Persian verbs

infinitive

The infinitive form of the verb is constructed by adding the suffix æn to the past root of the verb. Ex: Khærid+æn= to buy

Normal Persian verbs can be formed using the following morpheme pattern:

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

Negative

• Negative prefix: نَه/næ - changes to نِه/ne before the Durative prefix, نَه/næ itself is used for negative imperative by adding it to the present root of the verb, ex: Næ+Gu= Nægu= Do not say

Durative

• Durative prefix: می/mī

For example

• raftam (I went) → mīraftam (I used to go)
• mīravam (I go)
• rafte-am (I have gone) → mīrafte-am (I have been going)

See The following section on Infinitive and Conjugation.

Verbs :Infinitive and Conjugation

Any Persian verb has a past stem and a present stem. So, for example, the verb 'to go' in Persian, has:

• رفتن raftan = 'to go', the infinitive form
• رفت raft = 'went', the past stem
• رو rav- = 'go', the present stem
  As it can be seen here, unlike English where we use to before the present stem of the verb to form the infinitive to go, Persian adds the suffix -an to the past stem of the verb to form the infinitive raft-an (to go). In other words, as a rule of thumb, if you take any Persian infinitive and eliminate its ending, -an, you will end up with the past stem of the verb. All you need to know then is the present stem.
• Conventionally, we might write an English verb. say to go as: to go¹ (went², gone³); where the superscript 1 indicates the present stem, and the superscript 2 presents the past tense.
• Accordingly, the Persian counterpart of English 'to go' might be shown as raft²-an (rav¹-).
• There is no need to specify the past participles of any Persian verb, as they are quite regularly formed by addition of an e-ending to the past stem of the verbs. So, رفته rafte = gone.

The only exception is the verb būdan (to be)^[1] which has six present stems for six persons as follows:

	Persian	English		Persian	English
1st Person	ام -am	am		ایم -īm	(we) are
2nd Person	ای -ī	*(thou ar(s)t)		اید -īd	(you) are
3rd Person	است ast	is		اند -and	(they) are

As an example, in the following sentences, the present forms of the verb 'to be' are used as copulas:
______________ "man doxtar-e to am; īn barādar-e man ast; to pedar-e man ī "
______________ (‘I am your daughter; this is my brother; thou art my father.’)
Like auxiliaries, these forms are added to the past participle of any verb to conjugate the verb in Present perfect. Therefore, for raft-e (gone) we will have

	Persian	English		Persian	English
1st Person	رفته ام rafte-am	(I) have gone		رفته ایم rafte-īm	(we) have gone
2nd Person	رفته ای rafte-ī	*(thou hast gone)		رفته اید raft-īd	(you) have gone
3rd Person	رفته است rafte ast	(S/he, it) has gone		رفته اند rafte-and	(they) have gone

The same endings are used after 'būd' (as the past tense of būdan 'to be') to act as the auxiliaries in the conjugation of pluperfect (E.g. رفته بودم rafte būdam = I had gone, although etc.) with the exception of ast which never is eliminated in past or pluperfect (e.g. rafte būd = he had gone). The following table shows the conjugation of the verb in simple past tense:

	Persian	English		Persian	English
1st Person	رفتم raft-am	(I) went		رفتیم raft-īm	(we) went
2nd Person	رفتی raft-ī	*(thou wentest)		رفتید raft-īd	(you) went
3rd Person	رفت raft	(S/he, it) went		رفتند raft-and	(they) went

Adding the prefix mī- to the above conjugation turns it to a continuous action in the past (e.g. mī-raft-am 'I used to go')
It appears that in all these cases, ast is the only one which is dropped out. In the conjugation of the Present-tense or subjunctive mood, ast of the third person singular is to be replaced by -ad. (NB. Remember that the prefix mī-, used before present or past stems, indicates a continuous action in time):

	Persian	English		Persian	English
1st Person	می روم mī-rav-am	(I) go		می رویم mī-rav-īm	(we) go
2nd Person	می روی mī-rav-ī	*(thou goest)		می روید mī-rav-īd	(you) go
3rd Person	می رود mī-rav-ad	goes		می روند mī-rav-and	(they)go

The future tense is formed by using additional auxiliary xāh- (want) and the past tense of the verb. (NB. [x] as a part of conventional transliteration is pronounced like 'ch' in Bach, Loch Ness)

	Persian	English		Persian	English
1st Person	خواهم رفت xāh-am raft	(I) will go		خواهیم رفت xāh-īm raft	(we) will go
2nd Person	خواهی رفت xāh-ī raft	*(thou wilt go)		خواهید رفت xāh-īd raft	(you) will go
3rd Person	خواهد رفت xāh-ad raft	(S/he, it) will go		خواهند رفت xāh-and raft	(they) will go

There also some more complicated tenses that we have not addressed here. However, the following examples for the third person plural would show the structure and the semantic of these rare cases as they are used in very high level Persian by the contemporary authors. The endings would be exactly the same as the present perfect, described above.

