Now we are going to talk about counting words in Farsi. In Farsi, people use
counting words a lot and there are some accounting words
that are used specifically for some specific items and there are some
counting words that are generic, that that are used for everything. And the
generic ones are colloquial and are not used in written Farsi. So now we will
start by talking about the generic counting words in Farsi. The first and
the most common one is the word "تا". So as we talked, when we were talking
about "چند", the interrogative word, which we talked about.
Sometimes people in asking questions, they use "تا" after "چند" when they want
to ask a question. Let's look at this example:
چند تا مرد در اتاق هست؟
How many men are in the room? So in order to answer, you again use the
counting word. For example you say "سه تا مرد".
Three men.
سه تا مرد. دو تا مرد، سه تا مرد، چهارتا مرد.
For example, "چندتا کتاب در کتابخانه است؟"
How many books are in the library? So as you can see, "تا: can be used
for human being, for a book, or some other items. So it's a generic counting
word. For example:
چند تا سیب خوردی؟
How many apples did you eat? Literally, in Farsi, it's how many apple.
We said never use a plural noun after "چند".
چند تا سیب خوردی؟
And I say:
پنج تا سیب.
چندتا سیب خوردی؟ پنج تا سیب خوردم.
So it's very
important to remember "چندتا" is optional. Counting words in
Farsi, they are optional, even though they are used and they are very common. It's
optional. You can use it or you can just ask your question or answer the question
without using these counting words. But when you hear it, you should know
what it is. So "تا" is one of the generic counting words that is used for
everything in Farsi. Another generic one is "دانه". Literally, it means a grain. And
it was supposed just to be used for inanimate things. Like, for example,
یک دانه گندم
A grain of wheat. But now it's generic and in
spoken Persian, it's interchangeable with "تا". Another important point is that in
spoken Persian, like other words that have "ان", it changes to "اون".
In spoken Persian, it's "دونه". So it is very important
to know that in spoken Persian, you never hear "دانه", except for someone
who talks like books. So always, you hear "دونه".
So "ان" changes to "اون".
So, for example:
چند دونه کتاب داری؟
How many books do you have? And literally, how many books do you have? You can say
شش
دونه
شش دونه
So "تا: is much more common
than this one. "دونه" in the spoken Farsi. But they are interchangeable. So if
you heard that, you shouldn't get confused. Iit is a generic
counting word. But there are some other counting words that are more specific.
Now I will talk about just two of them. One is "نفر".
That is just useful for human beings. So for example you want to ask how many
people are in that room. You ask:
چند نفر در آن اتاق هستند؟
How many people are in that room. And the answer is for example "ده نفر".
10 people. How many people are in that room?
چند نفر در آن اتاق هستند؟
And the answer is "ده نفر", ten people. So "نفر" is just used. For example,
چند نفر به مهمانی آمدند؟
How many people came to the party? And you can say:
ده نفر، بیست نفر
So "نفر" is just used for human beings and as you can see, it
comes after the counting word "چند", and this one, for example, if you use the
number, it comes after the number. So
شش دونه، پنج تا، سه تا، ده نفر
Another counting word that is more specific is "جلد". It is just used for
books, and it's very common. So for example, you want to know how many
books I have. So it's more formal. So instead of saying "چند تا",
you can ask me:
چند جلد کتاب داری؟
It means kind of copy. If you want to translate it, so
چند جلد کتاب داری؟
How many books do you have?
And I can say for example, "هشت جلد".
چند جلد کتاب داری؟ هشت جلد کتاب دارم.
چند نفر در آن اتاق هستند؟ ده نفر
چند دونه کتاب داری؟ شش دونه
چند تا سیب خوردی؟ پنج تا سیب.
چند تا مرد در اتاق هست؟ سه تا مرد.
So it is important to remember that these
counting words are optional. The sentence makes total sense,
even without them. But they are used Persian more commonly.
And there's so many more that are used. For example, for ships, for airplanes,
for some animals, and those are not necessary to know now.