Past Tense in Farsi: The One Pattern That Unlocks Everything

The Farsi Past Tense Is Where Everything Starts

Here’s something most textbooks get backwards. They start with the present tense, then move to past, then future. Logical, right? Chronological order.

This guide is part of our Complete Persian Grammar series.

Except in Persian, that’s the wrong approach. The farsi past tense is actually the simplest conjugation in the entire language. and every other tense is built from it. Learn the past tense first, and present and future become easy variations on a pattern you already know.

I’m Elyar, I’m Iranian, I grew up speaking Tehrani Persian, and I’ve been teaching Farsi to non-native speakers for years. Trust me on this: if you nail the past tense, you’ve done 60% of the work for all Persian verb conjugation. UT Austin’s Persian grammar guide confirms this approach.

If you’re just getting started, my beginner’s guide to learning Persian covers the basics you’ll need before jumping into conjugation.

How to Find the Past Stem (Bon-e Gozashte)

Every Persian verb has two stems: a past stem and a present stem (see the full Persian verb system overview). The past stem is the easier one to find. it’s literally the dictionary form of the verb minus the “-an” ending.

Take raftan (رفتن). “to go.” Drop the -an, and you get raft (رفت). That’s your past stem.

More examples:

• khordan (خوردن) → khord (خورد). “ate”
• didan (دیدن) → did (دید). “saw”
• neveshtan (نوشتن) → nevesht (نوشت). “wrote”
• kardan (کردن) → kard (کرد). “did”
• goftan (گفتن) → goft (گفت). “said”

See the pattern? Drop -an from the infinitive, and you’ve got the past stem. For regular verbs, that’s literally it. No exceptions, no weird rules.

The Six Person Endings. Your New Best Friends

Persian verbs conjugate for six persons. You take the past stem and slap one of these endings onto it:

• -am (م-). I (man)
• -i (ی-). you singular (to)
• -Ø (nothing). he/she/it (u)
• -im (یم-). we (ma)
• -id (ید-). you plural/formal (shoma)
• -and (ند-). they (anha)

That’s it. Six endings. They never change. Let me conjugate raftan (رفتن) so you can see it in action:

• man raftam (من رفتم). I went
• to rafti (تو رفتی). you went
• u raft (او رفت). he/she went
• ma raftim (ما رفتیم). we went
• shoma raftid (شما رفتید). you (pl.) went
• anha raftand (آنها رفتند). they went

Now let’s do khordan (خوردن). “to eat”:

• man khordam (من خوردم). I ate
• to khordi (تو خوردی). you ate
• u khord (او خورد). he/she ate
• ma khordim (ما خوردیم). we ate
• shoma khordid (شما خوردید). you (pl.) ate
• anha khordand (آنها خوردند). they ate

Same endings every single time. Once you memorize these six suffixes. and honestly, after conjugating three or four verbs, they’ll be automatic. you can conjugate any regular Persian verb in the past tense.

For a deeper look at how these person endings connect to Farsi pronouns, check out my dedicated post on that.

How Spoken Tehran Farsi Simplifies the Past Tense

Here’s where it gets fun. Because nobody in Tehran actually says “anha raftand” in casual conversation. Spoken Farsi and written Persian are different beasts, and the past tense is a great example.

The biggest changes in colloquial Tehrani past tense:

Third person plural (-and → -an): The final “d” gets dropped almost universally. So raftand becomes raftan. Khordand becomes khordan. You’ll hear this everywhere. TV shows, podcasts, conversations on the street.

Second person plural (-id → -in): Raftid becomes raftin. Khordid becomes khordin. Same pattern. the “d” disappears.

First person plural (-im stays -im): This one doesn’t change much. Raftim stays raftim.

Pronouns get dropped constantly: Because the verb ending already tells you who’s speaking, Iranians skip the pronoun most of the time. Instead of “man raftam,” you’ll just hear “raftam.” Context fills in the rest.

A real conversation might sound like this:

• “Koja rafti?” (کجا رفتی؟). Where’d you go?
• “Raftam bazaar.” (رفتم بازار). Went to the bazaar.
• “Chi khordin?” (چی خوردین؟). What’d you guys eat?
• “Hichi nakhordim.” (هیچی نخوردیم). We didn’t eat anything.

Notice how natural that sounds. no pronouns, simplified endings. That’s real Tehran Persian.

Irregular Past Stems You Actually Need to Know

Okay, I said the past tense is simple, and it is. But there are irregular past stems. verbs where the past stem doesn’t follow the “drop -an” rule cleanly. The good news? There are only about 15-20 that matter for daily conversation.

