Word A Day

Чор дона помидору се дона бодирингро шуста реза кунед.
Wash and cut four tomatoes and three cucumbers.
Дар пушти он одам дар тоқи меҳмонхона як дона дутор ҳам буд.
Behind that man on the shelf of the living room there was also one dutor.

Bonus:
A дутор is a Tajik two-stringed instrument.

Special Counting Words (нумератив)
Tajik has some special words used with numbers. These are called classifiers or numeratives. They are often left out when translating into English. Examples-
дона: piece, unit
сар: head (for counting animals)
ҷуфт: pair
бандча: bundle, bunch
нафар: person (for counting people)

Examples:
панҷоҳ сар гӯсфанд: fifty head of sheep, fifty sheep
се-чор нафар моҳигир: three to four fishermen
нуҳ дона тухм: nine eggs

Alternatively, the classifier то (or та) can be added as a suffix to the number.
Ду дона китоб дорам. I have two books.
Дуто китоб дорам. I have two books.

With units of time and measurement no classifier is used.
як ҳафта: one week
сад сол: one hundred years
чордаҳ килограмм: fourteen kilograms

Ин чӣ маъно дорад?
What meaning does this have? (What does this mean?)
Ба шаҳр рав, ва дар он ҷо ба ту гуфта мешавад, ки чӣ бояд кунӣ.
Go to the city, and there you will be told what you must do.

Bonus:
When the word чӣ has anything attached at the end, the letter ӣ becomes и because you can’t have the letter ӣ in the middle of a word. Examples –
Номи шумо чист? (What is your name?) The words чӣ (what) and аст (is) combine to form чист.
Аз матн чиро фаҳмидед? (What did you understand from the text?) Here чӣ takes the direct object marker ро.

More examples for this common word –
Чӣ мехоҳед, ҷой ё об? What do you want, tea or water?
Чӣ фикр мекунӣ? What do you think?
Чӣ кор мекунед? What are you going to do? What are you doing?
Боз чӣ гуфт? What else did he say?
Ин чист? What is this?
Чӣ шуд? What happened?
Чӣ дорӣ? What do you have?

Дар замони ҳозира миқдори филҳо хеле кам шудааст.
In the present age the quantity of elephants has been greatly reduced.
Дар замони ҳозира дар навишти забони тоҷикӣ алифбои кириллӣ истифода мешавад.
In the present age in Tajik writing the Cyrillic alphabet is used.

Bonus:
Usually we can just use the word “today” or “currently” when translating “дар замони ҳозира”. Both of the sentences above would probably sound better in English to translate it as “today”.

Замони ҳозира is also used to describe present tense in grammar.
замони ҳозира: present tense
замони ҳозираи давомдор: present continuous tense
замони ҳозираи фелъ: present tense of a verb

Меваю сабзавотро дар оби равон якчанд бор шустан зарур аст.
It is necessary to wash fruits and vegetables several times in running water.
Дастҳоятонро дар таги оби равон шустушӯ намоед, ва дастҳоро бо дастпоккунак бо диққат хушк намоед.
Wash your hands under running water, and dry your hands carefully with a towel.

Bonus:
Synonym: оби ҷорӣ
Antonym: оби истода (still water)

This phrase can also be used figuratively –
Умр чун оби равон мегузарад. (Life passes like running water.)

Аз як дарахт 12 килограм ва аз дарахти дигар 2 карат зиёд зардолу ғундоштанд.
From one tree they picked 12 kilograms of apricots and from another tree 2 times more.
Панҷ карат шаш – сӣ.
Five times six – (is) thirty.

Bonus:
Synonym: маротиба

ду карат камтар: two times less

каратӣ: multiple
дукарата: two-time, two-fold
даҳкарата: ten-time, ten-fold
қаҳрамони даҳкарата: ten-time champion

Миррих чорумин сайёраи системаи офтобӣ буда пас аз сайёраҳои Аторуд, Зӯҳра ва Замин қарор дорад.
Mars is the fourth planet of the solar system, located after the planets Mercury, Venus and Earth.
Сафари InSight то Миррих ним сол давом кард.
The journey of InSight to Mars lasted half a year.

Bonus:
You can read a short Tajik article about the landing of InSight on Mars at ozodi website:
Миррихнавард аз сайёраи сурх “selfie” фиристод. (The Mars lander sent a selfie from the red planet.)

The video on that page is in Russian, but there are two short Tajik videos on these webpages.
Пурсиш: Дар бораи Миррих – a reporter asks people on the street what they know about Mars.
Билет ба Миррих 100 ҳазор доллар – about Elon Musk’s plan to send people to Mars.