Persian Grammar - Word Order

Word Order

While Persian has a subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, it is not strongly left-branching. The main clause precedes a subordinate clause. The interrogative particle āyā (آیا), which asks a yes/no question in written Persian, appears at the beginning of a sentence. Modifiers normally follow the nouns they modify, although they can precede nouns in limited uses. The language uses prepositions, uncommon to many SOV languages. The one case marker, (را), follows the definite direct object noun phrase.

Normal sentences are ordered subject–preposition–object–verb. If the object is specific, then the order is "(S) (O + "rā") (PP) V". However, Persian can have relatively free word order, often called "scrambling." This is because the parts of speech are generally unambiguous, and prepositions and the accusative marker help disambiguate the case of a given noun phrase. This scrambling characteristic has allowed Persian a high degree of flexibility for versification and rhyming.

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