farsi

Farsi Grammar #

In my spare time, I’m learning Farsi. I’ll use this as a kitchen sink for my notes on the language.

Peyda Konam #

In farsi, there are phrases such as

ادامه پیدل کنم

The peyda konam (found X) is used in a situation where a direct action is not taken to make the object achieve that state.

For example, you could say “if the revolution continues…” - but this does not refer to any specific object ensuring the revolution does continue.

This is where “peyda konam” comes in. Since it’s nebulous whether it will actually happen, it’s about it finding itself in a situation when it does occur vs actively being done.

Mitoonestan #

The word mitoonestan (می‌توانستم) is the past continuous/imperfect form of the verb tavānestan (توانستن), which means “to be able to.”

Mitoonestan is interesting, because it is a model / auxiliary verb. Model / auxiliary verbs require a main verb to clarify what is possible / what is desired / etc.

So applying the past tense to these case is complicated, and the way that it’s done in farsi is to conjugate the modal verb, not the main verb.

e.g. I couldn’t do it is نمتستن کنم.