In English, there is an implied difference between “the girl downstairs was playing violin” (‘the girl’ implying expected knowledge - “oh, her”) versus “a girl downstairs was playing violin” (‘a girl’ - random, likely unknown).
More broadly “a thing” - one of many, “the thing” - a specific one.
Is the number one used like “a” then? Like a direct translation of the 2 phrases would be “Girl downstairs is playing the violin.” and “one girl downstairs is playing the violin.” As opposed to English using the/a respectively?
In English, there is an implied difference between “the girl downstairs was playing violin” (‘the girl’ implying expected knowledge - “oh, her”) versus “a girl downstairs was playing violin” (‘a girl’ - random, likely unknown).
More broadly “a thing” - one of many, “the thing” - a specific one.
How would that translate to Farsi?
I guess the is implied, count is explicit. A thing becomes one thing and the thing becomes thing.
Is the number one used like “a” then? Like a direct translation of the 2 phrases would be “Girl downstairs is playing the violin.” and “one girl downstairs is playing the violin.” As opposed to English using the/a respectively?
As per Google translate it seems so.
Yes. Almost. We have a special prefix for unknowns to make it simpler. Read my response above
We do the opposite. If something is known we just say it.
“The girl(1) is playing(2) violin(3) downstairs(4)”
دختر(۱) در طبقهی پایین(۴) ویالن(۳) مینوازد(۲)
To refer to an unknown thing we add a prefix ی to the thing
A girl -> دختری
The girl -> دختر