Here are the ones you’ll use constantly:

• budan (بودن) → bud (بود). was/were (regular, but important)
• dashtan (داشتن) → dasht (داشت). had
• shudan (شدن) → shod (شد). became
• amadan (آمدن) → amad (آمد). came
• gereftan (گرفتن) → gereft (گرفت). took/got
• gozashtan (گذاشتن) → gozasht (گذاشت). put/let
• khastan (خواستن) → khast (خواست). wanted
• danestan (دانستن) → danest (دانست). knew
• tavan-estan (توانستن) → tavanest (توانست). was able to
• shekastan (شکستن) → shekast (شکست). broke
• bastan (بستن) → bast (بست). closed/tied
• shenakhtan (شناختن) → shenakht (شناخت). recognized
• foruktan (فروختن) → forukht (فروخت). sold
• sokhan goftan (سخن گفتن) → goft (گفت). said/spoke
• kharidan (خریدن) → kharid (خرید). bought

Most of these actually are regular. you drop -an and get the stem. The “irregular” ones are really just verbs where the infinitive spelling might trick you. Persian irregularity is nothing like French or English. You won’t find anything as chaotic as “go/went” or “be/was/were.”

Making It Negative: The Na- Prefix

Negating the past tense in Farsi is dead simple. Add na- (ن) to the beginning of the verb. That’s it.

• raftam → naraftam (نرفتم). I didn’t go
• khord → nakhord (نخورد). he/she didn’t eat
• didim → nadidim (ندیدیم). we didn’t see
• goftand → nagoftand (نگفتند). they didn’t say

One thing to notice: the stress shifts to the na- prefix. In “raftam,” the stress is on “raft.” But in “naraftam,” the stress jumps to “na.” This is consistent across all negative past forms, and it’s one of those small details that makes you sound more natural.

In spoken Tehran Farsi, the negatives sound even more clipped:

• “Naraftam” often becomes something like “na-raftam” with a quick glottal connection
• “Nakhordim”. we didn’t eat
• “Nagoftam behem” (نگفتم بهم). “He didn’t tell me” (notice: no pronoun for “he”)

How the Past Tense Connects to Other Tenses

Here’s why I said the past tense is the foundation. In Persian, compound tenses are built by combining the past stem or past participle with auxiliary verbs.

Present perfect: past stem + “-e” + present tense of “budan.” So “rafte-am” (رفته‌ام) means “I have gone.” See that? The past stem “raft” is right there.

Past continuous: dasht + mi- + past stem + ending. “Dasht miroftam” (داشت می‌رفتم). “I was going.” Again, “raft” is the core.

Past perfect: past stem + “-e” + past tense of “budan.” “Rafte budam” (رفته بودم). “I had gone.”

Every single compound tense uses the past stem as its building block. That’s not a coincidence. it’s why learning the past tense first makes the rest of Persian verb conjugation fall into place like dominoes.

Real Conversational Examples

Grammar tables are fine, but you need to see this stuff in real sentences. Here are examples pulled from everyday Tehran conversations:

• “Diruz raftam kharid.” (دیروز رفتم خرید). Yesterday I went shopping.
• “Ghazaro khordid?” (غذارو خوردید؟). Did you eat the food? (Note the colloquial “-ro” object marker.)
• “Khodet didi chi shod?” (خودت دیدی چی شد؟). Did you see what happened yourself?
• “Ma nafahmidim chi goft.” (ما نفهمیدیم چی گفت). We didn’t understand what he/she said.
• “Pesare dayi-am az Iran umad.” (پسر دایی‌ام از ایران اومد). My cousin (uncle’s son) came from Iran. (Note: “amad” becomes “umad” in spoken Farsi.)
• “In ketabo key kharidi?” (این کتابو کی خریدی؟). When did you buy this book?
• “Hame-shun raftand. bedune man.” (همه‌شون رفتند. بدون من). They all left. without me.

Notice how the past tense just works. Six endings, slapped onto a stem, with “na-” for negatives. Once this clicks, you’ll start recognizing past tense verbs everywhere in Persian. in songs, in films, in overheard conversations.

Quick Practice

Try conjugating these three verbs in all six persons (or use the interactive Persian verb conjugator to check your answers). Write them out. don’t just read. The physical act of writing helps lock the pattern in.

1. neveshtan (نوشتن). to write (past stem: nevesht)
2. kharidan (خریدن). to buy (past stem: kharid)
3. shenidan (شنیدن). to hear (past stem: shenid)

Then negate all of them. If you can do that without looking back at this post, you’ve got the farsi past tense down solid.

If you want to practice these patterns with a native speaker who can correct your pronunciation in real time, book a session with me on Preply and we’ll drill these until they’re automatic.

For the full grammar roadmap, head to the Persian Grammar Guide.

New to Persian entirely? Our complete beginner’s guide to Farsi covers the foundations before you dive into verb tenses.