Persian/Lesson 7

In Lesson 5, you learned how to conjugate the verb in the simple present tense.

In this lesson, you will how to conjugate Persian verbs in the simple past tense.

Dialogue:
... talks with ...:


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Explanation
 * ... and ... are....

Vocabulary



Simple past tense
In both English and Persian, verbs can be conjugated in the simple past tense to express that an event happened in the past or to comment about a past state of something. For example, the English verb talk is conjugated into the simple past tense form talked by adding the suffix -ed.

As explained in Lesson 5, Persian verbs suffixes clearly indicate grammatical person and number. For example, the table on the right shows the simple past tense of, consisting of the stem and suffixes to indicate the person and number:

The past stem is identical with the third person singular. Thus the past stem of the verb budan 'to be' is bud, the past stem of the verb guftan 'to say' is guft.

Unlike the simple present tense of, which has both a full and short forms, the simple past tense only has the forms above.


 * Say each of the personal pronouns from the table above. While saying each one, imagine and point to the people to whom the pronoun might refer.  For example, while saying, imagine another person next to you and point to that person and yourself.
 * Repeat the personal pronouns as above, but after each one, say the corresponding simple past tense forms of from the table above.  For example, when saying, point to two imaginary addressees and then say.
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To make the simple past tense form of any Persian verb, begin with the infinitive (the dictionary form), e.g. . The infinitive of every Persian verb ends in the suffix. Remove the final to get the past tense stem, e.g. .  Then add the appropriate past tense personal suffix from the table below to make the past tense verb form: The same suffixes are used for all simple past tense verbs, so it is important to memorize them.

Plurality and formality/deference
plurality of verb with animate vs. inanimate subject

Plurality of subject reference, optional subject pronoun, and verb as it relates to formality and deference:
 * Semantically plural human subject requires plural verb.
 * 2nd person semantically singular addressee:
 * Friendly, informal reference: (optional pronoun) تو /tow/, singular verb (ی ending)
 * Semi-formal, respectful: (optional plural pronoun) شما /šomâ/, singular verb (ی ending)
 * Formal, more respectful: plural verb, optional plural pronoun (شما), plural verb written with ید ending, pronounced colloquially as ین.
 * Very formal conditions treating the addressee with deference: جناب عالی /jenâb âli/ ("your excellency")

Third person
In the third person, the same pattern applies as with the second person. The singular pronoun is the normal way to refer to an individual in the third person, but to show greater respect, the plural pronoun  and/or a verb conjugated in the third person plural (i.e. with the personal suffix, colloquially pronounced ‹-an›) may be used instead.

Exercises

 * What are the ... by the following ...s?
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Review
In this lesson, you learned how to conjugate Persian verbs in the simple past tense....