Now we are going to talk about another WH question word, which is the
word "کجا". It means where. It is used to specify the place or to find the adverb
of the place in the sentence. How are we going to form a question
with "کجا". The location of "کجا" is exactly the place of the missing information. For example,
تو دیروز کجا بودی؟
Where were you yesterday?
تو دیروز کجا بودی؟
So as you can see, the word order has not changed at all.
Just I need to put in the missing information in my answer. So I can say
من دیروز در تهران بودم.
So instead of "کجا", I
put the missing information:
من دیروز در تهران بودم.
در تهران
was the missing information, and "کجا" had come right in the place of that. Another example
او کجا کار می کند.
Where does he work?
او کجا کار می کند.
The answer should just give this missing information. So
او در کارخانه کار می کند.
As you can see, just it came in the place of the
missing information. Another point about "کجا" is that it can be used in
the "اضافه" combination. For example, I know that you are working in Tehran, but I want to
know specifically where in Tehran. For this "where in turn," I use "کجا" in there
as object combination. So I say "کجای تهران".
I ask you:
تو کجای تهران کار می کنی؟
As you can see, here "کجای تهران" is an "اضافه" combination. I
wanted to specify where in Tehran. I can say
کجای کلاس بودی؟
Where in class
were you. So "کجا" can be used in an "اضافه" combination.
Another important point about "کجا" is when it's used with the verb "to be." So
because the "کجا" ends in the long vowel "aah," when we want to use it with
the short form of the verb "to be," we need to use a euphonic here in order to make
the pronunciation easier. Let's look at some examples. I want to
say where am I? So the short form is using "ام", so let's see:
So "کجا؛، then "ام", the short form of the
verb" to be." "هستم" changes to "ام". Now we have two vowels: "aah" and the short vowel
is "ah." Two vowels next to each other is hard to pronounce, so we put a euphonic "ی"
here. This intervenes here. Now we say "کجایم". The same for the
second person. You say "کجا". In this one, "هستی" changes to "یی".
The short form of the verb "to be." So we put another "کجایی". But
the third person is different, because the short form of the verb "to be" in the
third person is "eh." For example, instead of "چه است", I say "چیه" and other
examples. But here because it ends in a long vowel, we just drop the "الف" from
the "است" and use it. So we say "کجاست". This is very important, because this is
used a lot in questions. Where is he? Instead of saying
او کجا است؟
native speakers say "کجاست". So "الف" is dropped
and it's pronounced "کجاست". The same with "کجایی".
کجایی
So his is the short form of the verb "to be." In order to be
easily pronounced, we need to use the euphonic "ی".
کجاییم
And the same with
the second person plural. I write it here. We say "کجا", then we have this one
and we add the euphonic. So "کجایید" without that, it's "کجاید." But it's
hard, so we add this euphonic "ی" and you say "کجایید" and the third
person plural is: we have "اند". So it's hard. We have the long vowel "aah"
and the short vowel "ah." Then we add the euphonic here and
we see "کجایند". So
کجایم، کجایی، کجاست.
Where is he or she?
کجاییم، where are you
کجایید: were are you
کجایند: where are they
So it is
important to remember the usage of "کجا" with the short form of the
verb "to be." And this was the lesson on how to from questions with the word "کجا".