Persian grammar


The grammar of the Persian language is similar to that of many other Indo-European languages. The language became a more analytic language around the time of Middle Persian, with fewer cases and discarding grammatical gender. The innovations remain in Modern Persian, which is one of the few Indo-European languages to lack grammatical gender, even in pronouns.

Word order

While Persian has a standard subject-object-verb word order, it is not strongly left-branching. However, because Persian is a pro-drop language, the subject of a sentence is often not apparent until the end of the verb, at the end of a sentence.
  • کتاب آبی را دیدم ketâb-e âbi râ didam "I saw the blue book"
  • کتاب آبی را دیدید ketâb-e âbi râ didid "you saw the blue book"
The main clause precedes a subordinate clause, often using the familiar Indo-European subordinator ke.
  • به من گفت که امروز نمی‌آمد be man goft ke emruz nemi âmad "he told me that he wasn't coming today"
The interrogative particle âyâ, that asks a yes–no question, in written Persian, appears at the beginning of a sentence. Grammatical modifiers, such as adjectives, normally follow the nouns they modify by using the ezâfe , but they occasionally precede nouns. Persian is one of the few SOV languages to use prepositions. The only case marker in the written language, râ , follows a definite direct object noun phrase.
  • کتاب آبی را از کتابخانه گرفت ketâb-e âbi râ az ketâbxâne gereft "she got the blue book from the library"
Normal sentences are subject-prepositional phrase-object-verb. If the object is specific, the order is V. However, Persian can have a relatively free word order, often called scrambling, because the parts of speech are generally unambiguous, and prepositions and the accusative marker help to disambiguate the case of a given noun phrase. The scrambling characteristic has allowed Persian a high degree of flexibility for versification and rhyming.

Articles

In the literary language, no definite article is used; rather, it is implied by the absence of the indefinite article. However, in the spoken language, the stressed suffix ـه -e or -a is often used as a definite article. -e is mostly used in urban areas and -a is mostly used in rural areas. The first one is in newer dialects and the second one is in older dialects. The consonants and vowels changed throughout history.
  • Literary: کتاب روی میز است ketâb ru-ye miz ast "the book is on the table".
  • Spoken: کتابه روی میزه ketâbe ru-ye mizé "the book is on the table".
For plural nouns, the definite plural marker ـ‌ها -hâ functions as both the plural marker and the definite article.
The indefinite article in both spoken and literary Persian is the number one, یک yek, often shortened to یه ye.
  • روی میز یک کتاب است ru-ye miz yek ketâb ast 'on the table there is a book'.

    Nouns

Gender

Persian nouns and pronouns have no grammatical gender.

Plural

All nouns can be made plural by the suffix ـ‌ها -hâ, which follows a noun and does not change its form. Plural forms are used less often than in English and are not used after numbers or زیاد ziyâd "many" or بسیار besyâr. ـ‌ها -hâ is used only when the noun has no numbers before it and is definite.
  • سه تا کتاب se tâ ketâb "three books"
  • بسیاری کتاب besyâr-i ketâb "X'many books"
  • کتاب‌های بسیار ketâbhâ-ye besyâr "many books"
  • کتاب‌ها ketâbhâ "the books"
  • من کتاب را دوست دارم man ketâb râ dust dâram "I like the book"
  • آنها دانشجو هستند ânhâ dâneşcu hastand "They are students"
  • آنها دانشجوها هستند ânhâ dâneşcuhâ hastand "They are the students"
In the spoken language, when nouns or pronouns end with a consonant, -hâ is reduced to -â.
  • Literary: آنها ânhâ 'they'
  • Informal spoken: unâ 'they'
In the literary language, animate nouns generally use the suffix ـان -ân for plurals, but ـ‌ها -hâ is more common in the spoken language.
  • Literary: پرندگان parandegân 'birds'
  • Spoken: پرنده‌ها parandehâ 'birds'
Nouns adopted from Arabic usually have special plurals, formed with the ending ـات -ât or by changing the vowels. Arabic nouns can generally take Persian plural endings, but the original form is sometimes more common. The most common plural form depends on the individual word.