• می رفته ام mi-rafte-am '(I) have been going'
• رفته بوده اند rafte būde-and = '(they) had gone (in my/our absence)'/ '(It appears that they) had gone'

Intransitive, Transitive and Causative

Like English verbs, Persian verbs are either transitive (need object) or intransitive; the only difference is that in Persian an accusative marker (enclitic), را rā, comes after any definite direct object. Examples:

• Intransitive: دویدم davīd-am = 'I ran'.
• Transitive: او را دیدم ū rā dīd-am = 'I saw him'

Note: If the direct object is indefinite, no را rā is needed. Example:

• cf. مردی دیدم mard-i dīd-am = 'I saw a man' vs. مردی را که می شناختم، دیدم mard-i rā ke mī-šenāxt-am dīd-am = 'I saw the man who I knew'.
  An intransitive verb can be turned into a transitive one by making the former into a causative verb. E.g.
• مُردن mord-an (to die) is an intransitive verb, so the subject and object of the verb is the same: او مُرد ū mord = ' he died'.
• The present stem of مُردن mordan (to die) is میر mīr (die). The causative is based on the present stem to produce a new infinitive میراندن mīrānd-an (present stem: میران mīrān) 'to make die'.
• The causative can then act as a transitive verb: او را میراندمū rā mīrānd-am = 'I made him die' ≈ 'I killed him'
• Compare with the transitive verb کـُشتن košt-an (to kill) → او را کُشتتمū rā košt-am = 'I killed him'.

Let's look at another example:

• Intransitive verb: خوابیدن x^wbīd-an (present stem: خواب x^wb-) 'to sleep' → خوابیدم x^wbīd-am = 'I slept'.
• Causative form: خواباندن x^wbānd-an 'to cause to sleep' → او را خواباندم ū rā x^wbānd-am = 'I caused him to sleep' ≈ 'I put him to bed'.

There are also cases where a causative verb is formed from a transitive verb:

• Transitive verb خوردن xord-an (خور xor-) (to eat) → Causative: خوراندن xorānd-an (to make eat)≈ 'to fed'.

All in all, the formation of the causative verbs are not comprehensively productive, but it has been applied to certain verbs only . What is rather general with no exception is the accusative marker را (rā) which accompanies the definite direct object of both transitive and causative verbs.
Formation of Causative Verbs:
Causative of present stems are formed by adding ān- to the present stem of the verb; a new infinitive can be then created by adding -dan to the causative stem. Analogically, if we now inseminate the infinitive marker (-an) what is left would be the causative past stem. In other words:

• Cusative past stem = Causative present stem + d.

The following examples clarify the formula.

• E.g. دویدن / دو davīd²an (dav-¹) (to run) → Present Stem: دو dav- → causative: دوان davān → New Infinitive: دواندن davān-dan → davānd²an دوان (davān¹) 'to make run'
• Note: The object of the causative like that of transitive verbs, if specific (determined), is indicated by an enclitic marker را rā. See the following examples:
• می دوم mī-dav-am (I run) and Past دویدم davīd-am (I ran) versus their causative forms:
• Present causative اسب را می دوانم asb rā mī-davānam (I make the horse run).
• Past causative اسب را دواندم asb rā dav'ān'dam

Causative Enclitics for Present-Tense

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	انم/-ānam	انیم/-ānīm
2nd	انی/ānī	انید/-ānīd
3rd	اند/ānad	انند/-ānand

Causative Enclitics for Past-Tense

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	اندم/-āndam	اندیم/-āndīm
2nd	اندی/āndī	اندید/-āndīd
3rd	اند/ānd	اندند/-āndand

Subjunctive and Imperative

To form the subjunctive, a prefix be- is added to the present stem of the verb. A simple definition of the subjunctive is that it indicates no specific tense.

