Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Persian
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| Michael: Is it common to omit the subject in Persian sentences? |
| Negar: And, if so, how? |
| Michael: At PersianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Afsane Afshar is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha Lee. She points to a book and says, ""[Do you] see that book?" |
| Afsane Afshar: |
| [شما] اون کتاب رو میبینید؟ |
| ([shomaa] oon ketaab ro mibinid?) |
| Dialogue |
| Michael: Now listen to the full conversation. |
| Afsane Afshar: |
| [شما] اون کتاب رو میبینید؟ |
| ([shomaa] oon ketaab ro mibinid?) |
| Sasha Lee: |
| [اون] جالبه؟ |
| ([oon] jaalebe?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Afsane Afshar: |
| [شما] اون کتاب رو میبینید؟ |
| ([shomaa] oon ketaab ro mibinid?) |
| Michael: "[Do you] see that book?" |
| Sasha Lee: |
| [اون] جالبه؟ |
| ([oon] jaalebe?) |
| Michael: "Is [it] interesting?" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, we'll talk about whether or not you can omit the subject in a Persian sentence. |
| Omitting the subject is possible in so-called 'pro-drop languages.' Pro-drop languages are those where omitting the pronoun, or the subject, doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence. You can observe this, for instance, in Romance and Slavic languages. |
| Persian is also a pro-drop language, so personal pronouns are optional at the beginning of a sentence. It's common for people to drop the subject in everyday speech. However, even if the pronoun is omitted at the beginning, it will still often appear at the end of the sentence. |
| So, where exactly does it go? To start, let's consider the order of the words. Persian sentences use this word order: Subject, Object, Verb, also called SOV. The subject of a sentence is often not obvious until the end of the verb, at the end of a sentence. To demonstrate, let's look at an example: |
| Negar: .کتاب آبی را دیدم (ketaab-e aabi raa didam.) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: This means "I saw the blue book," but the literal translation is "Book blue saw." "Blue book" is the object, and "saw" is the verb. So, where is the subject? In Persian, the verb changes and thus the subject is always indicated as part of the verb. In this sentence, the verb "saw" has been conjugated to indicate a first person singular subject. Listen again to the verb, and pay attention to the |
| Negar: 'a-m' |
| Michael: sound at the end: |
| Negar: [NORMAL] دیدم (didam) [SLOWLY] دیدم (didam) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: This ending refers to the subject 'I.' Let's hear another example, but this time we'll leave the subject at the beginning. In the sentence |
| Negar: من به تو گفتم. (man be to goftam.) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: meaning "I told you," the subject is |
| Negar: من (man) |
| Michael: meaning 'I.' If we drop this pronoun, the sentence will be |
| Negar: به تو گفتم. ( be to goftam.) |
| Michael: or "Told you." It will still make sense because the verb for "told" is conjugated to mean "I told." Did you hear the |
| Negar: 'a-m' |
| Michael: sound at the end again? That's good—you're getting it! |
| In order to understand who the implied subject is, you just need to learn what the different verb endings, or suffixes, are. In Persian, each person has a unique conjugation suffix that is based on two factors. |
| First: who is the person? Is it I, you, he, she, we, you, or they? Second is the number, meaning, is the verb singular or plural? To conjugate the verb, you need to use the correct verbal ending. |
| Let's go back to the blue book example, but change the pronoun. Like this: |
| Negar: .کتاب آبی را دیدید (ketaab-e aabi-raa didid.) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: meaning "You saw the blue book." This includes the plural 'you.' In other words, when the verb suffix sounds like |
| Negar: 'i-d,' |
| Michael: as in |
| Negar: دیدید (didid), |
| Michael: this means that the verb is conjugated for the second person plural. |
| Let's quickly take a look at some of the other personal verb suffixes. We already learned about 'I' and 'you.' Using the verb "built" as an example, here are a few suffix possibilities: |
| Negar: ساختم (saakhtam) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "I built." |
| Negar: ساختی (saakhti) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "you built." This is second person singular. |
| Negar:] ساخت (saakht) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "he or she built." This is third person singular. We use no suffix for this conjugation. |
| Negar: ساختیم (saakhtim) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "we built." This form is first person plural. |
| Negar: ساختید (saakhtid) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: means "you built." This form is second person plural. Here's one last example: |
| Negar: ساختند (saakhtand) |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: which means "They built." |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Afsane Afshar says "[Do you] see that book?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Afsane Afshar: |
| [NORMAL] |
| [شما] اون کتاب رو میبینید؟ |
| ([shomaa] oon ketaab ro mibinid?) |
| [SLOWLY] |
| [شما] اون کتاب رو میبینید؟ |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| We'll focus on the implied subject of this sentence, which is "you," or |
| Negar: شما (shomaa). |
| Michael: The word |
| Negar: شما (shomaa) |
| Michael: is not in the sentence, but, because the verb is conjugated in the second person, |
| Negar: میبینید (mibinid) |
| Michael: it is clear that it refers to the subject "you." In this case, the native speaker is using the polite form of address, which is the plural "you." |
| For comparison, let's hear the version where the subject is not omitted: |
| Negar:شما اون کتاب رو میبینید؟ |
| (shomaa oon ketaab ro mibinid?) |
| Michael: "Do you see that book?" |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says: "Is [it] interesting?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Negar as Sasha Lee: |
| [NORMAL] |
| [اون] جالبه؟ |
| ([oon] jaalebe?) |
| [SLOWLY] |
| [اون] جالبه؟ |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Michael: The dropped pronoun here is |
| Negar: اون (oon) |
| Michael: meaning "that." However, the verb "is" has been conjugated in the third person singular, which tells us that Sasha Lee is referring to the book. |
| Again, for comparison, let's hear the version where the subject is not omitted: |
| Negar: اون جالبه؟ |
| (oon jaalebe?) |
| Michael: "Is it interesting?" |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we learned that, in Persian, we can drop the subject from the start of a sentence, but it will still appear in a conjugated verb at the end of the sentence. Persian verbs are marked for the subject. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Once you get used to the basic verb endings, it will be essential to also know that there is a difference between the present and past stems of a given verb, and how to find them. With many European languages, the actual root part of a verb is the same, and, to conjugate it into different forms, you simply add a set of endings. In Persian, however, every verb has two stems. For example, the verb we spoke about earlier, |
| Negar: ساختن (saakhtan) |
| Michael: meaning "build," will have different forms for the past and present indicative. In other words, although "I built" is |
| Negar: من ساختم (man saakht-am) |
| Michael: the present tense, "I build," will be |
| Negar: من میسازم (man mi-saaz-am). |
| Michael: The verb suffix still indicates who the subject is, but just bear in mind that there might also be a prefix that changes the sound of the word. |
| The present tense is formed by adding the prefix |
| Negar: می (mi) |
| Michael: to the present stem with a suffix that refers to the person. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
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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