Gender

Persian nouns and pronouns have no grammatical gender. Arabic loanwords with the feminine ending ـة reduce to a genderless Persian ـه which is pronounced -e in Persian and -a in Arabic. Many borrowed Arabic feminine words retain their Arabic feminine plural form ـات (-ât), but Persian descriptive adjectives modifying them have no gender. Arabic adjectives also lose their gender in Persian.

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(ی) besyâr(i). ـ‌ها -hâ is used only when the noun has no numbers before it and is definite.

• سه تا کتاب se tâ ketâb "three books"
• 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 dânešju hastand "They are students"
• آنها دانشجوها هستند ânhâ dânešjuhâ 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 (or variants ـگان -gân and ـیان -yân) for plurals, but ـ‌ها -hâ is more common in the spoken language.^[1]

• 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. (E.g. کِتاب ketâb / کُتُب kotob for "book/books".) 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. (Cf. "indexes" vs. "indices" in English for the plural of a word adopted from Latin.)

Cases

There are two cases in Persian: nominative (or subject) case and accusative (or object) case. The nominative is the unmarked form of a noun, but when the noun is followed by a را râ or suffix ـ رو ro or ـو o, it is in the accusative. The other oblique cases are marked by prepositions.

• Nominative: کتاب آنجاست ketâb ânjâst / کتاب‌ها آنجایند ketâbhâ ânjâyand ('the book is there / the books are there')

Inanimate subjects do not require plural verb forms, especially in the spoken language: ketâbhâ unjâst ('the books "is" there').

• Accusative: کتابو(/کتاب را) بده به من ketâbo(/ketâb râ) bede(h) be man 'give me the book'
• Possession using ezâfe: کتابِ آرش ketâb-e Âraš 'Âraš's book'

Subject pronouns

Persian is a null-subject or pro-drop language, so personal pronouns (e.g. 'I', 'he', 'she') 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 (see above) are different from normal pronouns, however.

* rarely used

* 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 (the so-called T–V distinction). However, Persian also resembles Indo-Aryan languages like Hindustani in that the third person plural form, with the pronoun išun, is used for politeness to refer to one person, especially in the presence of that person:^[2]

• ببخشید شما آمریکایی هستید؟ Bebaxšid, šomâ Âmrikāyi hastid? 'excuse me, are you an American?'
• ایشان به من گفتند برویم تو Išun 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 (unlike in English); for example, کتابش ketâbaš could mean 'his book' or 'her book'.

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.

• کتاب شما روی میزه ketâb-e šomâ ru-ye miz e 'your book is on the table'
• کتاب من روی میزه ketâb-e man ru-ye miz e 'my book is on the table'
• کتاب استاد روی میز است ketâb-e ostâd ru-ye miz ast 'the professor's book is on the table'
• اکبار برادر اورا دید akbar barâdar-e u râ did 'Akbar saw his(i.e.: someone else's) brother'
• اکبار برادرش را دید akbar barâdaresh râ did 'Akbar saw his(i.e.: his own or someone else's) 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 (followed by the postposition را râ), 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.

Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are این (in, this) and آن (ân, that) respectively. Their plural forms can be اینها (inhâ, these) and آنها (ânhâ, those) for inanimate nouns, or اینان (inân, these) and آنان (ânân, those) 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 (yeki, one) and یکی‌ها (yekihâ, ones) to give: این یکی (in yeki, this one), آن یکی (ân yeki, that one), این یکی‌ها (in yekihâ, these ones) and آن یکی‌ها (ân yekihâ, those ones).

Tenses

Here are the most common tenses:

Compound verbs

Light verbs 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 (e.g. kardan) 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' (literally 'to be able to'): 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' (Literary present form rav-) Spoken present form r-. E.g. mîram 'I go', mîri 'you go', berim 'let's go'
• دادن dâdan 'to give' (Literary present form deh-) Spoken present form d-. E.g. mîdam 'I give', mîdim 'we give'
• گفتن goftan 'to say' (Literary present form gu-) Spoken present form g-. E.g. mîgam 'I say', mîgin 'you say'
• آمدن âmadan 'to come' (Literary present form ây-) Spoken present form â-. E.g. mîyâm 'I am coming'
• خواستن xâstan 'to want' (Literary present form xâh-) Spoken present form xâ-. E.g. mîxâm 'I want'

Online Persian verb conjugators

• Persian verb conjugator – Online conjugation of Persian verbs