• 'raftan (rav-)' (to go)→ rav- (go), present stem → be-rav- subjunctive stem.
• Subjunctive forms can be used in the potential mood, e.g. شاید بروم shāyad berav-am (Maybe I go); شاید برود shāyad berav-ad (Maybe s/he goes)
• Subjunctive is also used in the present-tense of the conditional sentences: اگر بروم می دوم agar berav-am mī-dav-am (If I go, I [will] run).

Despite the superficial similarity between subjunctive and imperative forms, the difference appears as it comes to the 2nd persn singular, as it can be seen in the following table for the verb زدن ←زن zadan (zan-) (to hit, to beat). Note the difference between the b-forms of the imperative and subjunctive.

be-pefixed of the stem zan- (hit)	Imperative (2nd person singular)	Subjunctive (2nd person singular)
بزن be-zan-	بزن be-zan!	بزنی be-zan-ī
---	Hit!	(If/ You may/must ...) hit

NB.

• When the present stem of the verb ends up in [-av], it changes to [o] in the imperative form of (ordering)2nd person singular, and by assimilation, be-prefix becomes bo-
• رفتن / رو raftan (rav-) 'to go' → Present stem: رو rav- → Imperative برو *be-rav → boro 'Go!'
• دویدن / دو. davīdan (dav-) 'to run' Present stem: دو dav- → Imperative بدو *be-dav → bodo 'Run!'

The Optative Forms

Although mostly appears in the classic literature, the optative mood is sometimes used in common Persian. To see how it is formed, we may look at the verb kardan (kon-) 'to do':

• کردن / کن kardan (kon-) 'to do'→ Present Stem کن 'kon'- → Present-tense for 2nd person singular: کند kon-ad 'he does → Optative Replace a in the suffix -ad, with ā → کناد kon-ād (May s/he does it! → To negate it a prefix ma- is added: مکناد ma-kon-ād (May s/he does not that! We wish it will never happen) (= نکند nakonad in Modern Persian).
  Although in general, this inflection has been abandoned, yet significant remnants of its usage can be observed in some contemporary Persian compositions and colloquial proverbs, as in hærče bādā bād (هرچه بادا باد) "come what may" and dæst mærizād (دست مريزاد) lit. "May that hand not spill [what it is holding]", meaning "well done".
  (For a detailed discussion of the formation of aforementioned suffixes and conjugation of the verb to be, see Persian section under Indo-European Copula.

Active and Passive Voice

Example verb conjugations for first-person singular form of خوُردَن/khordæn "to eat". It is important to know that the following(In both active and passive voices) are never used in modern Persian: Indicative: Imperfective perfect, Imperfective pluperfect; Subjunctive: Imperfective preterite, Imperfective pluperfect

Active Voice
Mood	Tense	Romanization	Perso-Arabic
Indicative	Present	mi-khoræm	می‌خورم
Indicative	Preterite	khordæm	خوردم
Indicative	Imperfective preterite	mi-khordæm	می‌خوردم
Indicative	Perfect	khorde æm	خورده‌ام
Indicative	Imperfective perfect	mi-khorde æm	می‌خورده‌ام
Indicative	Pluperfect	khorde budæm	خورده بودم
Indicative	Imperfective pluperfect	mi-khorde budæm	می‌خورده بودم
Indicative	Future	khāhæm khord	خواهم خورد
Indicative	Present progressive	dāræm mi-khoræm	دارم می‌خورم
Indicative	Preterite progressive	dāshtæm mi-khordæm	داشتم می‌خوردم
Subjunctive	Present	bekhoræm	بخورم
Subjunctive	Preterite	khorde bāshæm	خورده باشم
Subjunctive	Imperfective preterite	mi-khorde bāshæm	می‌خورده باشم
Subjunctive	Pluperfect	khorde bude bāshæm	خورده بوده باشم
Subjunctive	Imperfective pluperfect	mi-khorde bude bāshæm	می‌خورده بوده باشم

Passive Voice
Mood	Tense	Romanization	Perso-Arabic
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	daræd khorde mishævæd	دارد خورده می‌شود
Indicative	Preterite progressive	dasht 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

