Persian Lesson 14 – Delete Subjects of Your Sentences

Hello everyone, welcome back!

I hope you are enjoying the lessons. Please let me receive your suggestions. Your suggestions will bring a lot of change!



Today, we are going to take care of some new hints.

Hint 1 – As you have noticed, we have some letters after each verb when we want to combine verbs with the subjective pronouns. Look at the examples below:

I closed. You already know its meaning in Persian. Don’t you? It means /mæn bæstæm/. That’s what I am talking about. We have /mim/ after verb when the subject is /mæn/.

And this one: you closed. /to bæsti/. Here we have after verb, when the subject is .

As a general rule (applicable to all subjective pronouns in all tenses), we may skip over the subjective pronouns in sentences. It’s because the people who are listening to you can guess the subject of the sentence quite easily even if you don’t tell them the subject of your sentence. They would know the subject of your sentences through the letters attached to verbs. If I say /bæsti/, you’ll know that the subject is and if I say /bæstid/ you’ll know that the subject is .

Result:

1- I closed the door = = /dær ra: bæstæm/. No subjects needed.

2- You closed the door = = /dær ra: bæsti.

3- He/she closed the door = = /dær ra: bæst/.

4- It closed the door = = /dær ra: bæst/.

5- We closed the door. = /dær ra: bæstim/.

6- You closed the door = = /dær ra: bæstid/.

7- They closed the door = = /dær ra: bæstænd/. And = /dær ra: bæstænd/.

Now replace /dær/ with /keta:b/. You will say:

I closed the book = /keta:b ra: bæstæm/.

Ketab ra bastam

You closed the book =
/keta:b ra: bæsti/.

Ketab ra basti

And so on.

Note: When applying this rule, we should take care of the importance of words in different sentences. That is to say contextualization is really important. Basically, it’s the context that tells us how to use words. Example: we are sitting in the room when someone comes in. He looks at the window and expects to see it open. But the window is closed. He says, “Who closed the window?” He puts emphasis on ‘Who’. So, the best answer here is ‘I closed the window’. It’s better not to delete the subject here.

In short, the way we put emphasis on words is the same in both English and Persian.

As a general rule, we generally delete subjects in our Persian sentences when the subject is not emphasized.

You already know these words in Persian:

Yesterday = /diru:z/.

Today = /emru:z/.

Now let’s expand our sentences in simple past tense.

So far, we have learned that verbs come at the end of Persian sentences and subjects come at the beginning. We also know that all other items such as objects, time, and place come between subjects and verbs. Is that correct? Wonderful!

Last week we learned this sentence: I cleaned the table. /mæn miz ra: tæmiz kærdæm/.

The structure of this Persian sentence is like this: subject + object + verb.

Do you remember it?

Now we want to say ‘I cleaned the table yesterday’.

This is the English structure here: subject + verb + object + time (I use time for adverb of time, and place for adverb of place).

Let’s see what happens when we want to have the same sentence in Persian.

This is the structure in Persian: subject + object + time + verb.

So, we will say /mæn miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærdæm/, which means ‘I cleaned the table yesterday’. Is it difficult?

For such sentences, we may delete the subject in Persian, if the subject is not emphasized.

All right. Now let’s try it with all subjective pronouns.

1- I cleaned the table yesterday = = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærdæm/.

Miz ra dirooz tamiz kardam

2- You cleaned the table yesterday = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærdi/.

Miz ra dirooz tamiz kardi

3- He/she cleaned the table yesterday = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærd/.

Miz ra dirooz tamiz kard

4- It cleaned the table yesterday = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærd/.

Miz ra dirooz tamiz kard

5- We cleaned the table yesterday = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærdim/.

Miz ra dirooz tamiz kardim

6- You cleaned the table yesterday = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærdid/.

Miz ra tamiz kardid

7- They cleaned the table yesterday = /miz ra: diru:z tæmiz kærdænd/.

Miz ra dirooz tamiz kardand

I hope it’s not difficult to follow.

Hint 2- As you have seen, we have two equivalents for ‘They’ in Persian: /a:nha:/, and /i:sha:n/. I think I can explain it now that we are more familiar with this.

To show respect to the person we are talking to, we normally use plural ‘You’ for singular ‘You’ in Persian in the same way as the French use ‘vous’ for ‘tu’. So, instead of saying we’d better say .

The same thing happens with ‘He or She’. We use plural form for ‘he and she’ instead of singular form. To do this, we use for . Consequently, the verb has to change into plural form too. Look at the example below:

He/she cleaned = /i:sha:n tæmiz kærdænd/.

Ishan tamiz kardand

for /u: tæmiz kærd/.

Oo tamiz kard

You cleaned = /shoma: tæmiz kærdid/.

Shoma tamiz kardid

for /to tæmiz kærdi/.

To tamiz kardi

So, from now on, make the habit of using for and for in your sentences.

Note: although is the Persian equivalent for ‘They’, it is mostly used for ‘He/She’ in Persian not for ‘They’.