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Persian Lesson 12 – Compound Verbs in Simple Past Tense

Hello everyone, welcome back!

As you remember, we started learning simple past tense last week. From today, we are going to practice with this tense to make sure that it is clearly understood. Try to make the foundation of your building as strong as possible! To do this here, we need to practice a lot.

Last week, we learned that all infinitives in Persian ended with /nu:n/. Example: . We also learned that we’d have a verb in simple past tense by simply deleting from infinitives. Example: . Correct?

Then, we learned that we could combine verbs in simple past tense with subjective pronouns. Doing this, we found that we had to add something to the end of the verbs to match that verb with each pronoun. Example: + = . Clear?

All right. Now, let’s see what do we have for today.

Before we start, let me tell you something. As you have probably noticed, in some cases the pronunciation of the words you hear is a little bit different from the phonetic alphabets you find with each word. The example I can mention here is this: . The phonetic alphabet written next to this word is /didi/, but when you listen to the recorded sound it is pronounced as /di:di:/. (Long /i:/ instead of short /i/). It is because I am trying to pronounce the words as slowly and clearly as possible. Basically, there is no big difference with these different pronunciations. All these three pronunciations are acceptable: /didi/- /didi:/- and /di:di:/. Don’t pay too much attention on these minor differences. I would certainly let you know if the difference was big enough to be mentioned.

Note: One of the problems with Persian verbs is that there are a considerable amount of compound verbs instead of single verbs. These compound verbs have apparently imposed a negative flexibility on creating new words in Persian. Although attempts have been made to change these compound verbs into single ones, less progress has been achieved till now. Most probably it comes from the dominant Arab language that has changed the structure of Persian language quite negatively. Statistics presented by some great linguists show that the capability of Persian language in generating new words was unbelievingly higher if we could re-separate the structure of Persian language from Arabic, which are totally different from each other in origin.

Let’s see an example.

‘To speak’ means /sohbæt kærdæn/.

sohbat kardan

As you see in the above example, we have two words in Persian for one English word. This is what I am talking about. Quite fortunately, this problem has nothing to do with us as beginners! Still, we can apply the same rule here. In all cases, we need to change the second part, not the first one. Here we have to change /kærdæn/.

Now, let’s apply the rule. Delete from and you’ll have /sohbæt kærd/, which is in simple past tense. Now try it with the subjective pronouns. You’ll say:

I spoke = /mæn sohbæt kærdæm/.

Man sohbat kardam

You spoke = /to sohbæt kærdi/.

To sohbat kardi

He and she spoke = /u: sohbæt kærd/.

Oo sobat kard

It spoke == /a:n sohbæt kærd/.

An sohbat kard

We spoke == /ma: sohbæt kærdim/.

Ma sohbat kardim

You spoke == /shoma: sohbæt kærdid/.

Shoma sohbat kardid

They spoke == /a:nha: sohbæt kærdænd /.

anha sohbat kardand

And /i:sha:n sohbæt kærdænd/.

Ishan sohbat kardand

All right. As you see nothing can break our rules!! (Except some exceptions that might happen once in a thousand!)

Now let’s learn some new words today. We will need some words to start making sentences. Please try to learn these words before we see each other next week!

Door = /dær/.

Dar

And /dærb/.

Darb

Window = /pænjereh/.

Panjereh

Yesterday = /di: ru:z/.

Dirooz

Today = /em ru:z/.

Emrooz

All right. What I am trying to do is helping you with some basic rules first. Remember that I am not going to give you a fish; I am trying to teach you fishing! So, be patient enough to be with me on our fishing path!!

During our next lessons, you’ll see that we are not limited to memorizing some words. But to take our next steps, we need to learn some words first.

Please go to Useful drills page now to practice with more new words.

From next week we’ll begin to make small sentences with the help of these words.

With this we come to the end of lesson 12.

Feel tired? Hit me!

