Suppletion is a term used in morphology when the relationship between morphemes cannot be shown through a general rule. For instance in English, suppletion describes the relationship between the present ~ past-tense of ‘go’ ~ ‘went’, or the comparative form ‘better’ ~ ‘good.’
Persian uses a whole host of suppletive morphemes (see also the subsections dealing with the past and the present tense in the Verbs section). But two of the most essential to recognize are:
For the infinitive[tag resources suppletion_01] بودن [/tag]budan ‘to be’:
the present | hastam | [tag resources suppletion_02] هستم [/tag] |
the past | budam | [tag resources suppletion_03]بودم [/tag] |
For the infinitive[tag resources suppletion_04] دیدن [/tag]didan ‘to see’:
the present stem | bin- | [tag resources suppletion_05] بین[/tag] |
the past stem | did- | [tag resources suppletion_06] دید[/tag] |