Now we are going to talk about another WH question word. Now we are talking
about "کی". It means when. Like other WH questions, "کی" comes in the place of
missing information. We use "کی" in order to ask for adverb of time. When. When
we are asking when something has happened or when someone wants to do
something. But there is one point here. It's that "کی" and another WH question word which was "کی".
They are written exactly like each other. In order to differentiate them, you
can put the "eh" sound under the "کی". In order to understand how this is "کی" and
the other one without that "eh" sound is "کی". So "کی" with the "eh" sound and "کی" without
that. So let's look at some examples:
آن ها کی آمدند؟
So here, the missing information is between the subject of the sentence
and the verb. If the sentence had an object, the object would be
after "کی". Because the adverb of time mainly comes between the subject
and if the sentence has an object, between the subject and the object. So
here on "آنها کی آمدند". The missing information should be exactly here in
our answer:
آنها دیروز آمدند.
So here we were asked when did they come? When did they come and we said:
They came yesterday. So as you can see, these two, their location is exactly the
same. Let's look at another example:
ما کی به خانه ی آنها می رویم.
When we'll to their house. So as you can
see, here we have a prepositional phrase. Here "به خانه ی آنها" and then the verb.
As I said, the adverb of time and the question word for that comes after the
subject and before the object or prepositional phrase. Or if there is the
none of these before the verb, the missing information should come just in
this place. So I would say:
ما فردا
And then continuing the sentence:
ما فردا به خانه ی آنها می رویم.
We, tomorrow, will go to their house. So as you can see, "کی" and "فردا" have
the same position. There is a point related to the "کی" and using the
short form of the verb "to be". So for example, you want to say that when is
the movie. So you should say that:
فیلم
then the question word "کی"
است
So this is a kind of formal and written form. In spoken Farsi, people don't talk
like this. They don't say
فیلم کی است؟
They say
فیلم کیه؟
You know, using the short form of the verb "to be." So it's:
فیلم کیه؟
These two sentences are exactly the same. But this is the what you will hear in
spoken Persian.
فیلم کیه؟
Or for example, you can say
حالا کیه؟
It means
what time is it now? So "کیه" is the same as "کی است". So that was the lesson on the
question word "کی", that is to ask about the adverb of time.