Persian grammar

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Persian language

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Dialects

Writing systems

Persian grammar is similar to many other Indo-European languages, especially those in the Indo-Iranian family. Since Middle Persian it has had a relatively simple grammar, having no grammatical gender and few case markings.

Contents

[edit] 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, 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, rā (را), follows the accusative noun phrase.

Normal sentences are structured 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.

[edit] Nouns

Main article: Persian nouns

Persian nouns have no grammatical gender. Persian nouns mark with an accusative marker only for the specific accusative case; the other oblique cases are marked by prepositions. Possession is expressed by special markers: if the possessor appears in the sentence after the thing possessed, the ezāfe may be used; otherwise, alternatively, a pronominal genitive enclitic is employed. Inanimate nouns pluralize with -hā, while animate nouns generally pluralize with -ān, although -hā is also common.[1] Special rules exist for some nouns borrowed from Arabic.

[edit] Pronouns

Persian is a null-subject, or pro-drop language, so nominal pronouns are optional. Pronouns generally are the same for nominative, accusative, oblique, and genitive (ezāfe) cases. The first-person singular accusative form mæn rā can be shortened to mærā. Pronominal genitive enclitics (see above) are different from the normal pronouns, however.

Normal Forms
Person Singular Plural
1st mæn mā
2nd to shomā
3rd u ānhā (non-human/human),
ishān (human only)

[edit] Adjectives

Adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify, using the ezāfe construct. However, adjectives can precede nouns in compounded derivational forms, such as khosh-bækht (lit. good-luck) 'lucky', and bæd-kār (lit. bad-deed) 'wicked'. Comparative forms make use of the suffix tær (تَر), while the superlative form uses the suffix tærin (تَرین).

[edit] Verbs

Normal verbs can be formed using the following pattern:

( NEG - DUR or SUBJ/IMPER ) - root - PAST - PERSON - ACC-ENCLITIC

  • Negative prefix: næ - changes to ne before the Durative prefix
  • Durative prefix: mi
  • Subjunctive/Imperative prefix: be
  • Past suffix: d - changes to t after unvoiced consonants
  • Optative identifier: an "ā" is added before the last character of the present tense of singular third person. Although there are suggestions that this inflection has been abandoned, but significant remnants of its usage can still be observed in contemporary stylish Persian compositions and colloquial proverbs, as in:

هرچه بادا باد (meaning "come what may") and دست مريزاد (literally: "May that hand not spill [what it is holding]", meaning "well done")

Person Suffixes
Person Singular Plural
1st æm im
2nd i id
3rd æd ænd
Accusative Enclitics
Person Singular Plural
1st æm emān
2nd æt etān
3rd æsh eshān

[edit] Conjugations


   Active Voice
Mood Tense Romanization Perso-Arabic
Indicative Present mi-khoræm می‌خورم
Indicative Preterite (Simple Past) khordæm خوردم
Indicative Imperfect mi-khordæm می‌خوردم
Indicative Perfect khorde æm خورده ام
Indicative Pluperfect khorde budæm خورده بودم
Indicative Future khāhæm khord خواهم خورد
Subjunctive Simple (Present) bekhoræm بخورم


   Passive Voice
Mood Tense Romanization Perso-Arabic
Indicative Present khorde mi-shævæm خورده می‌شوم
Indicative Preterite khorde shodæm خورده شدم
Indicative Imperfect khorde mi-shodæm خورده می‌شدم
Indicative Perfect khorde shode æm خورده شده ام
Indicative Pluperfect khorde shode budæm خورده شده بودم
Indicative Future khorde khāhæm shod خورده خواهم شد
Subjunctive Simple (Present) khorde shævæm خورده شوم
Subjunctive Perfect khorde shode bāshæm خورده شده باشم

[edit] Compound Verbs

Light verbs such as kærdæn are often used with nouns to form what is called a compound verb, light verb construction, or complex predicate. For example, the word "sohbæt" means "conversation", while "sohbæt kærdæn" means "to speak". One may add a light verb after a noun, adjective, preposition, or prepositional phrase to form a compound verb. Only the light verb (e.g kærdæn) is conjugated; the word preceding it is not affected. For example:

dāræm sohbæt mikonæm ("I am speaking")
sohbæt kærde æm ("I have spoken")
sohbæt khāhæm kærd ("I will speak")

As can be seen from the examples, the head word (in this case, sohbæt) remains unchanged throughout the conjugation, and only the light verb kærdæn is conjugated. They may be compared to English verb particle constructions, such as hand down (leave as an inheritance) and set up (arrange), or German compound verbs, such as Rad fahren (to ride by bicycle) and zurückgehen (to go back).

Some other examples of compound verbs with kærdæn are:

  • fekr kærdæn, "to think"
  • færāmush kærdæn, "to forget"
  • gærye kærdæn, "to cry"
  • telefon kærdæn, "to call, to telephone"
  • tæmir kærdæn, "to fix"

[edit] Auxiliary Verbs

  • bāyæd - 'must': Not conjugated
  • shāyæd - 'might': Not conjugated
  • tævānestæn - 'can': Conjugated
  • khāstæn - 'want': Conjugated. Subordinating clause is subjunctive
  • khāstæn - 'will': Conjugated. Main verb is tenseless

[edit] Prepositions

Prepositions in Persian generally behave similarly to those in English – they precede their object. They include the following:

Prepositions
Persian English
ændær (اندر) in (literary)
æz (از) from
bā (با) with
bær (بر) on, upon
bærā-ye (برای) for
be (به) to
bi (بی) without
chon (چون) like (formal)
dær (در) at, in
mesl-e (مثل) like
tā (تا) till, until
hæm-chon (همچون) like,as,such(formal)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mahootian, Shahrzad (1997). Persian. London: Routledge, 190. ISBN 0-415-02311-4. 

[edit] External links

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