The Instrumental Case

The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun or pronoun is the instrument or means of an action, someone or something accompanying an action, etc. Simply put, the instrumental case is used to indicate how something is done.

Instrumental Case in Persian

The preposition با (“bâ”) marks the instrumental case in Persian. It generally corresponds to English “with” and “by”. However, there are contexts where the instrumental marker corresponds to other English prepositions including “in” and “to”.

Instrument or Means

• با چاقو از خودش دفاع کرد
  Bâ châghu az khod-ash defâø kard
  She defended herself with a knife
• پیازها را با یک چاقوی تیز خرد کنید
  piyâzhâ râ bâ yek châghu-ye tiz khord konid
  Chop the onions with a sharp knife
• خودم را با جدول سرگرم کردم
  Khod-am râ bâ jadval sargarm kardam
  I amused myself with crossword puzzles
• باید با چنگال خورد
  Bâyad bâ changâl khord
  It must be eaten with fork
• دیشب با پدرم تلفنی حرف زدم
  Dishab bâ pedar-am telefoni harf zadam
  Last night, I talked to my father by phone
• مجبور شدیم با دست لباسها را بشوییم
  Majbur shodim bâ dast lebâs'hâ ra beshuyim
  We had to wash the clothes by hand
• با مداد
  bâ medâd
  in pencil

Accompanying

• بهتر است پاسپورتت را با خودت بیاوری
  Behtar ast pâsport-at râ bâ khod-at biyâvari
  You’d better bring your passport with you
• با مادرش زندگی می‌کند
  Bâ mâdar-ash zendegi mikonad
  She lives with her mother
• با ماشین رفتن
  bâ mâshin raftan
  to go by car

Instrumental of Pronouns

The instrumental marker با can combine with bound personal pronouns and free personal pronouns. Bound pronouns are not normally used in written Persian and are typical of spoken Persian. The following table demonstrates bound instrumental pronouns as they are written and pronounced in informal speech. The “h” in “bâ-hâm” and other forms is an epenthetic consonant used to resolve vowel hiatus.

The following table demonstratives free instrumental pronouns.