Personal Endings across Tenses | Farsi Grammar

Persian finite verbs identify six combinations of person and number with endings: first singular ـم, second singular ـی, third singular, first plural ـیم, second plural ـید, and third plural ـند. The third-singular simple past has a zero ending: رفت is both the past stem and “he/she went.” In the present system, third singular instead uses ـد, as in می‌رود.

English marks person overtly on very few verb forms and usually requires a subject pronoun. Persian endings carry much more information. Once ـم identifies “I” or ـیم identifies “we,” an independent pronoun is normally unnecessary unless it adds contrast.

The six-person pattern

Person	Pronoun	Simple-past ending	رفتن: past	رفتن: present
first singular	من	ـم	رفتمraftam	می‌رومmi-ravam
second singular	تو	ـی	رفتیrafti	می‌رویmi-ravi
third singular	او	zero	رفتraft	می‌رودmi-ravad
first plural	ما	ـیم	رفتیمraftim	می‌رویمmi-ravim
second plural/polite	شما	ـید	رفتیدraftid	می‌رویدmi-ravid
third plural	آن‌ها	ـند	رفتندraftand	می‌روندmi-ravand

The non-third-person endings are strikingly stable. They attach to the past stem in رفتیم, to the present stem in می‌رویم, and to an auxiliary in constructions such as خواهیم رفت “we will go.” What changes is the stem or auxiliary around which the ending is organized.

امروز زودتر می‌روم، اما دیروز دیر رفتم.

emruz zud-tar mi-ravam, ammâ diruz dir raftam.

Today I'm leaving earlier, but yesterday I left late. (neutral standard; ـم in present and past)

شما اینجا کار می‌کنید یا فقط امروز آمدید؟

shomâ injâ kâr mi-konid yâ faqat emruz âmadid?

Do you work here, or did you only come today? (polite standard; ـید in present and past)

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Separate three questions: which stem is required, which tense or mood marker surrounds it, and which ending agrees with the subject. Most learner errors come from answering two correctly and overlooking the third.

The special third-person singular

In the simple past, third singular adds nothing: دید، خورد، نوشت mean “he/she saw, ate, wrote” when used as finite verbs. This zero is real grammatical information, not a missing suffix. In the present indicative, the same person has ـد: می‌بیند، می‌خورد، می‌نویسد.

مریم پیام را دید، ولی جواب نداد.

maryam payâm râ did, vali javâb nadâd.

Maryam saw the message but did not reply. (neutral standard; two zero-ending past verbs)

مریم پیام‌ها را می‌بیند و همان روز جواب می‌دهد.

maryam payâm-hâ râ mi-binad va hamân ruz javâb mi-dahad.

Maryam sees the messages and replies the same day. (neutral standard; third-singular present ـد)

Because او does not distinguish gender, neither رفت nor می‌رود tells you whether the subject is male or female. Person and number are grammatical; gender is absent from the Persian verbal system.

The same endings across different tense frames

The verb خواندن makes the recurring architecture easy to see. Its present stem is خوان, while its past stem is خواند. The first-person ending remains ـم as the rest of the construction changes.

Form	Analysis	Typical meaning
خواندم	past stem + ـم	I read / I did read
می‌خواندم	می‌ past stem + ـم	I was reading / used to read
می‌خوانم	می‌ present stem + ـم	I read / am reading
خوانده‌ام	past participle + first-person copula	I have read

The last form uses the related enclitic copula rather than the ordinary finite suffix directly on the lexical stem. Its person value is still transparent, but its internal construction differs. This is why “same person” does not mean “blindly paste the same letters onto every form.”

پیش‌تر این رمان را خوانده‌ام، اما جزئیاتش را به یاد نمی‌آورم.

pish-tar in român râ khânde-am, ammâ joz'iyyât-ash râ be yâd nemi-âvaram.

I have read this novel before, but I don't remember its details. (neutral standard; first person marked twice in different constructions)

Subject omission and contrast

The ending normally makes a subject pronoun recoverable. رسیدیم already means “we arrived,” so ما is added only when “we” is contrasted, corrected, or newly introduced. Third-person reference may still need a noun or pronoun because an ending identifies only person and number, not the individual.

