Learn how to recognize an implied verb in Persian
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| Michael: Is it common to omit the verb in Persian sentences? |
| Negar: And how is it done? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Afsane Afshar is meeting her friend, Sasha Lee, and asks, |
| "What['s] up?" |
| Afsane Afshar: چه خبر؟ (che khabar?) |
| Dialogue |
| Afsane Afshar: چه خبر؟ (che khabar?) |
| Sasha Lee: اوه، مثل همیشه. (oh, mesl-e hamishe.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Afsane Afshar: چه خبر؟ (che khabar?) |
| Michael: "What['s] up?" |
| Sasha Lee: اوه، مثل همیشه. (oh, mesl-e hamishe.) |
| Michael: "Oh, the usual." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this conversation, we hear |
| Negar: افسانه افشار (afsaane afshaar) |
| Michael: say, |
| Negar: چه خبر؟ (che khabar?) |
| Michael: This means, "What['s] up?" The response is |
| Negar: ساشا لی (saashaa li) |
| Michael: says, |
| Negar: اوه، مثل همیشه (oh, mesl-e hamishe.) |
| Michael: In English, this means, "Oh, the usual." |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will talk more about how common it is to omit the verb in Persian sentences. Although Persian verbs are conjugated based on person and tense, the Persian language has fewer verb forms in general than in English. |
| A common characteristic in Persian, that may sometimes resemble the English phrasal verb, is the use of compound verbs. We can say things like, |
| Negar: باز کردن (baaz kardan) |
| Michael: "to open" or "to make open." You'll also hear the shortening of verbs in Persian, used in colloquial language. For example, |
| Negar: است (ast) |
| Michael: meaning,"is," is pronounced as |
| Negar: ه (e) |
| Michael: Another example is |
| Negar: می رود (miravad) |
| Michael: "goes" is pronounced |
| Negar: میره (mire) |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue now. |
| Do you remember how Afsane Afshar says "What['s] up?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Afsane Afshar: چه خبر؟ (che khabar?) |
| Michael: in which the verb "to be" |
| Negar: هست (hast) or است (ast) |
| Michael: is omitted from the end of the sentence. So, the original sentence should be |
| Negar: چه خبر هست؟ (che khabar hast?), or چه خبر است؟ (che khabar ast?) |
| Michael: but in daily conversations we omit the verb and often say |
| Negar: چه خبر؟ (che khabar?) |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Oh, the usual?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Sasha Lee: اوه، مثل همیشه. (oh, mesl-e hamishe.) |
| Michael: In this example, like the previous one, the listener will guess the omitted verb. Can you guess what the full sentence should sound like? |
| Negar: اوه، مثل همیشه هست. (oh, mesl-e hamishe hast.), or اوه، مثل همیشه است. (oh, mesl-e hamishe ast.) |
| Michael: and the omitted verb is |
| Negar: هست (hast) or است (ast). |
| Michael: This type of omission of verbs in the Persian language is known as |
| Negar: حذف به قرینه معنوی (hazf be qarine-ye ma'navi) |
| Michael: in which we assume that the listener will understand what the omitted verb was considering the context. There is no specific structure for this omission and the listener must have enough knowledge about Persian to understand the meaning. Another type of verb omission in the Persian language is |
| Negar: حذف به قرینه لفظی (hazf be qarine-ye lafzi) |
| Michael: In this type, we can omit the repeated verbs, for example: |
| Negar: پدرم این فیلم را ده بار دیده است، و هر بار از آن لذت برده است. (pedaram in film raa dah baar dide ast, va har baar az aan lezzat borde ast.) |
| Michael: "My father has seen this movie ten times and has enjoyed that every time." The verbs in this compound sentence are: |
| Negar: دیده است (dide ast) |
| Michael: which means "has seen," and |
| Negar: لذت برده است (lezzat borde ast) |
| Michael: meaning "has enjoyed." In both of them, we have the auxiliary verb |
| Negar: است (ast) |
| Michael: to improve the fluency of the sentence, and we can omit the first auxiliary verb, |
| Negar: است (ast) |
| Michael: Then, we will have: |
| Negar: پدرم این فیلم را ده بار دیده، و هر بار از آن لذت برده است. (pedaram in film raa dah baar dide, va har baar az aan lezzat borde ast.) |
