Learn how to say "can" and "could" plus a main verb
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to PersianPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 9 - Choosing a Topic for your Persian Project. John here. |
| Mehrnaz: سلام (salaam), I'm Mehrnaz. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the present subjunctive. The conversation takes place at a university campus. |
| Mehrnaz: It's between Farhad and Hoda. |
| John: The speakers are friends; therefore, they’ll speak informal Persian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| هدی: دنبال یه موضوع خوب برای پروژه درس ادبیات می‌گردم. |
| فرهاد: بهتره با خود استاد مشورت کنی. |
| هدی: استاد این ترم خیلی سرش شلوغه(شلوغ است). |
| فرهاد: یه موضوع ساده انتخاب کن. |
| هدی: به نظرت زندگی‌نامه یک شاعر خوبه (خوب است)؟. |
| فرهاد: اگه شناخته شده تر باشه (باشد) کارت راحت تره(راحت تر است) . |
| هدی: مطلب بیشتری هم می تونم (می توانم) پیدا کنم. |
| فرهاد: زودترهم تموم (تمام) میشه (می شود)، میتونی (می توانی) به درسهای دیگرت برسی. |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| هدی: دنبال یه موضوع خوب برای پروژه درس ادبیات می‌گردم. |
| فرهاد: بهتره با خود استاد مشورت کنی. |
| هدی: استاد این ترم خیلی سرش شلوغه(شلوغ است). |
| فرهاد: یه موضوع ساده انتخاب کن. |
| هدی: به نظرت زندگی‌نامه یک شاعر خوبه (خوب است)؟. |
| فرهاد: اگه شناخته شده تر باشه (باشد) کارت راحت تره(راحت تر است) . |
| هدی: مطلب بیشتری هم می تونم (می توانم) پیدا کنم. |
| فرهاد: زودترهم تموم (تمام) میشه (می شود)، میتونی (می توانی) به درسهای دیگرت برسی. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Hoda: I'm looking for a good topic for the literature class project. |
| Farhad: You'd better ask the professor himself for advice. |
| Hoda: Professor's way too busy this semester. |
| Farhad: Pick an easy topic. |
| Hoda: Do you think a poet's biography is a good one? |
| Farhad: The more well-known they are, the easier your job is. |
| Hoda: I can find more content as well. |
| Farhad: You can finish it earlier and you can see to your other subjects. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Mehrnaz, what can you tell us about university and student life in Iran? |
| Mehrnaz: First, you should know that public universities are free in Iran. Almost 50% of students come from other cities and live in university accommodations. They’re crowded and perhaps it's not as fun as campus life in Europe or North America, but it's not that bad and it’s very cheap. |
| John: That sounds good for students. |
| Mehrnaz: Another interesting thing is that most university students in Iran are female. Unlike some Middle Eastern countries, there are no restrictions on education, work, driving a car, or even flying planes for female citizens of Iran. |
| John: I see. You talked about public universities, are there also private ones? |
| Mehrnaz: In Iran, there are also a lot of private universities. They are called دانشگاه آزاد. In almost every city and even some villages in Iran, you can find at least one private university. |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mehrnaz: موضوع [natural native speed] |
| John: topic, subject |
| Mehrnaz: موضوع [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: موضوع [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: استاد [natural native speed] |
| John: professor |
| Mehrnaz: استاد [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: استاد [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: مشورت کردن [natural native speed] |
| John: asking for advice |
| Mehrnaz: مشورت کردن [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: مشورت کردن [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: سر کسی شلوغ بودن [natural native speed] |
| John: to be busy |
| Mehrnaz: سر کسی شلوغ بودن [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: سر کسی شلوغ بودن [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: زندگی‌نامه [natural native speed] |
| John: biography |
| Mehrnaz: زندگی‌نامه [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: زندگی‌نامه [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: شاعر [natural native speed] |
| John: poet |
| Mehrnaz: شاعر [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: شاعر [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: شناخته شده [natural native speed] |
| John: known |
| Mehrnaz: شناخته شده [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: شناخته شده [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: دیگر [natural native speed] |
| John: other, another |
| Mehrnaz: دیگر [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: دیگر [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Mehrnaz: انتخاب کردن [natural native speed] |
| John: to choose, to pick, to select |
| Mehrnaz: انتخاب کردن [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: انتخاب کردن [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Mehrnaz: وقت گذاشتن برای چیزی [natural native speed] |
| John: to spend time on something |
| Mehrnaz: وقت گذاشتن برای چیزی [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mehrnaz: وقت گذاشتن برای چیزی [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is... |
| Mehrnaz: سر کسی شلوغ بودن |
