Now we will start a lesson on the word the question word "چند". It means how many.
So in order to form a
question using "چند", you just need to put it before the noun that you want to
specify. So let's look at some examples:
چند سال داری؟
in English means "how old are you?" But if we want to translate
it literally, it means "how many years do you have?"
Because "سال" is not plural here. It's singular so we say "how
many years do you have ?" That means how old are you, and the answer is easy.
Just you need to replace "چند" with the information that is asked for. So
instead of "چند", we write, for example, "بیست".
چند سال داری؟ بیست سال دارم.
I am 20 years
old. 20 year I have. It's very important to know that in
Farsi, specifically in spoken Farsi, people use "چند" with the counting word
"تا" a lot
It's a generic word that you can use
for counting everything. So most of the time "چند" is accompanied with "تا".
Like this example:
چندتا روزنامه خردیدی؟
The "تا" is optional, because you can say
چند روزنامه خریدی؟
They are
totally the same, but you will hear this a lot. People use "تا" with the
question word "چند" a lot.
چندتا روزنامه خریدی؟
And then in your
answer, you can say, for example:
پنج تا روزنامه خریدم.
Just take rest of
the sentence, but "پنج" comes in the place of "چند" and " تا".
پنج تا روزنامه خریدم.
The answer. This is again here is optional. You can just say
پنج روزنامه خریدم.
It's not wrong saying "پنج تا".
And people use this a lot. They say
چندتا کتاب داری؟
پنج تا کتاب دارم.
And "تا" is used to count everything in Farsi. You can count
fruits, you can count everything. Another example with "چند":
چندتا کلاس داری؟
S you ask your friend "how many classes do you
have?" So again you can use "تا".
چندتا کلاس داری؟
It's qual to "چند کلاس داری؟" And "تا" is used but it's optional. You can use it or drop
it. And you answer, you can say:
دو تا کلاس دارم.
The "تا" again is optional in your answer.
چند کلاس داری؟ دو تا کلاس دارم.
Another point about using "چند" is the
word after "چند". Unlike English, never use any plural word after "چند". The
word after "چند" should be singular. So if you say:
چند سال ها داری؟
How many years do you have? It's wrong in Farsi. How many years do you have?How
many newspaper did you buy? How many class do you have?
چندتا کلاس ها
is wrong. You cannot use a plural noun after "چند", as you cannot use plural
nouns after a number.
بیست سال دارم.
"بیست سال ها دارم" You cannot say
It's wrong, because it's the same as "چند". So "چند سال داری"
بیست سال دارم.
So it is important to remember that "چند" comes before the
noun that is supposed to be a specified. Also you can use "تا". It's
optional, but people use it. And so if you hear that, you should know what it is.
It's a counting word, and it's a generic counting word. You can use it for
everything.
چندتا روزنامه خریدی؟
And you can use "تا" in your answer. Again, it's optional. And the last point is that
after "چند", you cannot use any plural noun. Always the the noun is singular.