Verbs:

There are many sorts of phonetic mutations in the infinitives, as well as the stems of the present and the past tenses. In particular contexts, vowels may change; for example, written آوَردن āvardan ‘to bring’ becomes the spoken آوردن āvordan and secondarily, اوردن ovordan, اَنداختن andāxtan ‘to drop, throw’ becomes اِنداختن endāxtan, etc.

Medial glottal segment (that is, the CV syllable) is normally dropped; for example, می دهم midaham ‘I give’ becomes می دم midam, می خواهم mixāham ‘I want’ becomes می خوام mixām, etc.

The Persic [-ān-] becomes [-un-] mutation also applies; for example, دانستن dānestan ‘to know’ becomes دونسن dunessan/ دونستن dunestan, توانست tavānestan ‘to be able, can’ becomes تونسن tunessan/ تونستن tunestan (from تونستن tavunestan), etc.

The persic [-st-] becomes [-s(s)-] also applies, as in خواستن xāstan ‘to want’ becomes خواسن xāssan, شستن šostan ‘to wash’ becomes شُسن šossan, شکستن šekastan, vt., vi., ‘to break’ becomes شکسن šekassan, etc.

With the exception of the above mentioned verb توانستن tavānestan (which becomes تونسم tunessam, etc./ تونستم tunestam, etc.), almost all of the past stems are consistent with the written form. All the phonetic mutations, however, apply, namely خواستم xāstam ‘I wanted’ becomes خواسم xās(s)am, ماندم māndam ‘I stayed’ becomes موندم mundam, etc.

All the singulars and the first person plural suffixes are the same as the written form. In the case of the second person and third person plural, first, since the final dental is week, the final [-d] is dropped (for example, رفتند raftand ‘they went’ becomes رفتن raftan), then, since without the final [-d] the second person plural would be the same as the second person singular, and also on analogy with the third person plural, an [-n] is added to the end of the second person plural. However, as is always the case, the conservative [-id] form is always an option:

خواستن xāstan ‘to want’:

In the Tehrani dialect, the third person singular takes an [-eš] ending in the present and past; for example, mixādeš ‘he/she/it wants’, خواستش xāsteš‘he/she/it wanted’.

In the present tense, most verbs stay consistent; however, there are verbs which change. Always consider the following:

First of all, the [mi-] prefix is retained.

Any medial [-va-], [-ya-], [-ha-] cluster is dropped; for example:

می روم miravam becomes می رم miram
‘I go’

می شوم mišavam becomes می شم mišam
‘I become’

می آید miāyad becomes می یاد miyād
‘he/she comes’

می خواهم mixāham becomes می خوام mixām
‘I want’

In polysyllabic verbal stems normally the vowel of the first syllable of the verbal stem is dropped:

In the case of می گو (mi)gu– (from گفتن goftan ‘to say’) three stages occur: (1), the vowel of the verbal stem is dropped (that is, mi-gu– becomes mi-g-), (2) the euphonic [ی] is dropped (as is normal, cf. می آیم miāyam ‘I come’ becomes می یام miyām), (3) the personal enclitics are added, as follows:

With stems ending in consonants, the endings are as follows:

رفتن raftan ‘to go’:

With stems ending in [ا- ] [-ā] (including the verb ‘to come,’ whose stem is –ā– on its own), the endings are as follows:

خواستن xāstan ‘to want’:

آمدن āmadan ‘to come’:

In Persian the Present and past progressive govern both progressive and habitual tenses; for example, miravam is both ‘I go’ and ‘I am going’; می رفتم miraftam ‘I was going’ and ‘I used to go’. In addition, the present tense governs the future tense “I shall go”, as well.In colloquial Persian the verbs governing the present and past tenses are only habitual and&#151otherwise&#151the progressive is always accompanied (preceded) by the auxiliary verb داشتن dāštan ‘to have’, which is conjugated along with the main verb. That is to say, می رم miram only means ‘I go’; and “I am going” would be دارم می رم dāram miram. In the past tense, می رفتم miraftam means ‘I used to go’; and “I was going” is داشتم می رفتم dāštam miraftam. As can be seen, the conjugation of this auxiliary verb corresponds with the conjugation of the primary verb:

Present progressive with the auxiliary verb داشتن dāštan:

Past progressive with the auxiliary verb داشتن dāštan:

In the Subjunctive mood: The preposition بر [bar] ‘on, above, upon’ (not to be confused with the prefix bar– ‘re-’, as in برگشتن bargaštan) has a colloquial variation as ور [var]. In close compounds with this preposition, the main verb never takes the [bé-] prefix of the subjunctive; for example, the colloquial ورداشتن vardāštan (from the verb برداشتن bardāštan ‘to pick up’) becomes وردارم vardāram, etc.; never وربدارم varbédāram, etc. (Conservative speakers, however, retain the [bar-] form.) With compounds including the verbs کردن kardan and شدن šodan the usage of the subjunctive prefix [bé-] is optional; for example, خراب کنم xarāb konam, خراب بکنم xarāb bokonam; خوشحال شه xošhāl še, خوشحال بشه xošhāl beše, etc. (For the phonetic mutations of the subjunctive prefix [bé-], see Subjunctive.)

