Verbal Endings
   

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 [tag resources verbalendings_01]من می روم[/tag]
You go. tó mi-ravi تو + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ـی [tag resources verbalendings_02]تو می روی[/tag]
He/she goes. u mi-ravad او + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ــَــ + ـد [tag resources verbalendings_03]او می رود[/tag]
We go. mā mi-ravim ما + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + –یم [tag resources verbalendings_04]ما می رویم[/tag]
You go. šomā mi-ravid (plural) شما + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ـید [tag resources verbalendings_05]شما می روید[/tag]
They go. ānhā mi-ravand آنها + می + (ریشهٔ فعل) + ــَــ + ـند [tag resources verbalendings_06]آنها می روند[/tag]

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:

[tag resources verbalendings_07]رفتن[/tag]
raftan
‘to go’

Past stem:

[tag resources verbalendings_08]رفت) رفتـ)[/tag]
raft
‘have gone’

Conjugation:

I went. man raftam [tag resources verbalendings_09]من رفتَم[/tag]
You went. tó rafti [tag resources verbalendings_10]تو رفتی[/tag]
He/she went u raft [tag resources verbalendings_11]او رفت[/tag]
We went. mā raftim [tag resources verbalendings_12]ما رفتیم[/tag]
You went. šomā raftid (plural) [tag resources verbalendings_13]شما رفتید[/tag]
They went. ānhā raftand [tag resources verbalendings_14]آنها رفتند[/tag]

In complex and compound verbs, the endings are placed at the end of the verbal element of the compound.

Infinitive:

[tag resources verbalendings_15]زندگی کردن[/tag]
zendegi kardan
‘to live’

Past stem:

[tag resources verbalendings_16]زندگی کرد[/tag]
zendegi kard
‘to have lived’

Conjugation:

I live man zendegi mikonam [tag resources verbalendings_17]من زندگی می کنم[/tag]
You live to zendegi mikoni (singular) [tag resources verbalendings_18]تو زندگی می کنی[/tag]
He/she lives u zendegi mikonad [tag resources verbalendings_19]او زندگی می کند[/tag]
We live mā zendegi mikonin [tag resources verbalendings_20]ما زندگی می کنیم[/tag]
You live šomā zendegi mikonid (plural) [tag resources verbalendings_21]شما زندگی می کنید[/tag]
They live ānhā zendegi mikonand (plural) [tag resources verbalendings_22]آنها زندگی می کنند[/tag]

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 [tag resources verbalendings_23]رفتن ← رفت[/tag]
to do → done kardan → kard [tag resources verbalendings_24]کردن ← کرد[/tag]
to see → saw didan → did [tag resources verbalendings_25]دیدن ← دید[/tag]
to say/tell → said/told goftan → goft [tag resources verbalendings_26]گفتن ← گفت[/tag]

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 [tag resources verbalendings_27]من زندگی کردم[/tag]
You lived to zendegi kardi [tag resources verbalendings_28]تو زندگی کردی[/tag]
He/she lived u zendegi kard [tag resources verbalendings_29]او زندگی کرد[/tag]
We lived mā zendegi kardim [tag resources verbalendings_30]ما زندگی کردیم[/tag]
We lived šomā zendegi kardid [tag resources verbalendings_31]شما زندگی کردید[/tag]
They lived ānhā zendegi kardand [tag resources verbalendings_32]آنها زندگی کردند[/tag]