Lesson 12

39 Comments

  1. ali
    April 20, 2012 @ 12:20 pm

    very nice site

    • Hye Kyong Jung
      May 19, 2012 @ 1:11 pm

      Kheyli khub.

      • Inayatullah Baloch
        December 26, 2012 @ 8:03 pm

        very nice site ..

        • Inayatullah Baloch
          December 26, 2012 @ 8:06 pm

          is there any one who can teach me farsi language ..can communicate with me..because it is the best way to improving another languages…f any one then plz mail me.. thanks..

  2. Bola
    June 7, 2012 @ 4:19 am

    What a great labor of love. This is great for you and the whole world! Thank you very much!!!

    There was an oversight in Lesson 12. The first sound recorded for sohbat kardan was raftan. Please, correct.

    Thank you.

    • Hassan H
      June 15, 2012 @ 10:57 am

      Hi Bola
      Many thanks. The link is fixed now.

      Best,
      Hassan

      • Syed Ramzan
        June 11, 2015 @ 5:00 am

        I am a Persian teacher and works in Cultural Counsulate of Iran.I am a teacher of Persian since 3o years.If anyone interested give me a call. 03365213593

  3. ukkash
    July 2, 2012 @ 3:32 pm

    i would like to ask about writing, hand writing looks like really different than typing. It looks crowded, what would you suggest to me ?

  4. naqshab
    July 27, 2012 @ 10:58 am

    y are there two words used for ‘and’ i.e ishan, darb…whats is the basic mode of use of these words plz specify

    • Alexander
      May 25, 2014 @ 9:23 pm

      He means that ایشان AND آنها are both used as the English ‘they.’ Likewise, both در AND درب can mean ‘door.’ Up until now, we have not been given a Persian equivalent for.the word ‘and.’

  5. De
    August 7, 2012 @ 1:53 pm

    thank you for your lessons! they are great!! This is lesson 12 and I already read and write Persian!! Keep the great job! thank you so much!

  6. clau
    September 14, 2012 @ 1:46 am

    Naqshab, to answer your quesiton, ishan=they and darb=door (dar=door aswell). And=va. The format is confusing and makes you think that ishan and darb mean “and.” I had the same problem, so I asked my husband (Iranian).

  7. jaidi
    December 28, 2012 @ 9:50 am

    its a good site but if you record video where you teach with a board and marker it will be more benificient

  8. Arash
    January 30, 2013 @ 9:47 am

    سلام این واژه درب رو بردارید به خاطر اینکه هم اضافه هست هم برای خود فارسی زبانان هم جای بحث داره که واژه غلطی هست که وارد زبان شده تازگیها.
    کلا هم متشکرم از کار خوبتان

  9. ABCD...Z
    February 11, 2013 @ 2:05 am

    great lesson, many thanks

  10. RAYAN
    February 11, 2013 @ 7:30 pm

    I AM FOND OF PERSIAN SONGS SO I HAVE DECIDED DO LEARN THIS LANGUAGE IT SEEMS LIKE MY ARABIC SO I THINK IT WOULD SO EASY LEARN IT .THANK YOU FOR THE LESSONS

  11. rameen
    February 17, 2013 @ 6:15 pm

    Salam,
    Kindly tell me what is the difference between Shoma (You) and Toe (You). Why two different words for the same one word?

    • DC
      February 18, 2013 @ 2:08 am

      Shoma is formal and Toe is informal.

    • E
      February 23, 2013 @ 4:09 am

      also, shoma is plural, toe is singular :)

      • Ahmet Çorak
        August 30, 2013 @ 9:20 pm

        Not the same one word:
        Toe: Thou : Tu
        Shoma : You :Vous

        • reza
          September 1, 2013 @ 10:19 pm

          Toe is singular ,, but Shoma=You(in English)
          toe is informal and Shoma is formal

          • Ahmet Çorak
            December 15, 2013 @ 11:40 am

            I’ve just accentuate that toe (P), thou (E), and tu (F) have a common root, and once were the same word in PIE, hence etymologically different word from shoma, although now used the singular and informal form of it.