Cases

There are three cases in Persian: nominative case, vocative case and accusative case. The nominative is the unmarked form of a noun, but the vocative and accusative cases use the suffixes ا "â" and "را "râ", respectively. The other oblique cases are marked by prepositions.
  • Nominative: کتاب آنجاست ketâb ânjâst / کتاب‌ها آنجایند ketâbhâ ânjâyand ;
Inanimate subjects do not require plural verb forms, especially in the spoken language: ketâbhâ unjâst.
  • Vocative: سعدیا مرد نکونام نمیرد هرگز Sa'dia marde neku-nam namirad hargez.
  • Accusative: کتاب را بده به من ketâb râ bede be man 'give me the book'.
  • Possession using ezâfe: کتابِ آرش ketâb-e Âraš 'Âraš's book'.

    Pronouns

Subject pronouns

Persian is a null-subject or pro-drop language, so personal pronouns are optional. Pronouns add râ when they are used as the object but otherwise stay the same. The first-person singular accusative form من را man râ 'me' can be shortened to marâ or, in the spoken language, mano. Pronominal genitive enclitics are different from normal pronouns, however.
PersonSingularPlural
1stman مَنmâ ما
2ndtō توşomâ شُما
3rdū او
ân آن,
vey وِى* 		ânhâ آنها,
işân ایشان

* rarely used
PersonSingularPlural
1stman مَنmâ ما
2ndto توšomâ شُما
3rdu او
işân ایشان* 		ânhâ/ânân آنها/آنان,
işân ایشان

* uses 3rd person plural verb form
Persian resembles Romance languages like French in that the second person plural pronoun šomâ is used as a polite form of address. Persian to is used among intimate friends.
  • ببخشید، شما آمریکایی هستید؟ Bebaxşid, şomâ Âmrikāyi hastid? 'excuse me, are you an American?'
  • ایشان به من گفتند برویم تو İşun be man goftand, berim tu 'he said to me, "Let's go in." '

    Possessive determiners

Possession is often expressed by adding suffixes to nouns; the same suffixes can also be used as object pronouns. For the third person these are gender-neutral ; for example, کتابش ketâbaš could mean 'his book' or 'her book'.
PersonSingularPlural
1st-am ـَم-emân ـِمان
2nd-at ـَت-etân ـِتان
3rd-aš ـَش-ešân ـِشان

PersonSingularPlural
1st-am ـَم-emun ـِمون
2nd-et ـِت-etun ـِتون
3rd-eš ـِش-ešun ـِشون

Examples:
  • کتابتان روی میزه ketâbetun ru-ye miz e 'your book is on the table'
  • کتابم روی میز است ketâbam ru-ye miz ast 'my book is on the table'
When the stem to which they are added ends in a vowel, a y is inserted for ease of pronunciation. However, with the plural marker ـ‌ها -hâ, it is also common in Iranian dialects to drop the -a-/-e- stem from the possessive marker. For example, 'my cars' could be translated as either ماشین‌هایم mâšinhâyam with the -y- or ماشین‌هام' ''mâšinhâm. It can be simplified even more to the colloquial spoken form by dropping h, for ease of pronunciation, to ماشینام mâšinâm. Sometimes, ها -hâ is written attached to the word: ماشینها' mâšinhâ''.

''Ezâfe''

Another way of expressing possession is by using subject pronouns or a noun phrase with ezâfe. Although in the third person this implies a change of person. These can also never be used as a possessive or direct object within a clause in which the same is the subject of the verb.
  • کتابِ شما روی میزه ketâb-e šomâ ru-ye miz e 'your book is on the table'.
  • کتابِ من روی میزه ketâb-e man ru-ye miz e 'my book is on the table'.
  • کتابِ استاد رویِ میز است ketâb-e ostâd ru-ye miz ast 'the professor's book is on the table'.
  • اکبر برادرِ او را دید akbar barâdar-e u râ did 'Akbar saw his brother'.
  • اکبر برادرش را دید akbar barâdaresh râ did 'Akbar saw his brother'.
  • Correct: برادرم را دیدم barâdaram râ didam 'I saw my brother'.
  • Incorrect: برادرِ من را دیدم barâdar-e man râ didam Since the subject pronoun is used as a possessive pronoun as well with ezafe construction.

