am neither a politician nor a businessman.

Politician = /siya:sæt mæda:r/

Businessman = /ta:jer/

I am going to break this sentence into two:

I am not a politician.

I am not a businessman.

Now, let’s translate the sentences one by one:

I am not a politician = /mæn siya:sæt mæda:r nistæm/.

I am not a businessman = /mæn ta:jer nistæm/.

Neither … Nor = /næh … næh/

In sentence number 1 (I am not a politician = /mæn siya:sæt mæda:r nistæm/), change the Persian negative sentence into a normal sentence. That is to say, replace /nistæm/ with /hæstæm/. You will have:

/mæn siya:sæt mæda:r hæstæm/ = I am a politician.

In sentence number 2 (I am not a businessman = /mæn ta:jer nistæm/), delete all other words except /ta:jer/ (businessman). You will have /ta:jer/ only. Put /næh/ before /ta:jer/ and you will have /næh ta:jer/.

In short, we will have this:

/mæn siya:sæt mæda:r hæstæm/

/næh ta:jer/

We know that Neither …. Nor = /næh … næh/.

We have already used one /næh/ before /ta:jer/.

One more /næh/ is left. Put this /næh/ before /siya:sæt mæda:r/ in our normal sentence ( /mæn siya:sæt mæda:r hæstæm/ ) .

We will have: /mæn næh siya:sæt mæda:r hæstæm næh ta:jer/ = I am neither a politician nor a businessman.

Don’t worry! It is not very difficult! Let me help you with a few more examples. I just give you the answers, you find the ways. Ready?

1- I am neither a student nor a teacher.

Student = /da:nesh a:mu:z/

Teacher = /moæl.lem/

/mæn næh da:nesh a:mu:z hæstæm næh moæl.lem/.

2- I am neither a lawyer nor a liar.

Lawyer = /vækil/

Liar = /dorogh gu:/

/mæn næh vækil hæstæm næh dorogh gu:/.

3- I am neither tall nor short.

Tall = /ghæd bolænd/

Short = /ghæd ku:ta:h/

/mæn næh ghæd bolænd hæstæm næh ghæd ku:ta:h/.

Was it difficult? Hopefully not!

NOTE: As you noticed, the subject of our sentences is ‘ I ‘ and the verb is ‘ am ‘. As a result, the subject of our Persian sentences is /mæn/ and the verb is /hæstæm/.

Got the point?

The verbs should change with our subjects.

Here is how:

I am = /hæstæm/

You are = /hæsti/

He/she/it is = /hæst/

We are = /hæstim/

You are = /hæstid/

They are = /hæstænd/

I give you one more example:

They are neither student nor teacher.

/a:nha: næh da:nesh a:mu:z hæstænd næh moæl.lem/.

Ok,

I talked too much today! Doctors are better have their operation on my tongue in my scaring future!!

Please do the Quiz first and then go to Useful Drills page for more work.

Take care and Khoda Hafez!

Quiz:

1- Listen to the audio files first (preferably once). Repeat it for a couple of times. Write it down on a paper. Find their English equivalents. (Seen)

One

Two

Three

2- Find the Persian equivalent for the following words and make four sentences with each of them (in different tenses).

Governor

Mayor

To work

Leader

3- Say these numbers in Persian:

90 – 901 – 910 – 990 – 109 – 119 – 190 – 991

4- Follow the examples, combine the letters, and make words using the given letters. You’ll have to change the big letters into the small ones whenever needed.

Friend <= /du:st/ < ==

Book <= /keta:b/ < ==

Prime minister

Governor

Leader

Embassy

Mayor

See you next week!

Lesson 101

• Let’s Write 101
• Useful Drills 101