Persian Lesson 14 – Delete Subjects of Persian Sentences

Delete Subjects of Persian Sentences

Today, we are going to study how to delete subjects of Persian sentences and 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/.

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

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/.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/.

for  /u: tæmiz kærd/.

You cleaned =  /shoma: tæmiz kærdid/.

for  /to tæmiz kærdi/.

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’.

Ok. With this we come to the end of lesson 14.