Formation of Verbs

There are two main ways to create verbs in Persian: suffixation and compounding. Consider the word بوس (“bus”; kiss). When the suffix یدن (“-idan”) is added to بوس, the result is the simple verb بوسیدن (“busidan”; to kiss). When بوس is combined with the verb کردن (“kardan”) the result is the compound verb بوس کردن (“bus kardan”; to kiss). Both بوسیدن and بوس کردن mean the same. Persian prefers to create verbs by compounding and as a result, it has a limited number of simple verbs. There are even simple verbs that their compound variant either prevails or has entirely taken their place.

In modern Persian, new verbs are typically created by compounding. This includes verbs derived from loanwords:

Suffix -idan

The suffix یدن (“-idan”) is added to words of various categories including nouns, adjectives and verbal stems. The result is a simple verb that has the characteristics of other simple verbs: its present stem is the same word and its past stem is obtained by dropping “-an”.

Causative verbs are formed by adding the suffix “-idan” to causative stem. The ending “-ânidan” is usually shortened to -ândan.

Suffix -estan

Suffix ستن (-estan) is similar to یدن (-idan) but it is not productive in modern Persian:

Present stem

The present stem of constructed verbs is formed by removing the verb-making suffix. Therefore, these verbs can be regarded as regular verbs:

It should be noted that not all verbs ending in یدن (-idan) are constructed verbs. There are a few verbs that end in “-idan” but since they are not constructed verbs, their present stem is not formed according to the above rule. Examples: