Time Expressions

Using Time Expressions for the Past in Persian

In this chapter you will learn the most common Persian words and phrases that tell you when something happened in the past. You already know the basic idea of past tense from the parent chapter, so here the focus is only on time expressions and how they work with verbs.

Remember that Persian simple past sentences usually end with the verb, so time expressions often come before the verb.

Talking About “Yesterday” and “Today” and “Tomorrow”

The three most basic daily words are:

امروز “today”
دیروز “yesterday”
فردا “tomorrow”

With past, you will use دیروز most often, but you can also compare past and future.

Examples:

امروز خسته‌ام.
“Today I am tired.”

دیروز خیلی کار کردم.
“Yesterday I worked a lot.”

فردا می‌روم سرِ کار.
“Tomorrow I will go to work.”

Notice that the time words stand alone and do not change.

Last Week, Last Month, Last Year

For “last” + period (week, month, year) Persian uses the adjective گذشته “past, last” after the noun.

هفته‌ی گذشته “last week”
ماهِ گذشته “last month”
سالِ گذشته “last year”

You can also hear:

هفته‌ی پیش
ماهِ پیش
سالِ پیش

Here پیش also means “ago / before” and is very common in speech.

Examples with the simple past:

هفته‌ی گذشته به سینما رفتم.
“Last week I went to the cinema.”

ماهِ پیش یک کتاب خریدم.
“Last month I bought a book.”

سالِ گذشته ایران بودم.
“Last year I was in Iran.”

Again, the time expression comes before the verb.

“Ago” in Persian: … پیش

To say “two days ago”, “three years ago”, etc., Persian uses the word پیش after the time phrase.

Structure: [number + time word] + پیش

Important time words here:

روز “day”
هفته “week”
ماه “month”
سال “year”

and numbers (you already learned):
دو “two”, سه “three”, چهار “four”, پنج “five”, etc.

Examples:

دو روز پیش مریض بودم.
“Two days ago I was sick.”

سه سال پیش دانشجو بودم.
“Three years ago I was a student.”

پنج ماه پیش ایران رفتم.
“Five months ago I went to Iran.”

You can also say just:
چند روز پیش “a few days ago / some days ago”

Example:

چند روز پیش او را دیدم.
“A few days ago I saw him / her.”

“The Day Before Yesterday” and “The Day After Tomorrow”

Persian has special words for these:

پریروز “the day before yesterday”
پس‌فردا “the day after tomorrow”

Examples:

پریروز سرِ کار نبودم.
“The day before yesterday I was not at work.”

پریروز خیلی سرد بود.
“The day before yesterday it was very cold.”

پس‌فردا امتحان دارم.
“The day after tomorrow I have an exam.”

You will usually use پریروز with the past.

Time of Day in the Past

These words talk about parts of the day:

صبح “morning”
ظهر “noon, around 12–2 p.m.”
عصر “afternoon / early evening”
شب “night / evening”
نصفِ شب “midnight (literally: half of the night)”

To say “this morning”, “yesterday afternoon”, etc., Persian usually combines “today” or “yesterday” with these.

Examples:

امروز صبح دیر بیدار شدم.
“This morning I woke up late.”

دیروز عصر خانه بودم.
“Yesterday afternoon I was at home.”

دیشب فیلم دیدم.
“Last night I watched a movie.”

Notice the special word:

دیشب “last night”

You do not say دیروز شب in standard Persian; you say دیشب.

Another example:

دیشب دیر خوابیدم.
“Last night I went to sleep late.”

“In the Morning”, “At Night”

Often Persian shows “in / at” with the preposition در, but in daily speech, people often just put the time word in front of the verb without a preposition.

در صبح “in the morning” (more formal)
صبح “in the morning” (very common)
در شب “at night” (more formal)
شب “at night / in the evening” (common)

With the past:

صبح زود بیدار شدم.
“I woke up early in the morning.”

شب زود خوابیدم.
“At night I went to sleep early.”

“Before” and “After” as Time Words

Two very common words for time relationship:

قبل “before”
بعد “after”

With the preposition از “from”, they become time expressions:

قبل از “before”
بعد از “after”

You can use them with a clock time, with another activity, or with a time word.

Examples:

قبل از ظهر خرید کردم.
“Before noon I did shopping.”

بعد از ظهر خانه بودم.
“After noon I was at home.”

قبل از شام حمام رفتم.
“Before dinner I took a shower.”

بعد از کار خسته بودم.
“After work I was tired.”

