بحث کردن

What it means

بحث کردن (bahs-kardan) means to discuss, to debate, to argue. It is the verb form of بحث (bahs, discussion, debate) and covers the same wide range: friendly conversation about a topic, structured academic debate, heated family fight. The defining feature is the back-and-forth exchange of views. Solo speech is not bahs-kardan; lecturing is not bahs-kardan.

The verb is one of the highest-frequency words for any kind of verbal disagreement in Persian. “داشتیم بحث می‌کردیم” (dashtim bahs mikardim, we were arguing) is the standard description of any two people exchanging views with energy. Whether that exchange is friendly or hostile depends entirely on tone and context, not on the verb itself.

Compound verb structure

Bahs-kardan combines the Arabic-origin noun بحث (bahs, discussion) with the Persian light verb کردن (kardan, to do). Conjugation lives in کردن: بحث می‌کنم (bahs mikonam, I argue), بحث کرد (bahs kard, he argued), بحث خواهد کرد (bahs khahad kard, he will argue). The noun بحث stays fixed. The verb pairs with prepositions to mark the topic and the partner: “درباره X بحث کردن” (darbare-ye X bahs-kardan, to discuss X), “با کسی بحث کردن” (ba kasi bahs-kardan, to argue with someone). “دیشب با برادرم درباره ارث بحث کردیم” (dishab ba baradaram darbare-ye ers bahs kardim) means “last night we argued with my brother about the inheritance.”

Bahs-kardan vs estedlal-kardan

The contrast that organizes Persian discourse about argument. بحث کردن is the social act of exchanging views, often loud, not necessarily structured. استدلال کردن is the disciplined act of constructing a chain of reasoning from premises to a conclusion. You can bahs-kardan for an hour with no real estedlal-kardan, and you can estedlal-kardan in writing without any bahs ever taking place. Iranian intellectual culture admires people who can estedlal-kardan inside a bahs without losing their temper.

How to use it

bia bahs nakonim, fayde nadare.

Let’s not argue, it’s no use.

بیا بحث نکنیم، فایده نداره.

darbare-ye in mas’ale chand sa-at bahs kardim.

We discussed this issue for several hours.

درباره این مسئله چند ساعت بحث کردیم.

ba ham bahs nakon, baradaret-e.

Don’t argue with him, he’s your brother.

با هم بحث نکن، برادرته.

Where it comes from

Bahs is Arabic-origin, the verbal noun of the root b-h-th (ب ح ث) meaning to search, investigate, inquire. The original Arabic sense (investigation, scholarly inquiry) is preserved in academic Persian (بحث علمی, bahs-e elmi). The everyday sense (discussion, debate, argument) developed through centuries of use as the most common word for any back-and-forth verbal exchange. Bahs-kardan was built by pairing the Arabic noun with the native Persian light verb کردن, following the dominant pattern of Persian formal-vocabulary verb formation.

In our voice

Bahs-kardan is everywhere in Iranian family life. Iranians argue. About politics, about religion, about whose mother makes better ghormeh sabzi, about whether the cousin’s wedding was tasteful, about traffic, about which side of the highway the exit is on. The verb is neutral, the energy is cultural. A foreigner who can sit through a Persian family bahs without flinching has crossed an important threshold.

References

• Dehkhoda, بحث
• Vajehyab, بحث