A2.2 – Talking About the Past

Overview of Talking About the Past

In this chapter you learn how to talk about completed actions in the past in Persian. You will see the basic structure of the simple past tense, how it works with familiar verbs, and how time expressions like “yesterday” or “last week” help you place actions in time. You will also see the difference between talking about a finished past action and describing a general present habit.

You already know the present tense from the previous chapter. Now you will add the simple past as a new tool to tell what happened before now.

Simple Past vs Present: Meaning

In Persian, present tense usually describes habits, general facts, or actions happening now. Simple past describes a completed action at a finished time. The time itself can be named with words like “yesterday” or it can be clear from the context.

Compare:

من هر روز کار می‌کنم.
man har ruz kâr mikonam.
I work every day. / I am working every day. (habit in the present)

من دیروز کار کردم.
man diruz kâr kardam.
I worked yesterday. (finished action in the past)

The verb stem “کن / kon” appears in both examples, but the tense and endings are different. The time word “دیروز / diruz / yesterday” makes it clear that the second sentence is about the past.

Forming the Simple Past: General Idea

The simple past in Persian is regular and usually easy to recognize. Many verbs form the past by adding personal endings to a past stem that often looks like the past participle (the “-kard-” part in “کردم”).

In this chapter you only need to focus on recognizing that when you see a verb with the simple past endings, you are reading or hearing about a finished action before now.

For example:

رفتم.
raftam.
I went.

خوابیدیم.
khâbidim.
We slept.

خریدی؟
kharidi?
Did you buy?

These forms show that the action is not happening now. It already happened.

You will study the full pattern of endings and stems in the specific “Past Tense (Simple Past)” section, so here we just use them and pay attention to meaning and time expressions.

Time Expressions for the Past

To talk about the past clearly, Persian uses specific time expressions. Some of the most frequent ones at this level are:

دیروز
diruz
yesterday

امروز صبح
emruz sobh
this morning

دیشب
dishab
last night

پریشب
parishab
the night before last

هفتهٔ پیش / هفتهٔ قبل
hafte-ye pish / hafte-ye ghabl
last week

ماه پیش / ماه قبل
mâh-e pish / mâh-e ghabl
last month

سال پیش / سال قبل
sâl-e pish / sâl-e ghabl
last year

پارسال
pârsâl
last year (spoken)

چند روز پیش
chand ruz pish
a few days ago

یک ساعت پیش
yek sâʿat pish
an hour ago

لحظه‌ای که …
lahze-i ke …
the moment (that) …

You normally place these time expressions at the beginning of the sentence or just before the verb. Both are possible and natural in simple sentences.

For example:

دیروز فیلم دیدم.
diruz film didam.
Yesterday I watched a movie.

من دیشب دیر خوابیدم.
man dishab dir khâbidam.
I went to sleep late last night.

We clearly know these actions are in the past because of the time words, even before we notice the past verb forms.

Finished Time vs Unfinished Time

When you choose between present and past in Persian, it is useful to think about the time period as finished or unfinished.

If the time is clearly finished, you normally use simple past:

دیروز سه ساعت درس خواندم.
diruz se sâʿat dars khândam.
Yesterday I studied for three hours.

Last night is over, so you use simple past:

دیشب خانه بودم.
dishab khâne budam.
Last night I was at home.

If the time period is still going (like “today” while you are speaking, or “this week”), you usually use present tense, even if the action started earlier:

امروز خیلی کار می‌کنم.
emruz kheili kâr mikonam.
I am working a lot today.

این هفته زیاد ورزش می‌کنم.
in hafte ziyâd varzesh mikonam.
I am exercising a lot this week.

With clear finished times such as “last year” or “two days ago”, the simple past is the natural choice.

Past Events in a Sequence

When you tell a short story about what happened, you often use several simple past verbs one after another. Persian makes this easy and the structure is usually Subject + Object + Verb at the end, just as in the present.

For example:

دیروز صبح زود بیدار شدم، صبحانه خوردم و به دانشگاه رفتم.
diruz sobh zud bidâr shodam, sobhâne khordam va be dânešgâh raftam.
Yesterday morning I woke up early, ate breakfast, and went to the university.

