تکان دادن

What it means

تکان دادن (takân dâdan) is the standard Persian compound verb for shaking or moving something back and forth. It combines تکان (takân), a noun meaning a shaking movement, with دادن (dâdan), the native Persian verb meaning “to give” or “to cause.” This light-verb construction is common in everyday speech across Iran. Its counterpart تکان خوردن (takân khordan) means “to be shaken” or “to move,” describing the same motion from the receiving end.

How to use it

• بچه رو تکان نده. (bacheh ro takân nadeh.) “Don’t shake the baby.”
• درخت رو تکان دادم تا میوه بیفته. (derakht ro takân dâdam tâ miveh biofteh.) “I shook the tree to make the fruit fall.”
• کسی شونه‌ام رو تکان داد. (kasi shuneh-am ro takân dâd.) “Someone shook my shoulder.”
• این خبر تکانم داد. (in khabar takânam dâd.) “This news shook me.”

Cultural note

تکان دادن belongs to the everyday physical-action vocabulary of Persian and is fully integrated into daily speech across Iran. The compound تکان دادن also carries a figurative sense of emotional shock or impact, as the last example phrase above shows, which extends its use well beyond literal shaking.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab