The past progressive indicative tense describes an ongoing occurrence (→ progressive aspect) in the past, which is based on the known state of affairs (→ indicative mood). This tense is mainly used in spoken Persian of Iran. In written Persian, the imperfective past tense or progressive structures are used instead.

Formation

The past progressive indicative tense is formed according to the following pattern:

Auxiliary verb داشتن in
perfective past
Main verb in
imperfective past

The above pattern is expandable to:

داشتن in
perfective past
می
(mi-)
past stem secondary ending

The conjugation of the auxiliary verb داشتن (dâštan) in perfective past is:

1S داشتم
dâštam
1P داشتیم
dâštim
2S داشتی
dâšti
2P داشتید
dâštid
3S داشت
dâšt
3P داشتند
dâštand

Conjugation

Simple verbs

1S داشتم می‌رفتم
dâštam miraftam
I was going
2S داشتی می‌رفتی
dâšti mirafti
You were going
3S داشت می‌رفت
dâšt miraft
He/She/It was going
1P داشتیم می‌رفتیم
dâštim miraftim
We were going
2P داشتید می‌رفتید
dâštid miraftid
You were going
3P داشتند می‌رفتند
dâštand miraftand
They were going

Compound verbs

1S داشتم کار می‌کردم
dâštam kâr mikardam
I was working
2S داشتی کار می‌کردی
dâšti kâr mikardi
You were working
3S داشت کار می‌کرد
dâšt kâr mikard
He/She/It was working
1P داشتیم کار می‌کردیم
dâštim kâr mikardim
We were working
2P داشتید کار می‌کردید
dâštid kâr mikardid
You were working
3P داشتند کار می‌کردند
dâštand kâr mikardand
They were working

Examples

If there is an object in the sentence, it normally comes between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

فروشنده داشت کمک می‌کرد
Forušande dâšt komak mikard
The salesman was helping
فروشنده داشت به مشتری کمک می‌کرد
Forušande dâšt be moštari komak mikard
The salesman was helping the customer

More examples:

داشتی چه کار می‌کردی؟
Dâšti če kâr mikardi?
What were you doing?
داشتم درس می‌خواندم
dâštam dars mixwândam
I was studying
وقتی که رسیدیم، داشتند غذا می‌خوردند
Vaǧt-i ke residim, dâštand ǧazâ mixordand
They were eating when we arrived
داشتید فوتبال بازی می‌کردید
Dâštid futbâl bâzi mikardid
You were playing football
داشت لباس می‌خرید
Dâšt lebâs mixarid
She was buying clothes

The progressive aspect is a subset of imperfective aspect and is mainly used in spoken Persian. Ongoing occurrences can be expressed with imperfective aspect. For example, “It was raining” can be expressed with both aspects:

Imperfective Past Past progressive
باران می‌آمد
Bârân miâmad
داشت باران می‌آمد
Dâšt bârân miâmad

Negative conjugation

In Persian, progressive tenses are only used for describing in-progress actions and are not conjugated in negative form. Instead, their imperfective counterpart is used. Regarding the past progressive tense, its imperfective counterpart is imperfective past.

Affirmative
(past progressive)
Negative
(imperfective past)
داشتم می‌رفتم
dâštam miraftam
I was going
نمی‌رفتم
nemiraftam
I was not going
داشتم کار می‌کردم
dâštam kâr mikardam
I was working
کار نمی‌کردم
kâr nemikardam
I was not working