In the present perfect the participial ending [-e] is assimilated into the initial vowel of the copulative enclitics (that is, –am, –yi, [ast], –yim, –yid, –and); and the stress of the participial ending moves to the personal ending. Therefore, instead of رفته ام rafte͡am ‘I have gone’, etc., we get رفتم rafta^|m, etc. In the case of the third person singular, است ast is entirely dropped; for example, رفته rafte^| ‘he/she/it has/is gone’. Note that in colloquial Persian the only difference between this tense and the simple past tense is in the placement of the stress: in the past absolute, it is on the last syllable of the stem; in the present perfect, it is on the personal endings; that is, past absolute رفتم ra^|ftam ‘I went’ ~ present perfect رفتم rafta^|m ‘I have gone’”:

The direct object marker: In the Persic dialects (that is, from Persia Proper) sometimes a terminal [-ā] is phonetically mutated as [-o] (especially after the liquids, that is, /l/ and /r/); for example, Shirazi and Kazeruni کجو kojo for Standard Persian کجا kojā ‘where?’; Shir., Kaz. بالو bālo ~ Standard Persian بالا bālā ‘up, above, over’; Shir., Kaz. حالو hālo ~ Standard Persian حالا hālā ‘now’; Shir., Kaz. کالو kālo ~ Standard Persian کلا kolā (not directly from کلاه kolāh) ‘hat, cap’; Shir., Kaz. چرو cero ~ Standard Persian چرا cerā ‘why?’. Under the influence of the Persic dialects, the Standard Persian direct object marker را rā is normalized as رو ro in spoken Persian. Secondarily, the [-r-] is variably (but more dominantly) dropped after consonants, and the remaining –o is attached directly to the noun (i.e., the object of the sentence). That is to say, there are two variations as رو ro and –o; for example, کتاب رو به من بده ketāb ro be man béede or کتابُ به من بده ketāb-o be man béede ‘give me the book’. (Therefore, with consonants the choice is that of the speaker, as in سوسن رو دیدم susan ro didam or سوسنُ دیدم susan-o didam ‘I saw Susan’.

In nouns with a terminal vowel /a/, /u/, and /e/ (= the silent /h/), the ro is always used; for example, بچّه ها رو بیار bacce hā ro biyār ‘bring the children’ گیسو رو دیدی؟ gisu ro didi? ‘did you see Gisu?’.

In the case of the final /e/ (that is, the silent /h/), which is the development of an earlier /a/, this /a/ may be reintroduced (especially in Tehrani dialect); for example, بچّه bacce ‘child’, but بچّه (ه)ا رو بیار bacc-a ro biyār ‘bring the child’, خونه xune ‘house, home’ but خونه رو خریدند xun-a ro xaridand ‘they bought the house’.

With a final /i/, the speaker has the option of using ro or just –o; for example, صندلی رو تکون نده sandali ro tekun nade or صندلیُ تکون نده sandali-o tekun nade ‘don’t move/jerk/rock the chair’.

Sometimes the /o/ is centralized and gets very close to a very weak (almost voiceless) /e/; for instance, کتابُ بیار ketābo biyār may be inflected as کتاب بیار ketāb^&#601 biyār.

The adverb ham ‘also, too’ is always contracted with the direct object marker. In this process, first of all, the adverb loses its initial /h/. Then, the direct object marker /-o/ is either weakened, or, secondarily, assimilated into the following /a/ of [-am] (the remainder of ham after the disappearance of its initial /h/) as /-o͡am/, /-&#601͡am/ (with a glide) or /-&#216am/; for example, اونم دیدم uno͡am didam, اونم دیدم un&#601͡am didam, and , particularly, اونم دیدم unam didam from اون رو هم دیدم un ro ham didam ‘I saw him/her/that, too’.

In an emphatic construction, the direct object marker may be used as a dative marker; for example: فردا رو خیلی کار دارم fardā ro kheyli kār dāram ‘tomorrow (particularly) I am going to have a whole lot to do’. امشب رو پهلوی ما بمان emšab ro pahlu(-ye) mā bemun or امشبُ پهلوی ما بمان emšab-o pahlu(-ye) mā bemun ‘tonight (i.e., this one night) stay with us’. ترونُ نرفتم te:run-o (te:run ro) na^|rafta_|m ‘Tehran? I haven’t been there!’ (that is to say, “if it is Tehran that concerns you, I have never been/gone there”)

In spoken Persian a که ke is used which is not a relative pronoun; nor is it a conjunction. It is used for emphasis. In certain cases it syntactically functions as the English “though” in the following sentence: that one is good, though!See how many ways the following sentences can be translated in English:

!اون یکی که خوبه
un yeki ke xube!
‘but that one is good’
‘that one is good, though!’
‘(but) that one is good, regardless…’
‘well, at least that one is good’
‘no matter what, that one is good’
etc.

!من که نمیدونم
man ke nemi dunam
‘don’t ask me’
‘I don’t know anything’
‘beats me!’
‘I don’t care!’
‘that’s none of my business!’
‘I give up!’
‘I don’t give a…’
‘now I’m confused!’
‘leave me alone!’
etc.

!من که همین جا می نشینم تا بیایی
man ke hamin jā mi nešīnam, tā biyāyi
‘as for me, I just sit here till you show up’
‘you know what? I’m just gonna’ sit here, till you show up!’