    Object pronouns

Object pronouns are the same as subject pronouns, but objects can also be marked with the possessive determiners described above, which get attached to the verbs instead of nouns and don't need the postposition; consider the example "Yesterday I saw him" shown below.
TransliterationPersianNotes
diruz u râ didamدیروز او را دیدَمPostposition را râ needed when using a subject pronoun as an object pronoun.
diruz didamašدیروز دیدَمَشNo postposition needed; possessive determiner attached to the verb.

Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are این and آن respectively. Their plural forms can be اینها and آنها for inanimate nouns, or اینان and آنان for animate nouns. Note that آن and آنها are also used as third-person subject pronouns.
Demonstratives can also be combined with the indefinite pronouns یکی and یکی‌ها to give: این یکی, آن یکی, این یکی‌ها and آن یکی‌ها.

Adjectives

s typically follow the nouns they modify, using the ezâfe construct. However, adjectives can precede nouns in compounded derivational forms such as xoš-baxt 'lucky', and bad-kâr 'wicked'. Adjectives can come in any different orders after a noun and in this case adjectives that come at the end have more emphasis.
Comparative forms make use of the suffix -tar, and the superlative form uses the suffix -tarin.
Comparatives used attributively follow the nouns they modify, but superlatives precede their nouns.
The word 'than' is expressed by the preposition از :

Verbs

Normal verbs can be formed using the following pattern:
NEG – DUR or SUBJ/IMPER – root – PAST – PERSON – OBJ
  • Negative prefix: na, which changes to ne before the Imperfective prefix
  • Imperfective or durative prefix: mî-
  • Subjunctive/Imperative prefix: be-
  • Past suffix: -d, which changes to -t after unvoiced consonants
  • Personal suffix: e.g. -am 'I', -i 'you ' etc.
  • Object suffix: the most commonly used is -aš or -eš 'him/her/it'
PersonSingularPlural
1stـَم -amـیم -im
2ndـی -iـید -id
3rdـَد -ad*ـَند -and

* In the past tense, the past stem alone is used without any ending
PersonSingularPlural
1stـَم -amـیم -im
2ndـی -iـید/ـین -id/-in
3rdـه -e*ـَن -an

* In the past tense, the past stem alone is used without any ending
PersonSingularPlural
1stـَم -amـِمان -emân
2ndـَت -atـِتان -etân
3rdـَش -ašـِشان -ešân

PersonSingularPlural
1stـَم -amـِمون -emun
2ndـِت -etـِتون -etun
3rdـِش -ešـِشون -ešun

Tenses

Here are the most common tenses:

Infinitive

The infinitive ending is formed with ـَن : خوردن xordan 'to eat'. The basic stem of the verb is formed by deleting this ending: خورد xord.

Past

The past tense is formed by deleting the infinitive ending and adding the personal endings to the stem. In the third person singular, however, there is no personal ending so خوردن xordan would become خورد xord, 'he/she/it ate'.

Imperfect

The imperfect tense is made by taking the past tense as described above and prefixing it with می mî-, thus می‌خوردم mîxordam 'I was eating', 'I used to eat'. This tense can also have a conditional meaning: 'I would eat', 'I would have eaten'.

Perfect

The perfect tense is formed by taking the stem of the verb, adding ـه e to the end and then adding the different persons of the present tense of 'to be'. So خوردن xordan in the perfect first person singular would be خورده‌ام xordeam 'I have eaten' and the 3rd person singular would become خورده است xorde ast. However, in the spoken form, ast is omitted, making خورده xorde 's/he has eaten".

Pluperfect

The pluperfect tense is formed by taking the stem of the perfect, e.g. خورده xorde, adding بود bud, and finally adding the personal endings: خورده بودم xorde budam 'I had eaten'. In the third person singular, بود bud is added.

