Простий минулий час

The simple past is the most regular tense in Persian. Take the infinitive, drop its final -an, and you have the past stem; add the personal endings and you have the verb. It describes a finished action, like English 'I went' or 'I ate'.

Romanization follows Tehran pronunciation: â is the long a, kh is the "ch" of Scottish loch, gh stands for both غ and ق, and ' marks a glottal stop.

Past stem + ending

The third person singular is the bare stem: رفت (raft), he/she went. The stress falls on the last syllable (raftám); in the negative it moves to the prefix (náraftam).

Common past stems

Compound verbs put the ending on the verb part: کار کردم (kâr kardam) - I worked; زنگ زدم (zang zadam) - I called.

In use

• دیروز به اصفهان رفتم. (diruz be Esfahân raftam) - I went to Isfahan yesterday. (written)
• ناهار خوردی؟ آره، خوردم. (nâhâr khordi? âre, khordam) - Did you have lunch? Yeah, I did. (spoken)
• اومدم! (umadam!) - Coming! Literally 'I came': Iranians answer a call from the next room with the past tense, as if already there.

Not to be confused with می‌ + past

Adding می to the past stem gives a different tense, the past continuous: می‌رفتم (miraftam) - I was going / I used to go. 'I went' has no می: رفتم.

For English speakers

There are no irregular past forms to memorise: the stem comes straight from the infinitive. The work is on the present side, where stems change (رو for رفتن, بین for دیدن). Persian often uses the simple past where English uses 'have done': غذا خوردی؟ - Have you eaten?

Mistakes English speakers make

• An ending on the third person: *رفتد - say رفت.
• می in a simple past: *می‌رفتم for 'I went' - say رفتم.
• The present stem in the past: *بینم for 'I saw' - say دیدم.
• A separate 'not': *نه رفتم - say نرفتم.