Participles of a Verb

Participles are a particular type of words derived from verbs. For example, “gone” and “going” are respectively, the “past participle” and the “present participle” of the verb “to go”. Participles can be used in the construction of tenses. They can also function as an adjective, adverb or noun. Regarding Persian, as far as verb conjugation is concerned, you only need to learn past active participle. The other participles are not used in tense formation.

Types of participle

In traditional grammar, one or two participles are considered for Persian. However, the author believes Persian has more participles. Following Sanskrit, Greek and Latin grammar, the author divides Persian participles into active and passive, each having past, present and future forms.

When talking about active participles, it is common to drop “active” and simply say, “past participle” instead of “past active participle”. Likewise, “present active participle” and “future active participle” are often shortened to “present participle” and “future participle”.

Active participles

Past active participle is formed from past stem and the suffix “-e”. Present active participle is formed from present stem and the suffix “-ân”. Future active participle is formed from infinitive and the suffix -i.

Passive participles

Passive participles are mainly formed from transitive verbs. In Persian, passive voice is formed from past active participle and the auxiliary verb شدن (šodan). Similarly, passive participles i.e. past passive participle, present passive participle and future passive participle are formed by combining past active participle with different forms of the verb شدن.

Negative participles

The negative form of participles is constructed by prefixing ن (na-).