Past Perfect Tense

I hope all of you are doing well with the lessons and have made good progress.

Unfortunately, due to some reasons, I had to close the Persian samples page from this week. I am totally aware that this page has been one of your favorite pages since the very beginning. Please understand my situation and don’t get angry with me!

I have just added a link to my Links page, which has some great poems including ‘Fairies’ of Ahmad Shamlu in English. I am sure you will like it. You may find it on Links page this week.

All right,

As always for many weeks, let’s do the quiz first.

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

One

Two

Two

Three

Three

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

To ask
To look after
To come back
To get used to
Shirt

3- Say these numbers in Persian:
21 – 16 – 421 – 214 – 2014 – 300

Ok. Are you ready to take one more steps in learning Persian?

Today, we are going to learn one more tense. Guess what?

No, it’s not simple present tense!

Today, we are going to learn past perfect tense. After this tense is done successfully, we’ll be ready to deal with simple present tense.

Ready?

Do you remember what ‘To be’ is in Persian? Great! It means /bu:dæn/. And, this is all we need in past perfect tense.

Suppose that we want to say this:

I had gone.

As you see, this structure is very similar to what we have in present perfect tense ( I have gone).

So, let’s take a very quick review of present perfect tense first.

I have gone (present perfect tense) = /ræfteh/ + /æm/ = /ræfteh æm/. Do you remember that? Wonderful!

Now, delete the suffix (here: /æm/) and you’ll have /ræfteh/. Keep the word /ræfteh/ for a rainy day!

Is the explanation clear? Good!

Now, let’s see /bu:dæn/ again.

We already know how to say this:

I was = /mæn bu:dæm/.

You were = /to bu:di/.

She/ he was = /u: bu:d/.

We were = /ma: bu:dim/.

You were = /shoma: bu:did/.

They were = /a:nha: bu:dænd/.

Easy? Great!

Now, put the Persian word /ræfteh/ between /mæn/ and /bu:dæm/. And you’ll have /mæn ræfteh bu:dæm/, which means ” I had gone”.

Is it clear?

In short:

I had gone = /mæn ræfteh bu:dæm/.

You had gone = /to ræfteh bu:di/.

She/ he had gone = /u: ræfteh bu:d/.

We had gone = /ma: ræfteh bu:dim/.

You had gone = /shoma: ræfteh bu:did/.

They had gone = /a:nha: ræfteh bu:dænd/.

Great job!

So, all we need to do is this:

1- Delete /nu:n/ from the end of an infinitive to make a verb in simple past tense ( like: /ræft/).

2- Add /he/ to this verb ( here: we’ll have /ræfteh/).

3- Say the newly made verb with /bu:dæn/, which serves as an auxiliary verb.

Note: all verbs follow the same rule here. That is to say, we don’t need to change our main verbs. Rather, it’s the verb /bu:dæn/ that changes with subjects.

Let’s see some more examples:

I had seen = /mæn dideh bu:dæm/.

You had seen = /to dideh bu:di/.

She/ he had seen = /u: dideh bu:d/.

We had seen = /ma: dideh bu:dim/.

You had seen = /shoma: dideh bu:did/.

They had seen = /a:nha: dideh bu:dænd/.

I had written = /mæn neveshteh bu:dæm/.

You had written = /to neveshteh bu:di/.

She/ he had written = /u: neveshteh bu:d/.

We had written = /ma: neveshteh bu:dim/.

You had written = /shoma: neveshteh bu:did/.

They had written = /a:nha: neveshteh bu:dænd/.

Was it difficult? I hope not!