Persian Lesson 87 - Past Continuous Tense

Salam! Khosh amadid!

Quiz:

1- Listen to the audio files first (preferably once). Repeat it for a couple of times. Write it down on a paper. Find their English equivalents. (Seen)

One

Two

Three

2- Find the Persian equivalent for the following words and make four sentences with each of them (one in simple past tense, one in present perfect tense using ‘for’, one in simple future tense, and one in present continuous tense).

I have

Family

A good family

I go to work

3- Say these numbers in Persian:

70 – 701 – 707 – 107 – 770 – 77 – 710

4- Follow the examples, combine the letters, and make words using the given letters. You’ll have to change the big letters into the small ones whenever needed.

Friend <= /du:st/ < ==

Book <= /keta:b/ < ==

Market < ==

Aunt < ==

Uncle < ==

Doctor < ==

Housewife =

Before we continue with our new lessons today, I need to apologize to you for something. Unfortunately, I have missed one lesson in Tenses while in the examination (Lesson 81) we had a question on this missing tense. This tense is Past Continuous Tense.

So, today, we are going to cover this tense. Sorry for the forgetfulness!!

Past Continuous Tense

Do you remember how we made Present Continuous Tense? Today’s lesson is much easier than that.

If you remember, we use the infinitive ‘to have’ to make our Persian sentences in present continuous tense. In this new lesson, we use the same infinitive yet in a very easy way.

To have = /da:shtæn/.

Delete /nu:n/ from the end of our infinitive and you will have /da:sht/, which is in simple past tense (I hope you still remember this rule).

Now, try to use /da:sht/ with all subjective pronouns in Simple Past Tense:

I had = /mæn da:shtæm/.

You had = /to da:shti/.

He/she/it had = /u: da:sht/.

We had = /ma: da:shtim/.

You had = /shoma: da:shtid/.

They had = /a:nha: da:shtænd/.

Still with me? Good!

Now, suppose that we have the following sentence:

I was writing.

What is the main verb here? Good guess!

‘writing’ is the main verb.

We already know that ‘to write’ = /neveshtæn/.

Delete /nu:n/, and you will have /nevesht/, which is in Simple Past Tense.

I wrote = /mæn neveshtæm/

You wrote = /to neveshti/

He/she/it wrote = /u: nevesht/

We wrote = /ma: neveshtim/

You wrote = /shoma: neveshtid/

They wrote = /a:nha: neveshtænd/

Now, we want to translate ‘I was writing’ into Persian.

Just remember that in this tense ‘I was (in English) = I had (in Persian)’.

So far,

I was writing = /mæn da:shtæm mæn neveshtæm/. A very odd sentence!

Delete the subjects in your Persian sentences, and you will have: /da:shtæm neveshtæm/.

Now, put /mi/ before the main verb in our Persian sentence (here: neveshtæm/.

Result:

I was writing = /da:shtæm mi neveshtæm/. That’s it!

Now, let’s apply this rule to our sentences:

You were writing = /da:shti mi neveshti/.

He/she/it was writing = /da:sht mi nevesht/.

We were writing = /da:shtim mi neveshtim/.

You were writing = /da:shtid mi neveshtid/

They were writing = /da:shtænd mi neveshtænd/.

Was it difficult?

Now, let’s see some more examples:

I was closing.

‘to close’ = /bæstæn/.

I was closing = /da:shtæm mi bæstæm/.

You were closing = /da:shti mi bæsti/.

He/she/it was closing = /da:sht mi bæst/.

We were closing = /da:shtim mi bæstim/.

You were closing = /da:shtid mi bæstid/.

They were closing = /da:shtænd mi bæstænd/.

Now, let’s see this one:

I was breaking.

To break = /shekæstæn/.

I was breaking = /da:shtæm mi shekæstæm/.

You were breaking = /da:shti mi shekæsti/.

He/she/it was breaking = /da:sht mi shekæst/.

We were breaking = /da:shtim mi shekæstim/.

You were breaking = /da:shtid mi shekæstid/.

They were breaking = /da:shtænd mi shekæstænd/.

All right, I hope it was not a difficult lesson for you. Please go to Useful Drills page to practice more.

See you next week!

Khoda Hafez!

Persian Lesson 87 – Past Continuous Tense

Quiz:

Lesson 87

1 Comment