Verb conjugation in Persian is very regular and straight forward. There is no particular way of dealing with regular and irregular verbs in the present and past tenses. With pronouns all the personal endings are the same the present and past tense, except for the 3rd singular, which in the past tense does not take any ending.
In the present tense, every indicative verb is accompanied by the prepositional particle می.
I go. | man mi-ravam | من + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ـــَــ + ـم | من می روم |
You go. | tó mi-ravi | تو + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ـی | تو می روی |
He/she goes. | u mi-ravad | او + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ــَــ + ـد | او می رود |
We go. | mā mi-ravim | ما + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + –یم | ما می رویم |
You go. | šomā mi-ravid (plural) | شما + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ـید | شما می روید |
They go. | ānhā mi-ravand | آنها + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ــَــ + ـند | آنها می روند |
The past stem of the verb is also the 3rd singular in the past as well (compare the past stem with the 3rd singular):
Infinitive:
رفتن
raftan
‘to go’
Past stem:
رفت) رفتـ)
raft
‘have gone’
Conjugation:
I went. | man raftam | من رفتَم |
You went. | tó rafti | تو رفتی |
He/she went | u raft | او رفت |
We went. | mā raftim | ما رفتیم |
You went. | šomā raftid (plural) | شما رفتید |
They went. | ānhā raftand | آنها رفتند |
In complex and compound verbs, the endings are placed at the end of the verbal element of the compound.
Infinitive:
زندگی کردن
zendegi kardan
‘to live’
Past stem:
زندگی کرد
zendegi kard
‘to have lived’
Conjugation:
I live | man zendegi mikonam | من زندگی می کنم |
You live | to zendegi mikoni (singular) | تو زندگی می کنی |
He/she lives | u zendegi mikonad | او زندگی می کند |
We live | mā zendegi mikonin | ما زندگی می کنیم |
You live | šomā zendegi mikonid (plural) | شما زندگی می کنید |
They live | ānhā zendegi mikonand (plural) | آنها زندگی می کنند |
The non-verbal element زندگی stays constant.
For the construction of the past stem, we just drop the infinitival endings –dan and –tan.
to go → went | raftan → raft | رفتن ← رفت |
to do → done | kardan → kard | کردن ← کرد |
to see → saw | didan → did | دیدن ← دید |
to say/tell → said/told | goftan → goft | گفتن ← گفت |
As we can see below, (1) the non-verbal element زندگی stays constant in the past tense as well; and (2) the 3rd singular takes no ending.
I lived | man zendegi kardam | من زندگی کردم |
You lived | to zendegi kardi | تو زندگی کردی |
He/she lived | u zendegi kard | او زندگی کرد |
We lived | mā zendegi kardim | ما زندگی کردیم |
We lived | šomā zendegi kardid | شما زندگی کردید |
They lived | ānhā zendegi kardand | آنها زندگی کردند |