And maybewhat you’re afraid of isn't existent And maybewhat you desire is going to be And maybewhat you deem easy isn’t convenient And maybewhat you find difficult will be of ease
(literally, “what you fearit / what you desireit / what you find easy / what you find difficult”)
(not): If the negated sentence has asubject complement, the subject complement may occur in thenominative (like the subject), theaccusative (as it would in a sentence negated instead withلَيْسَ(laysa)), or (withبِ(bi))the genitive (as it would in a sentence negated instead withلَيْسَ(laysa)).
(oh how): The above accusative construction is calledتَعَجُّب(taʕajjub,“wonderment; exclamation”) in Arabic. This pattern originated fromمَا(mā) meaning “what, something” and the accusative comparative being homophonic to a transitive verb meaning “to make...”. So the example sentenceمَا أَجْمَلَ ٱلْحَيَاةَ(mā ʔajmala l-ḥayāta,“How beautiful life is!”) has the origins in the meaning “Something / What made the life so beautiful?”
There is another rarer pattern for exclamations, which uses the imperative form of the verb:
أَجْمِلْ بِهَا مِنْ حَيَاةٍ!
ʔajmil bihā min ḥayātin!
(please add an English translation of this usage example)
(that): It is possible to useأَنْ(ʔan),كَيْ(kay),لَوْ(law) to get the meaning roughly similar to “that" or “for... to...” for potential truthsمَا أَعْجَبَ أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِأَكَاذِيبِهِ!(mā ʔaʕjaba ʔan tuʔmina biʔakāḏībihi!,“How strange it would be for you to believe his lies!”),مَا أَرْوَعَ أَنْ تَأْتِيَ!(mā ʔarwaʕa ʔan taʔtiya!,“How wonderful it would be that you came!”)
Similarly you can useأَنَّ(ʔanna) for factual statements:مَا أَعْجَبَ أَنَّكَ تُؤْمِنُ بِأَكَاذِيبِهِ!(mā ʔaʕjaba ʔannaka tuʔminu biʔakāḏībihi!,“How strange it is for you to believe his lies!”),مَا أَرْوَعَ أَنَّكَ تَأْتِي!(mā ʔarwaʕa ʔannaka taʔtī!,“How wonderful it is that you are coming!”)
1 Only applies to Dari. 2 Only applies to Classical Persian. 3 Not formal in Tajik. 4 The plural formsآنها andآنان are typically interchangeable. 5 All accusative pronouns can be created with the nominative +را; only unique forms are included.
Usually thisما(mā) is stressed. However, it can optionally be used together withـش(-š), in which case the stress shifts to the end of the verbal phrase.
In all these senses theما(ma) is unstressed. In the fourth sense, the contradicting phrase should be uttered with rising intonation to distinguish this sense ofما(ma) from the sense of negation. When a subject pronoun is used in the fourth sense,ما(ma) precedes it; this yields the invariable formماهو(mahū) used before nominal phrases with the same meaning.
