7.6 Grammar: Tense and Aspect
Tense
Instructions on Tense and Aspect:
Tense is the time of an action. In all languages, tense is categorized in to three types, namely: (a) present tense, (b) past tense, and (c) future tense.
| Past Tense | Present Tense | Future Tense |
| Auxiliary verbs: | Auxiliary verbs: | Auxiliary verbs: |
| “It was raining yesterday.”
.دیروز باران می بارید- “Last year, I was going to Pakistan.” پارسال من به پاکستان می رفتم- |
“It is raining today.”
.امروز باران می بارد- “I am going to Pakistan.” من به پاکستان می روم- |
“It will rain tomorrow.”
.فردا باران خواهد بارید- “I will go to Pakistan next year” من سال آینده به پاکستان خواهم رفت- |
Aspect:
Aspect shows the manner of an action. Grammatical aspects are categorized into two types, namely: (a) imperfective aspect and (b) perfective aspect.
Imperfective aspect shows that the action is not completed.
Perfective aspect shows that the action is complete.
Imperfective aspect is further categorized into two types, namely:
(a) habitual ( progressive in Persian language)
context: Here, we are going to talk about habitual aspect. Now, as it is called habitual aspect,It expresses many different actions. For example, you can use habitual aspect to express the routine action. It can also be used to express general or universal truth, It can be used to express the habitual action, things that you do when you are available or you’re in a leisure period. It can also be used to express permanent action .So, anything which is general you can use habitual می with the verb stem. Typically, what happens when you narrate a story, when the story moves on, you use perfective. But, in order to give background information, you can use imperfective and typically the habitual aspect with -می.
Here is a table to show you the examples with the explanation.
the past habitual tense is generally used to express past habit, routine or permanent action in the past. So, you can use می construction with the past stem of the verb.
| Explanation on use of habitual in Persian language | English translation | Persian sentence |
| it shows the habit (the permanent action) | Peter lives in Michigan. | پیتر در میشیگان زندگی می کند |
| use habitual aspect to express impersonal sentences. | People say that. | مردم این را می گویند |
| there’s no person involved, but you can also use the habitual aspect. | How do you say flower in Farsi? | چطور به فارسی میگوییم “گل”؟ |
| there’s no person involved, but you can also use the habitual aspect. | Good tea is available here! | !چای خوب موجود است |
| We can also use immediate future action by adding “حالا/الان”. | I’ll come right away. | من الان/حالا می آیم |
| We can also use immediate future action by adding “بیا” | Let’s go watch a film | بیا بریم فیلم ببینیم |
| you can see that this here, the translation is “will,” but in Persian, we are using” الان / حالا غذا میده”
|
Don’t cry, mom will give you food right away. But, | گریه نکن مامان “الان / حالا”بهت غذا میده |
(b) progressive/continuous.
All grammatical aspects in Persian are marked as morphemes with verb stem, as shown below.
| Imperfective Aspect | Perfective Aspect | |
| Habitual | Progressive/Continuous | |
| Morphemes:
Use: Present stem of verb verb ending + verb+ می ← |
Morphemes:
Use: Present stem of verb Verb ending +verb +دارم +می ← |
————
Use: Past stem of verb verb ending + verb ← |
|
من کتاب می خوانم – “I read books.” ساناز شطرنج بازی می کند- “Sanaz plays Chess .” -پسرها اتاق ها را تمیز می کنند “Boys clean rooms.” |
من دارم کتاب می خوانم – “I am reading a book.” – ساناز دارد شطرنج بازی می کند “Sanaz is playing Chess.” پسرها دارند اتاق ها را تمیز می کنند- “Boys are cleaning rooms.” |
من کتاب خواندم – “I read a book.” – ساناز شطرنج بازی کرد “Sanaz played Chess.” – پسرها اتاق ها را تمیز کردند “Boys cleaned rooms.” |
Activity:
Please read these sentences carefully and identify the tense and aspect.
!سپاس
