دروغ گفتن

What it means

دروغ گفتن (dorugh goftan) means “to lie, to tell a lie.” Pure Persian compound verb, A2 vocabulary. The word دروغ (dorugh) is the moral antonym of راست (râst, “truth”), a pairing with deep Zoroastrian roots.

How to use it

• دروغ نگو (dorugh nago) “Do not lie”
• به من دروغ گفت (be man dorugh goft) “He lied to me”
• دروغ شاخدار (dorugh-e shâkh-dâr) “a horned lie, a whopper”

Common pairings

• دروغ‌گو (dorugh-gu) “liar”
• دروغ مصلحتی (dorugh-e maslehati) “white lie, lie for benefit”
• دروغ‌سیزده (dorugh-e sizdah) “April Fools, played on Sizdah Bedar”
• راست گفتن (râst goftan) “to tell the truth” (antonym)

Compound verb structure

A گفتن (goftan, “to say”) compound: دروغ (the noun, “lie, falsehood”) + گفتن. Conjugates by inflecting گفتن, دروغ می‌گویم (I lie), دروغ گفتم (I lied). Present stem: گو (gu); past stem: گفت (goft). The Avestan adjective drug- (“the lie, deceit”) was the supreme cosmic evil opposed to aša (truth-order) in Zoroastrianism, Persian inherited this moral weight.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Wiktionary: دروغ
• Encyclopaedia Iranica: DRUJ-