| John: meaning "to be busy." |
| Mehrnaz: This is a phrase made by Sar, which means "head," kasi meaning "someone," and sholoogh boodan, literally "been busy.” |
| John: So literally the whole phrase means "someone's head is busy.” |
| Mehrnaz: This is the best phrase you can use to express that you’ve been busy. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mehrnaz: Sure. For example, you can say, امروزسرم خیلی شلوغ است. |
| John: ...which means "Today, I am very busy." |
| Mehrnaz: There’s another phrase: گرفتار بودن, gereftar boodan, ("been occupied"). |
| John: It means that someone is involved in a task or project, or has some problem which is keeping this person busy and active. |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Mehrnaz: دیگر |
| John: meaning "other, another." This is what we can call a magic word in Persian, right? |
| Mehrnaz: Right! Depending on the context of a sentence, digar can be an adjective or a pronoun. It means "other” or “another,” but it also has other meanings. Depending on where and why we use it, دیگر , digar, can also mean "more," "any more," or "no more." |
| John: Can you give us some examples? |
| Mehrnaz: Here are two examples: من دیگر تو را دوست ندارم, man digar to raa doost nadaaram, |
| John: meaning "I do not love you anymore." |
| Mehrnaz: The second one is من دو تا سیب دیگر هم خوردم, man do taa sib-e digar ham khordam. |
| John: "I ate two more apples." |
| Mehrnaz: The best way of using this word in written and spoken Persian is just as it is (دیگر, digar). But there are times in both written and spoken Persian where it can be written or spoken as دیگه, digeh. |
| John: This has absolutely the same meaning. |
| Mehrnaz: In some places دیگه, digeh is a question tag, meaning "right?" or "isn't it?" |
| John: So it all depends on the context of the sentence or conversation. |
| Mehrnaz: Here’s another example: دیگر با من صحبت نکن. |
| John: ...which means "Do not speak with me anymore." |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn about the present subjunctive. How do we form this tense? |
| Mehrnaz: To construct the present subjunctive in Persian, first we have to choose the correct form of the verb from the infinitive verb توانستن, tavaanestan. This means “to be able to.” |
| John: Can you give us an example? |
| Mehrnaz: For example, if the subject is in the first person singular, the correct prefix for توانستن, tavaanestan (“to be able to”) is می, mi. Then we add the present stem of the verb توان, tavaan, followed by the personal endings for the present tense م, m. All together می توانم, mitavaanam, (“I can”). Then we add ب, be, plus the present stem of the main verb and the personal endings for the present tense. |
| John: So, how can we say “I can go”? |
| Mehrnaz: “I can go” is می توانم بروم, mitavaanam beravam. |
| John: Let’s break this down. |
| Mehrnaz: First is mitavaanam, followed by be, plus the stem of raftan, “to go,” and the personal ending م, m, بروم beravam. |
| John: Listeners, remember that the personal ending for the main verb and auxiliary verb are always the same. It depends on which person the verbs are referring to. |
| Mehrnaz: Also keep in mind that there are some verbs for which you can simply drop the prefix be, but you’ll learn them naturally as you’re exposed to more native Persian. |
| John: Can you give us some sample sentences using the present subjunctive? |
| Mehrnaz: من می توانم تنها به خانه بروم. |
| John: “I can go home alone.” |
| Mehrnaz: آنها نمی توانند به سفر بروند. |
| John: “They can’t go on a trip.” Since we used it to explain the present subjunctive, let’s review the verb “to go” in Persian. |
| Mehrnaz: Raftan, رفتن, “to go,” is an infinitive verb. The stem is رو, rav, “movement.” |
| John: Depending on the subject of the sentence, it’ll take different personal endings and a different prefix. Let’s see the first person singular in both affirmative and negative form. |
| Mehrnaz: The affirmative form is روم. The negative is نروم. |
| John: They mean “I go” and “I will not go,” respectively. |
| Mehrnaz: Here’s a sample sentence: ما به خانه رویم. |
| John: Meaning “We go home.” |
| Mehrnaz: The negative form of the same sentence is ما به خانه نرویم. |
| John: “We will not go home.” |
| Mehrnaz: I want to make an important note. Although these sentences are absolutely correct, in modern Persian we don’t use them. This form of verbs can be found in old books from the 13th century and older. In modern Persian, we use the above verbs with prefix می, mi. |
| John: Let’s go into more detail. |
| Mehrnaz: As already mentioned, the stem for the infinitive verb رفتن, raftan is رو, rav. To construct a present verb, we usually use the present prefix (می, mi) + present stem, followed by the present personal ending. |
| John: So “I go” is… |
| Mehrnaz: می روم miravam. “You go” is می روی miravi, and so on. |
| John: So how do you say “I will go to university” in modern spoken Persian? |
| Mehrnaz: من به دانشگاه می روم. |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Mehrnaz: خدا حافظ (khodaahaafez) |
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