You can also connect them with دیروز:

دیروز قبل از ظهر سرِ کار بودم.
“Yesterday before noon I was at work.”

دیروز بعد از ظهر در خانه استراحت کردم.
“Yesterday afternoon I rested at home.”

“From … to …” in Time

For a period of time, Persian uses:

از “from”
تا “to, until”

Structure: از [time] تا [time]

Examples:

دیروز از صبح تا شب کار کردم.
“Yesterday I worked from morning to night.”

دیروز از ساعتِ هشت تا ساعتِ پنج سرِ کار بودم.
“Yesterday I was at work from eight o’clock to five o’clock.”

You will learn more about clock time elsewhere, but remember the pattern.

Combining Time Expressions

Persian time expressions can be combined. The usual order is from bigger time to smaller time, then the verb at the end.

Typical order: [day word] + [part of day] + [period / from–to] + [other info] + [verb]

Examples:

دیروز صبح در خانه بودم.
“Yesterday morning I was at home.”

هفته‌ی گذشته هر روز صبح ورزش کردم.
“Last week every morning I exercised.”

سه روز پیش عصر او را دیدم.
“Three days ago in the afternoon I saw him / her.”

دیروز از صبح تا عصر بیرون بودیم.
“Yesterday from morning to evening we were outside.”

Try to keep the time information before the verb, and move from general to specific.

Frequency in the Past: “Always”, “Often”, “Sometimes”

Some adverbs of frequency are useful when talking about your habits in the past. These are general frequency words, but in this chapter you focus on their use with past.

همیشه “always”
معمولاً “usually”
اغلب / بیشترِ وقت‌ها “often / most of the time”
گاهی / بعضی وقت‌ها “sometimes”
به‌ندرت “rarely”
هیچ‌وقت / هرگز “never”

Where do they go in the sentence? Very often before the verb, and after the time expression.

Compare:

دیروز همیشه خسته بودم.
This sounds strange in English. “Yesterday I was always tired.” (possible but special meaning)

More natural:

وقتی بچه بودم، همیشه خسته نبودم.
“When I was a child, I was not always tired.”

A simple past example with a clear time expression:

سالِ گذشته معمولاً صبح‌ها زود بیدار می‌شدم.
“Last year I usually woke up early in the mornings.”

دیروز بعضی وقت‌ها باران می‌آمد.
“Yesterday sometimes it rained.”

هیچ‌وقت “never” is often used with a verb in past to say “I never did …”.

Example:

سالِ گذشته هیچ‌وقت ورزش نکردم.
“Last year I never did exercise.”

“Once”, “Twice”, “Many Times”

For how many times something happened, you can use:

یک بار “one time, once”
دو بار “two times, twice”
چند بار “several times / a few times”
خیلی بار “many times”

Examples:

دیروز یک بار با او صحبت کردم.
“Yesterday I talked with him / her once.”

دیروز دو بار زنگ زدم.
“Yesterday I called twice.”

سالِ گذشته چند بار مریض شدم.
“Last year I got sick a few times.”

You can also combine with “never”:

تا حالا هیچ‌وقت ایران نرفته‌ام.
“Until now I have never gone to Iran.”

This sentence uses a different verb form, but the time expression تا حالا “until now, so far” is important.

General Past Time Expressions

Here are some very useful general expressions that you can attach to many past tense sentences.

قبلاً “before, earlier (in the past)”
تا حالا “until now, so far”
مدتی پیش “a while ago”
اخیراً “recently”

Examples:

قبلاً این فیلم را دیده بودم.
“Before I had seen this movie.” (or: “I had seen this movie before.”)

مدتی پیش خانه عوض کردیم.
“A while ago we changed house / we moved.”

اخیراً زیاد کار کردم.
“Recently I worked a lot.”

At A2 level, it is enough to recognize these and start to use simple ones like قبلاً and مدتی پیش with the simple past.

Short Practice Examples

Here are a few short sentences that show different time expressions in real use. Focus on the position of the time word.

دیروز کتاب خریدم.
“Yesterday I bought a book.”

پریروز بعد از ظهر خانه بودم.
“The day before yesterday in the afternoon I was at home.”

دو هفته پیش ایران رفتم.
“Two weeks ago I went to Iran.”

سالِ گذشته هر روز کار کردم.
“Last year I worked every day.”

دیشب دیر خوابیدم.
“Last night I went to sleep late.”

از صبح تا حالا خسته‌ام.
“From morning until now I am tired.”

With these time expressions, you can make your past tense sentences much clearer and more natural.

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