      • 武火
        February 5, 2017 @ 11:25 pm

        you are right.

  12. Umme Abiha Zahra
    April 21, 2013 @ 1:40 pm

    i didn’t got one thing that “ishan” means “and” n “darb” also means “and”……………..
    i’m a bit confused

    • KFC
      April 22, 2013 @ 1:58 pm

      Yeh I got confused at first too, When he writes ‘and’ he means the word can be both those words. So door can be written ‘dar’, as well as ‘darb’. Hope this helps.

  13. Omar
    February 4, 2014 @ 1:38 pm

    A very nice website. I like the gradual way in which you are teaching Persian and thank you so much for your (Hard) work.

    But can you please stop blaming Arabs for everything (including global warming maybe)? I mean guys arabs had no power on Iranians since the 10th century. That makes it 1100 years so what the hell?

    • Navid
      February 8, 2014 @ 5:07 am

      He’s not blaming the Arabs, he’s just saying that the Persian language was more flexible before they took over and spread their influence. Part of it is also pride in your language, how would you like it if somebody came in and changed the alphabet into something else.

  14. allzz
    March 26, 2014 @ 11:33 pm

    I am not able to download voice notes on my fone can u please tell me how to do it ?

  15. Fatema
    September 3, 2014 @ 8:55 pm

    Salams,
    I love this website and its a great way to learn the language! Thank you for your great effort…May you always be blessed…:)

    I noticed however that I am able to pick up the technical part of the lesson but am having trouble retaining it and actually using it in conversation. Would it be possible to add a facility so that we can verbally practice what we have learnt? I know the suggestion I am making is quite large but maybe it is something you could do in the future?

    • Erin
      April 28, 2016 @ 9:11 pm

      I’ve started transferring all the words covered in a lesson into a memrise course so that you can get it into memory without having to go back through the lessons.
      http://www.memrise.com/course/1078468/wwweasypersiancom/

    • 武火
      February 5, 2017 @ 11:28 pm

      i want to know how to download, too.

  16. Zoughi
    November 15, 2014 @ 4:40 am

    سايت خيلى خوبيه. ممنون

  17. Thomas
    January 20, 2015 @ 8:57 am

    Once more, congratulation for this website. I’m taking a lesson a day, repeating at home and I’m already very grateful that I can write with persian alphabet and start to know a few words.

  18. Shaheen
    March 9, 2015 @ 6:02 am

    Salam. This is a great website to learn language. Thanks and may Allah Bless you. One thing I want to ask is that in the “Let’s write” section, I saw two new words – ‘busidan’ and ‘dashtan’. Can you please also provide their meanings?

    • Soli
      July 20, 2015 @ 8:58 am

      Busidan= kissing
      dashtan= having

  19. Saleem yousef
    May 13, 2015 @ 6:47 am

    This is very helpful website to learn Persian Language, the method adopted is simple to explain step by step. In the beginning, I just surfed the website to read some words casually , but I was surprised to note that the Persian Language is very rich language and to my delight I found that Urdu is a combination of Persian and Arabic Languages, I believe that it will not be difficult for Urdu speakers to learn Farsi.
    Significant efforts were made by the author of the website, May Allah reward him the best for this great work done.
    Best regards

  20. Michael
    December 22, 2015 @ 5:18 pm

    Hey, I have one question: why sometimes you don’t write in persian the signs of short vowels? I don’t uderstand why the word “درب” in persian is read “darb” and not for example “dorb” or “darab” (i mean, you don’t have written a sign of short vowel, so were from do you know what you should read?)
    P.S.
    Sorry, for my my english (I’m not native) :)

  21. Ana Rodrigues
    August 26, 2016 @ 1:41 pm

    Congratulations for your website! The lessons are clear and easy to understand. Becomes pleasant to learn a language when you can see the progress happen :) Thanks!