Compound verbs

In fact, most verbs nowadays are Compound verbs and many old simple verbs are changing to light verbs to achieve more regularity and richness. for example:

simple verb	Compound verb
HOLIDAN	HOL DADAN
ZANGIDAN	ZANG ZADAN
PARDAKHTAN	PARDAKHT KARDAN
ALUDAN	ALUDE KARDAN
ZISTAN	ZENDEGI KARDAN
AZMUDAN	AZMAYESH KARDAN

so some verbs have lost their old meaning and converted to a suffix and they don't mean anything alone. For example "ZADAN" was originally the verb of beating but now the verb "KOTAK ZADAN" is used instead.

so Light verbs such as کَردَن/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 "صُحبَت/sohbæt"(Originally from Arabic) means "conversation", while "صُحبَت کَردَن/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. کَردَن/kærdæn) is conjugated; the word preceding it is not affected. For example: صُحبَت می‌کُنَم/sohbæt mikonæm ("I speak" or very near future "I will speak"; صُحبَت می‌کُنَم/sohbæt mikonæm also translates as, "I do speak" - this especially relates to, "I do speak" - as in the ability to speak a language)

دارَم صُحبَت می‌کُنَم/dāræm sohbæt mikonæm ("I am speaking")

صُحبَت کَرده‌اَم/sohbæt kærde æm ("I have spoken")

صُحبَت خواهَم کَرد/sohbæt khāhæm kærd ("I will speak")

As can be seen from the examples, the head word (in this case, صُحبَت/sohbæt) remains unchanged throughout the conjugation, and only the light verb کَردَن/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) or in Spanish Poner la mesa (to set the table) or Faire attention (to pay attention) in French . In present progressive tense, the verb داشتن is used which means "to have" (I have=دارم). In future tense, the verb خواستن is respectively used which means "to want", just the same as the English cognate Will (خواهم). Some other Light verbs are: Dādæn (to give) as in Rokh Dādæn= to happen, Gereftæn (to take) as in Pā Gereftæn= to start to grow , Zædæn (to hit) as in Hærf Zædæn= to talk, to speak , Khordæn (to eat) as in Sogænd Khordan= to take a vow, Shodan (to become) as in Arām Shodan= to calm down, Budæn (to be) as in Amāde Budæn= to be ready etc.

Some other examples of compound verbs with کَردَن/kærdæn are:

• فِکر کَردَن/fekr kærdæn, "to think"
• فَراموش کَردَن/færāmush kærdæn, "to forget"
• گَریه کَردَن/gærye kærdæn, "to cry"
• تِلِفُن کَردَن/telefon kærdæn, "to call, to telephone"
• تَعمیر کَردَن/tæmir kærdæn, "to fix"

Other equivalents for فِکر کَردَن/fekr kærdæn and گَریه کَردَن/gerye kærdæn are پنداشتن/Pendāshtæn and گریستن/Geristæn that are normally used in literary context rather than daily conversations.

Auxiliary Verbs

• بایَد/bāyæd - 'must': Not conjugated
• شایَد/shāyæd - 'might': Not conjugated
• تَوانِستَن/tævānestæn - 'can': Conjugated
• خواستَن/khāstæn - 'want': Conjugated. Subordinating clause is subjunctive
• خواهَد/khāhæd - 'will': Conjugated. Main verb is tenseless

Details

Infinitives and stems

Infinitives end in تن (-tan) or دن (-dan). The principle parts to remember are the past stem and present stem. The past stem is the easier to recognize, as it is determined simply by removing the ن (-an) from the infinitive.

• کردن (kardan, to make/to do) - کرد (kard)
• داشتن (dâštan, to have) - داشت (dâšt)
• گرفتن (gereftan, to take) - گرفت (gereft)
• دیدن (didan, to see) - دید (did)

The present stem tends to vary more, and in many common verbs bears little resemblance to the infinitive or past stem. In some verbs, the present stem is identical to the past stem, but for the -t/-d.

• کردن (kardan) - کن (kon)
• داشتن (dâštan) - دار (dâr)
• گرفتن (gereftan) - گیر (gir)
• دیدن (didan) - بین (bin)

Participles

Persian verbs have two participles - past and present.

The past participle is formed by adding ه (-e) to the past stem

• کردن (kardan) - کرده (karde)
• داشتن (dâštan) - داشته (dâšte)
• گرفتن (gereftan) - گرفته (gerefte)
• دیدن (didan, to see) - دیده (dide)

The present participle is formed by adding نده (-ande) to the present stem

• کردن (kardan) - کننده (konande)
• داشتن (dâštan) - دارنده (dârande)
• گرفتن (gereftan) - گیرنده (girande)
• دیدن (didan) - بیننده (binande)

Personal forms

Personal forms of verbs are formed mostly with simple prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes tend to be modal, while the suffixes are personal.

