7.8 Grammar: Present and Past Progressive Tense
Use of Progressive Aspect Marker with Different Subjects:
| Past stem | Present stem | Progressive Aspect Marker | Verb |
| می رفتم – می رفتی – – می رفت
می رفتیم – می رفتید – می رفتند |
می روم- می روی – می رود-
می رویم- می روید – می روند |
دار- داشت | To go |
| او داشت به مدرسه می رفت
“He was going to school.” |
او دارد به مدرسه می رود
“He is going to school.” |
Examples |
Structure:
Progressive markers (داشتن) are used based on the number, person and gender features of the agreeing subject.
| Habitual markers
Present/ past |
Plural pronoun | Habitual markers
present/past |
Singular Pronoun | Person |
| داریم / داشتیم | ما “We” | دارم / داشتم | من “I” | 1st |
| دارید / داشتید | شما “You” | داری/ داشتی | تو “You” | 2nd |
| دارند / داشتند | آنها “They” | دارد / داشت | او “S/he” and singular nouns | 3rd |
Negation of Progressive Aspect:
In order to change progressive aspect sentences in negative, we change می to نمی. When progressive sentences appear in negative, generally, the verb “to be” in present is dropped, but not in the past . Negative of past tense keeps the past form of the verb “to be”.
Examples:
- -دخترها دارند فوتبال بازی می کنند “Girls are playing football.”
- -دخترها فوتبال بازی نمی کنند “Girls are not playing football.”
- -تو داشتی اتاقت را تمیز می کردی “You were cleaning your room.”
- -تو اتاقت را تمیز نمی کردی “You were not cleaning your room.”
Uses of Progressive Aspect:
1- To express action happening at the time of speaking.
Examples:
- – دارد باران می بارد“It is raining.”
- -صبا و ساناز دارند تلویزیون تماشا می کنند “Saba and Sana were watching a film.”
Activity:
Please add five more examples here. After writing your examples, please change your sentences to negative and past tense.
| Past tense | Negative | Your example | |
| ۱ | |||
| ۲ | |||
| ۳ | |||
| ۴ | |||
| ۵ |
2- To express temporary action. Generally, adverbs like این روزها “these days” and الان / حالا “right now” are used.
Examples:
- – پروین الان دارد کتاب می خواند“Parvin is reading a book right now.”
- -مهران این روزها گیتار می نوازد “Mehran is playing a guitar these days.”
- -سیروس در آمریکا زندگی می کرد “Cyrus was living/staying in America.”
Activity:
Please add five more examples here. After writing your examples, please change your sentences in negative and past tense.
| Past tense | Negative | Your example | |
| ۱ | |||
| ۲ | |||
| ۳ | |||
| ۴ | |||
| ۵ |
3- To express planned future action. The sentences must have future adverbs of time.
Examples:
- – پیتر ماه آینده دارد به ایتالیا می رود“Peter is going to Italy next month.”
- -کتی فردا دارد کار می کند “Kathy is working tomorrow.”
- -من هفته آینده دارم یک فیلم می بینم “I am watching a film next week.”
Note:
To express planned future action using progressive aspect is only possible in present tense. Past tense of progressive aspect cannot express planned future action.
Activity:
Please add five more examples here. After writing your examples, please change your sentences in negative.
| Negative | Your example | |
| ۱ | ||
| ۲ | ||
| ۳ | ||
| ۴ | ||
| ۵ |
Activity:
| – هفته گذشته، من ____________ بودم | .١ |
| .٢ | |
| .٣ | |
| .٤ | |
| .٥ |
(b) Please write 5 sentences explaining what you are doing next week.
| ————————-هفته آینده، من | .١ |
| .٢ | |
| .٣ | |
| .٤ | |
| .٥ |
!سپاس
