The object marker را and an overgeneralised rule
In a 10-item qawa'id test, item 4 asks students to translate: “او را در باغ دیدم.” A candidate writes: “I saw to him in the garden.” The key gives: “I saw him in the garden.” The candidate had learned that را can correspond to “to” in a sentence such as “کتاب را به او دادم” (I gave the book to him), and now applies that rule to every را. The test is out of 20; item 4 is worth 2 marks. Of 28 scripts, 11 make the same error. At the department meeting, one teacher argues that “to him” should be accepted because را can mark an indirect object in some Persian constructions. Another says the translation is simply wrong. The meeting has 15 minutes and must also agree on feedback for the 11 scripts.
1. Is “to him” defensible here? Explain the grammar of را and decide the 2 marks.
Read the worked answer
No: “to him” is not defensible in this sentence; award 0/2.
- Verb government: دیدن is transitive and takes a direct object: او را دیدم = “I saw him/her.” The را marks that definite direct object; it is not the preposition “to.”
- Source of the confusion: in کتاب را به او دادم, the “to” comes from به, not from را. The book is direct object and takes را; the recipient is marked by به او. The candidate has transferred the preposition from the wrong word.
- Why not accept it: accepting “to him” would teach that را can equal “to” whenever a recipient is present, which breaks the contrast the test is checking. The 11 scripts should receive the same feedback, plus one contrastive pair, not a blanket penalty.
The item is testing whether students can separate the object marker from the preposition به; a translation that merges them cannot earn the grammatical-accuracy mark.
2. Give a three-line board explanation plus one minimal pair that the department can use with the 11 affected scripts.
Read the worked answer
Board explanation: (1) Find the verb; if it is transitive, ask what is directly acted on. (2) Put را on that definite direct object. (3) Do not translate را as “to”; look for a separate به for the recipient.
Minimal pair: او را دیدم = “I saw him/her” versus به او گفتم = “I said to him/her.” In the first, را marks the object of seeing; in the second, به marks the addressee. A second pair, کتاب را به او دادم and کتاب را خواندم, shows را staying with the thing acted on while به handles the recipient. This gives students a test they can apply, rather than a rule about individual words.