| Michael: Please note that this structure can be used in compound sentences, and we have specific instructions for that. Both of the verbs must be in the same tense. |
| Negar: زمان فعل (zamaan-e fe'l) |
| Michael: We must have the same verb conjugation. |
| Negar: صرف فعل (sarf-e fe'l) |
| Michael: And, finally, between the two parts of the compound sentence, we must use "and." |
| Negar: و (va) |
| Michael: Let's take a second look at our example. |
| Negar: پدرم این فیلم را ده بار دیده است، و هر بار از آن لذت برده است. (pedaram in film raa dah baar dide ast, va har baar az aan lezzat borde ast.) |
| Michael: In our example, both of the verbs |
| Negar: دیده است (dide ast) and لذت برده است (lezzat borde ast) |
| Michael: are in the present perfect tense. |
| Negar: ماضی نقلی (maazi-ye naqli) |
| Michael: Both of the verbs are in the same verb conjugation, third-person singular. |
| Negar: سوم شخص مفرد (sevvom shakhs-e mofrad) |
| Michael: And we have "and" |
| Negar: و (va) |
| Michael: between two parts of the component sentence. So, we can omit the first auxiliary verb. Then, we have |
| Negar: پدرم این فیلم را ده بار دیده، و هر بار از آن لذت برده است. (pedaram in film raa dah baar dide, va har baar az aan lezzat borde ast.) |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we learned that there are two types of verb omissions in the Persian language |
| Negar: حذف به قرینه معنوی (hazf be qarine-ye ma;navi) |
| Michael: In this type, we must guess the omitted verb and |
| Negar: حذف به قرینه لفظی (hazf be qarine-ye lafzi) |
| Michael: in which we can omit the repeated verbs in compound sentences to improve fluency with specific instruction. The verbs must be in the same tense and conjugation, also, we must have "and," |
| Negar: و (va) |
| Michael: between two parts of the compound sentence. One of the most common mistakes in the Persian language is misusing this type of verb omission. Let's take a look at some examples. |
| Negar: رئیس درخواست کارمند را قبول و تایید خود را اعلام داشته است. (ra'is darkhaast-e kaarmandash raa qabool va movaafeqat-e khod raa e'laam daashte ast.) |
| Michael: means "The boss accepted the request of the employee and announced his approval." Here, the original sentence is: |
| Negar: رئیس درخواست کارمند را قبول کرده است و موافقت خود را اعلام داشته است. (ra'is darkhaast-e kaarmandash raa qabool karde ast va movaafeqat-e khod raa e'laam daashte ast.) |
| Michael: The verbs are |
| Negar: قبول کرده است (qabool karde ast) and اعلام داشته است (e'laam daashte ast) |
| Michael: What we omitted is |
| Negar: کرده است (karde ast), |
| Michael: and since we only repeated |
| Negar: است (ast) |
| Michael: in this compound sentence, we are not allowed to omit anything else. So, the correct sentence should be |
| Negar: رئیس درخواست کارمند را قبول کرده و موافقت خود را اعلام داشته است. (ra'is darkhaast-e kaarmandash raa qabool karde va movaafeqat-e khod raa e'laam daashte ast.) |
| Michael: Here is another example |
| Negar: سربازان خسته و فرمانده عصبانی است. (sarbaazaan khaste va farmaande asabaani ast.) |
| Michael: which means "The soldiers are tired, and the commander is angry." The original sentence is |
| Negar: سربازان خسته هستند و فرمانده عصبانی است. (sarbaazaan khaste hastand va farmaande asabaani ast.) |
| Michael: Our verbs are |
| Negar: هستند (hastand) |
| Michael: which means "are," which is in the third-person plural form |
| Negar: سوم شخص جمع (sevvom shakhs-e jam') |
| Michael: and the second one is |
| Negar: است (ast) |
| Michael: , which means "is," which is in the third-person singular form. Since here we do not have the same conjugation, verb omission is not allowed, and we must use the original sentence. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Verb omission is widely used in Persian literature |
| Negar: ادبیات فارسی (adabiyaat-e faarsi) |
| Michael: since most of the Persian writers and poets tried their best to present a concept touchingly. So, they used fewer words and omitted as much as possible. This style is known as |
| Negar: ایجاز (ijaaz) |
| Michael: in the Persian language, which means "brevity." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Negar: خداحافظ (khodaahaafez) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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