| Persian language |
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Regional and social varieties:
Grammar:
Language features: Writing systems: Geographic distribution: |
Persian grammar (Persian: دستور زبان فارسی) is the body of rules describing the properties of the Persian language. Persian grammar is similar to that of many other Indo-European languages, especially those in the Indo-Iranian family. Middle Persian had become more analytical, having no grammatical gender and few case markings, and Persian has inherited such characteristics.
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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 in written Persian, 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 definite direct object noun phrase.
Normal sentences are ordered 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.
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 (with variants -gān and -yān), although -hā is also common.[1] Special rules exist for some nouns borrowed from Arabic.
Persian is a null-subject, or pro-drop language, so personal pronouns (e.g. I, he, she) are optional. Pronouns generally are the same for all cases. The first-person singular accusative form mæn rā "me" can be shortened to mærā. Pronominal genitive enclitics (see above) are different from the normal pronouns, however.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | mæn من | mā ما |
| 2nd | to تو | shomā شما |
| 3rd | u او (non-human/human), vey وى (human only and formal) |
ānhā آنها (non-human/human), ishān ایشان (human only and formal) |
Possession is often expressed by adding suffixes to nouns. These are added after inflection for number.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -æm | -emān |
| 2nd | -æt | -etān |
| 3rd | -æsh | -eshān |
Note that when the stem to which these are added ends in a vowel, a "y" is inserted for ease of pronunciation.
In colloquial speech, the personal pronouns can be used in conjunction with verbs to incorporate a direct object. For example: "Yesterday I saw him."
| diruz u ra didæm | دیروز او را دیدم |
| diruz didæmæš | دیروز دیدمش |
Adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify, using the izāfa 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 ("more ...") make use of the suffix tær (تَر), while the superlative form ("the most ...") uses the suffix tærin (تَرین).
Comparatives used attributively follow the nouns they modify, while superlatives precede their nouns.
With respect to comparison, "than" is expressed by the preposition "از" (az), for example:
Normal verbs can be formed using the following morpheme pattern:
( NEG - DUR or SUBJ/IMPER ) - root - PAST - PERSON - ACC-ENCLITIC
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | æm | im |
| 2nd | i | id |
| 3rd | æd | ænd |
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | æm | emān |
| 2nd | æt | etān |
| 3rd | æsh | eshān |
Example verb conjugations for third-person singular form of khordæn "to eat".
| Active Voice | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mood | Tense | Romanization | Persian |
| Indicative | Present | mikhoræd | میخورد |
| Indicative | Preterite | khord | خورد |
| Indicative | Imperfective preterite | mikhord | میخورد |
| Indicative | Perfect | khordeæst | خوردهاست |
| Indicative | Imperfective perfect | mikhordeæst | میخوردهاست |
| Indicative | Pluperfect | khorde bud | خورده بود |
| Indicative | Imperfective pluperfect | mikhorde bud | میخورده بود |
| Indicative | Future | khāhæd khord | خواهد خورد |
| Indicative | Present progressive | dāræd mikhoræd | دارد میخورد |
| Indicative | Preterite progressive | dāsht mikhord | داشت میخورد |
| Subjunctive | Present | bekhoræd | بخورد |
| Subjunctive | Preterite | khorde bāshæd | خورده باشد |
| Subjunctive | Imperfective preterite | mikhorde bāshæd | میخورده باشد |
| Subjunctive | Pluperfect | khorde bude bāshæd | خورده بوده باشد |
| Subjunctive | Imperfective pluperfect | mikhorde bude bāshæd | میخورده بوده باشد |
| Passive Voice | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mood | Tense | Romanization | Persian |
| Indicative | Present | khorde mishævæd | خورده میشود |
| Indicative | Preterite | khorde shod | خورده شد |
| Indicative | Imperfective preterite | khorde mishod | خورده میشد |
| Indicative | Perfect | khorde shodeast | خورده شدهاست |
| Indicative | Imperfective perfect | khorde mishodeast | خورده میشدهاست |
| Indicative | Pluperfect | khorde shode bud | خورده شده بود |
| Indicative | Imperfective pluperfect | khorde mishode bud | خورده میشده بود |
| Indicative | Future | khorde khāhæd shod | خورده خواهد شد |
| Indicative | Present progressive | dāræd khorde mishævæd | دارد خورده میشود |
| Indicative | Preterite progressive | dāsht khorde mishod | داشت خورده میشد |
| Subjunctive | Present | khorde shævæd | خورده شود |
| Subjunctive | Preterite | khorde shode bāshæd | خورده شده باشد |
| Subjunctive | Imperfective preterite | khorde mishode bāshæd | خورده میشده باشد |
| Subjunctive | Pluperfect | khorde shode bude bāshæd | خورده شده بوده باشد |
| Subjunctive | Imperfective pluperfect | khorde mishode bude bāshæd | خورده میشده بوده باشد |
Light verbs such as kærdæn "to do, to make" 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:
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 radfahren (to ride by bicycle) and zurückgehen (to go back).
Some other examples of compound verbs with kærdæn are:
Prepositions in Persian generally behave similarly to those in English – they precede their object. They include the following:
| 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) |