Here, “بیدار شدم / bidâr shodam”, “خوردم / khordam”, and “رفتم / raftam” are all simple past. The order of actions is clear from the order of verbs.

Longer narratives follow the same pattern. You start with a time expression to set the scene, then use a chain of simple past verbs to describe what happened.

Everyday Uses of the Simple Past

At the A2 level, you mainly use the simple past for these purposes:

Talking about yesterday or last week:

دیروز در خانه کار کردم.
diruz dar khâne kâr kardam.
Yesterday I worked at home.

Talking about your last weekend or last holiday:

آخرِ هفتهٔ پیش با دوستم بیرون رفتم.
âkhar-e hafte-ye pish bâ dustam birun raftam.
Last weekend I went out with my friend.

Describing something that happened only once:

دو روز پیش این کتاب را خریدم.
do ruz pish in ketâb râ kharidam.
I bought this book two days ago.

Talking about how a day went, in order:

امروز صبح دیر از خواب بیدار شدم، بعد سریع لباس پوشیدم و به کار رفتم.
emruz sobh dir az khâb bidâr shodam, baʿd sarîʿ lebâs pušidam va be kâr raftam.
This morning I woke up late, then quickly got dressed, and went to work.

In real conversations you will often mix present and past when you talk about your life. Present shows habits or general facts, and simple past shows specific completed events.

Distinguishing Past Habits and Single Past Actions

Sometimes you want to say that you did something many times in the past, like “When I was a child, I played football every day.” In Persian, at this level you usually still use the simple past for this idea, often together with a time expression or context that shows it was a routine in the past.

For example:

وقتی بچه بودم، هر روز فوتبال بازی می‌کردم.
vaqti bache budam, har ruz futbâl bâzi mikardam.
When I was a child, I used to play football every day.

Here “بچه بودم / bache budam” is simple past of “to be”, but “بازی می‌کردم / bâzi mikardam” is a past continuous or habitual form which you will learn in detail later. In this chapter you only need to notice that the whole sentence is about a past time, not the present.

If you keep the sentence simpler, you might hear or say:

وقتی بچه بودم، زیاد فوتبال بازی کردم.
vaqti bache budam, ziyâd futbâl bâzi kardam.
When I was a child, I played football a lot.

The time expression “وقتی بچه بودم / when I was a child” shows that this activity belongs to the past.

Comparing Past and Present in Short Sentences

A practical way to get used to the simple past is to compare what is true now with what was true before. Here are simple pairs of sentences that contrast present and past:

الان تهران هستم.
alân tehrân hastam.
Now I am in Tehran.

سال پیش اصفهان بودم.
sâl-e pish esfahân budam.
Last year I was in Esfahan.

الان در شرکت کار می‌کنم.
alân dar šerkat kâr mikonam.
Now I work in a company.

پارسال در رستوران کار کردم.
pârsâl dar resturân kâr kardam.
Last year I worked in a restaurant.

الان دانشجو هستم.
alân dânešju hastam.
Now I am a student.

چند سال پیش معلم بودم.
chand sâl pish moʿallem budam.
A few years ago I was a teacher.

By changing the verb form and the time expression, you move between your present situation and your past experience.

Using “Ago” in Persian

To say “ago”, Persian normally uses the word “پیش / pish”, sometimes “قبل / ghabl” in similar structures. You place it after a measure of time.

For example:

دو هفته پیش
do hafte pish
two weeks ago

سه سال پیش
se sâl pish
three years ago

نیم ساعت پیش
nim sâʿat pish
half an hour ago

In a complete sentence, you combine “pish” with a simple past verb:

سه سال پیش به ایران سفر کردم.
se sâl pish be irân safar kardam.
Three years ago I traveled to Iran.

نیم ساعت پیش با مادرم صحبت کردم.
nim sâʿat pish bâ mâdaram sohbat kardam.
Half an hour ago I talked with my mother.

This structure is very common in everyday speech when you answer questions like “When did you arrive?” or “When did you start learning Persian?”

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