Future

The future tense is formed by taking the present tense form of خواستن xâstan 'to want', and conjugating it to the correct person; this verb in third person singular is خواهد xâhad. Next, it is put in front of the shortened infinitive of the verb, e.g. خورد xord, thus خواهد خورد xâhad xord 'he/she/it will eat'. For compound verbs, such as تمیز کردن tamiz kardan 'to clean', خواهد xâhad goes in between both words, and کردن kardan is reduced to its stem, thus تمیز خواهد کرد tamiz xâhad kard 'he/she/it will clean'. In the negative, خواهد xâhad receives نـ na- to make نخواهد خورد naxâhad xord 'he will not eat'. The future tense is generally avoided in colloquial Persian.

Present

The present tense is formed by taking the present stem of the verb, adding the prefix می mî-, and conjugating it. The present stem is often not predictable from the infinitive and so is to be learnt separately. The present stem of the verb خوردن xordan 'to eat' for example, is خور xor, so the present first person singular would be می‌خورم mîxoram 'I eat, am eating, do eat'. The third person singular ending is ـد -ad. The negative نـ is pronounced ne- before mî-, but in all other tenses, it is pronounced na-. Frequently the present tense is used together with an adverb instead of the future tense described above.
  • فردا به سينما می‌رود fardâ be sinemâ mîravad 'tomorrow he will go to cinema'

    Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive is made by changing the prefix mî- of the present tense to بـ be- or bo- : بخورم boxoram 'I may eat, let me eat', ب'نويسم be'nevisam 'I may write', 'let me write'.

Compound verbs

s such as کردن kardan '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 گفتگو goftegu means 'conversation', while گفتگو کردن goftegu kardan 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 is conjugated; the word preceding it is not affected:
  • دارم گفتگو می‌کنم dâram goftegu mîkonam 'I am speaking'
  • گفتگو کرده‌ام goftegu kardeam 'I have spoken'
  • گفتگو خواهم کرد goftegu xâham kard 'I will speak'
Other examples of compound verbs with kardan:
  • فراموش کردن farâmuš kardan 'to forget'
  • گریه کردن gerye kardan 'to cry'
  • تلفن کردن telefon kardan 'to call, to telephone'
  • بازسازی کردن bâzsâzi kardan 'to fix'

    Auxiliary verbs

  • باید bâyad 'must': Not conjugated. Dependent clause is subjunctive
  • شاید šâyad 'might': Not conjugated. Dependent clause is subjunctive
  • توانستن tavânestan 'can' : Conjugated. The dependent clause is subjunctive
  • خواستن xâstan 'want': Conjugated. Dependent clause is subjunctive
  • خواستن xâstan 'will': Conjugated. Main verb is tenseless

    Simplified spoken verbs

In the spoken language, certain commonly used verbs are pronounced in a shortened form:
  • رفتن raftan 'to go' Spoken present form r-. E.g. mîram 'I go', mîri 'you go', berim 'let's go'
  • دادن dâdan 'to give' Spoken present form d-. E.g. mîdam 'I give', mîdim 'we give'
  • گفتن goftan 'to say' Spoken present form g-. E.g. mîgam 'I say', mîgin 'you say'
  • آمدن âmadan 'to come' Spoken present form â-. E.g. mîyâm 'I am coming'
  • خواستن xâstan 'to want' Spoken present form xâ-. E.g. mîxâm 'I want'

    Prepositions

s in Persian generally behave like in English and precede their object. They come in two kinds: the basic prepositions such as dar 'in', which are placed directly before the noun or pronoun without an ezâfe, and a more numerous class, made from nouns or adverbs joined to the following noun by an ezâfe. They include the following:
  • az 'from'
  • bâ 'with'
  • bar 'on'
  • barâ-ye 'for'
  • be 'to'
  • bi 'without'
  • dar 'in'
  • mânand-e 'like'
  • mesl-e 'like'
  • ru-ye 'on'
  • tâ 'till, until'
  • tu-ye 'in'
  • zir-e 'under'

    Online Persian verb conjugators


Category:Iranian grammars
Category:Persian language