Imperfective Present Indicative

The imperfective present indicative tense describes a continuing, repetitive or habitual occurrence (→ imperfective aspect) in present or future, which is based on the known state of affairs (→ indicative mood). This Persian tense is called “present simple” in other grammar references. However, it has imperfective aspect and contrasts with perfective present. Persian’s imperfective present does not have an equivalent in English and has to be translated with different tenses depending on the context. When it refers to a habitual or repeated occurrence, the present simple tense can be used. When it refers to a continuing or an ongoing occurrence, the present progressive tense can be used. Therefore, a verbal form like می‌روم (miravam) can mean “I go”, “I am going” and “I use to go” (using “use to” structure for present tense is obsolete in English and is only mentioned here to include the habitual sense of imperfective present).

Classically, Persian tenses are divided into past and non-past (i.e. present or future). Present tenses can equally express future occurrences. The context indicates the exact time. Regarding imperfective present, it can also function as imperfective future. Therefore, می‌روم (miravam) can mean “I go”, “I am going”, “I will go” and “I will be going” (as well as present and future habitual structures “I use to go” and “I will use to go”, which do not exist in modern English).

Formation

The imperfective present indicative tense is formed according to the following pattern:

Conjugation

Simple verbs

• Verb: رفتن (“raftan”; to go)
• Present stem: رو (“rav”)

Compound verbs

• Verb: کار کردن (“kâr kardan”; to work)
• Preverb: کار (“kâr”)
• Present stem: کن (“kon”)

Special cases

When the present stem ends in a vowel sound, the epenthetic consonant ی (“y”) is added between the stem and the ending:

The imperfective form of the verb بودن (“budan”; to be) is made by taking باش (“bâš”) as its present stem.

The verb داشتن (“dâštan”; to have) is not normally conjugated in imperfective aspect and instead, its perfective present form is used. This also applies to compound verbs retaining the sense of “to have”. The following table compares بر داشتن (“bar dâštan”; to pick up) with دوست داشتن (“dust dâštan”; literally: to have a feeling of liking or love).

It should be noted that it is possible to conjugate دوست داشتن in imperfective present. For example, to emphasize on the sense of “continuation” that the imperfective aspect conveys.

Examples

In the following examples, the imperfective present tense functions as imperfective future. There is a specific future tense in written Persian but in spoken Persian, the future is always expressed with present tenses.

Negative conjugation

The negative form of the imperfective present tense is constructed by prefixing ن (“ne”) to می (“mi-”). In the presence of the imperfective particle (“mi”), the negation particle is pronounced “ne”.