رسیدیم و مستقیم به سالن رفتیم.

residim va mostaqim be sâlon raftim.

We arrived and went straight to the hall. (neutral standard; repeated first-plural ending licenses subject omission)

من فردا می‌مانم؛ آن‌ها امشب برمی‌گردند.

man fardâ mi-mânam; ân-hâ emshab bar-mi-gardand.

I'm staying tomorrow; they are returning tonight. (neutral standard; overt pronouns create contrast)

For the discourse conditions on omission, see Pro-Drop and When Pronouns Appear.

Stress and attachment

Personal endings attach directly to their host: رفت + یم is written رفتیم, not as two words. They do not carry the main stress mechanically. In an unprefixed simple past, stress normally falls on the final syllable of the past stem, not on the personal ending: ráft-am, resíd-am. A stressed verbal prefix changes the pattern: می‌ bears the main stress in می‌رفتم, and negative نـ bears it in نرفتم. The romanization on this site does not add acute accents, so learn these patterns through the spoken form as well as the spelling.

صبح زنگ نزدم؛ نمی‌خواستم بیدارت کنم.

sobh zang nazadam; nemi-khâstam bidâr-at konam.

I didn't call in the morning; I didn't want to wake you. (careful spoken standard; stress falls on the negative or imperfective prefix)

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Endings express agreement, but prefixes often organize pronunciation and meaning for the whole word. Keep می‌ attached with a ZWNJ and the personal ending attached directly at the right edge.

Colloquial Tehran reductions

Everyday Tehran speech keeps the six-person contrast but reduces several forms (informal, regional: Tehran). Second plural/polite ـید commonly becomes ـین, third plural ـند becomes ـن, and many present stems reduce in the full spoken word.

Person	Written standard	Common Tehran form
first singular	می‌روم	میرمmiram
second singular	می‌روی	میریmiri
third singular	می‌رود	میرهmire
first plural	می‌رویم	میریمmirim
second plural/polite	می‌روید	میرینmirin
third plural	می‌روند	میرنmiran

شما هم فردا میرین؟

shomâ ham fardâ mirin?

Are you going tomorrow too? (informal, regional: Tehran; polite or plural ـین)

آره، بچه‌ها هم میرن.

âre, bachche-hâ ham miran.

Yeah, the kids are going too. (informal, regional: Tehran; third-plural ـن)

These forms are not mistakes inside informal conversation. Keep standard می‌روید، می‌روند in formal writing, and do not splice reduced میر with standard ـند to invent a hybrid.

Common Mistakes

1. Mismatching an overt subject and ending

❌ من امروز در خانه کار می‌کنیم.

Incorrect — من requires first-singular ـم, not first-plural ـیم.

✅ من امروز در کتابخانه کار می‌کنم.

man emruz dar ketâbkhâne kâr mi-konam.

I'm working at the library today.

2. Adding an ending to third-singular simple past

❌ او صبح زود رفتد.

Incorrect — third-singular simple past has a zero ending: رفت.

✅ او پیش از طلوع آفتاب رفت.

u pish az tolu'-e âftâb raft.

He or she left before sunrise.

3. Carrying the past zero ending into the present

❌ او هر روز تا ایستگاه می‌رو.

Incorrect — third-singular present requires ـد: می‌رود.

✅ او هر روز تا ایستگاه پیاده می‌رود.

u har ruz tâ istgâh piyâde mi-ravad.

He or she walks to the station every day.

4. Detaching the personal ending

❌ ما دیر رسید یم.

Incorrect spelling — the ending is part of the verb word.

✅ ما به آخرین قطار رسیدیم.

mâ be âkharin qatâr residim.

We caught the last train.

Key Takeaways

The core endings are ـم، ـی، zero/ـد، ـیم، ـید، ـند.
Third singular has zero in the simple past but ـد in the present system.
Endings recur across tense frames, while stems, prefixes, and auxiliaries supply other grammar.
Agreement licenses pro-drop; express the pronoun for discourse reasons, not by English habit.
Tehran speech reduces several endings systematically; standard writing keeps ـید and ـند.

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