The personal suffixes are:

• ـم (-am) (first person singular)
• ـی (-i) (second person singular informal)
• ـد (-ad) (for non-past tenses), colloquially pronounced -e nul (for past tenses) (third person singular informal)
• ـیم (-im) (first person plural)
• ـید (-id) (second person plural), colloquially pronounced -in
• ـند (-and) (third person plural), colloquially pronounced -an

The most important and common prefixes are the progressive می (mi-) which forms imperfective tenses and بـ (be-) for subjunctives.

Instructions for forming various tenses will be given below with example conjugations of the verb کردن. An example translation will be given for the 1st person singular to give a basic idea of the tense's use. Note that personal pronouns are frequently dropped and are provided here for clarity.

Simple past

The simple past is formed with the past stem and personal endings.

• من کردم (man kardam) (I did)
• تو کردی (to kardi)(You did – familiar, singular)
• وی کرد (vay kard)
• ما کردیم (mâ kardim)
• شما کردید (šomâ kardid)(You did – formal, plural)
• آنها کردند (ânhâ kardand)

Present imperfect

The present imperfect is formed by prefixing می to the present stem with personal endings

• من می‌کنم (man mi-konam) (I do)
• تو می‌کنی (to mi-koni)
• وی می‌کند (vay mi-konad)
• ما می‌کنیم (mâ mi-konim)
• شما می‌کنید (šomâ mi-konid)
• آنها می‌کنند (ânhâ mi-konand)

Past imperfect

The past imperfect is formed by prefixing می to the simple past

• من می‌کردم (man mi-kardam) (I was doing)
• تو می‌کردی (to mi-kardi)
• وی می‌کرد (vay mi-kard)
• ما می‌کردیم (mâ mi-kardim)
• شما می‌کردید (šomâ mi-kardid)
• آنها می‌کردند (ânhâ mi-kardand)

Present perfect

The present perfect is formed by adding the present-tense suffixes of the verb بودن (to be) to the past participle.

• من کرده‌ام (man karde-am) (I have done)
• تو کرده‌ای (to karde-i)
• وی کرده است (vay karde ast)
• ما کرده‌ایم (mâ karde-im)
• شما کرده‌اید (šomâ karde-id)
• آنها کرده‌اند (ânhâ karde-and)

Pluperfect

The pluperfect is a compound tense formed from the past participle and the simple past of the verb بودن (to be)

• من کرده بودم (man karde budam) (I had done)
• تو کرده بودی (to karde budi)
• وی کرده بود (vay karde bud)
• ما کرده بودیم (mâ karde budim)
• شما کرده بودید (šomâ karde budid)
• آنها کرده بودند (ânhâ karde budand)

Present and past progressive

The progressives are compound tenses.

The present progressive is formed with the personal present tense of داشتن before the present imperfect.

• من دارم می‌کنم (man dâram mi-konam) (I am doing)
• تو داری می‌کنی (to dâri mi-koni)
• وی دارد می‌کند (vay dârad mi-konad)
• ما داریم می‌کنیم (mâ dârim mi-konim)
• شما دارید می‌کنید (šomâ dârid mi-konid)
• آنها دارند می‌کنند (ânhâ dârand mi-konand)

Similarly, the past progressive is formed with the past tense of داشتن preceding the past imperfect.

• من داشتم می‌کردم (man dâštam mi-kardam) (I was doing)
• تو داشتی می‌کردی (to dâšti mi-kardi)
• وی داشت می‌کرد (vay dâšt mi-kard)
• ما داشتیم می‌کردیم (mâ dâštim mi-kardim)
• شما داشتید می‌کردید (šomâ dâštid mi-kardid)
• آنها داشتند می‌کردند (ânhâ dâštand mi-kardand)

Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive is formed from by prefixing بـ (be-) to the present stem with personal endings.

• بکنم (bekonam) (that I do)
• بکنی (bekoni)
• بکند (bekonad)
• بکنیم (bekonim)
• بکنید (bekonid)
• بکنند (bekonand)

References

1. ↑ Toofan, M. Zabān: ast yā hast? [Language: Is or Exists?]. Ketāb-e Tehrān.2014

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