Future in the Past | Farsi Grammar

Persian normally expresses a future seen from a past viewpoint with a past planning or intention predicate plus a subjunctive clause: قرار بود بیاید “he or she was supposed to come,” می‌خواستم بروم “I was going to go,” and formal بنا بود اعلام شود “it was planned that it would be announced.” There is no obligatory single ending corresponding to English would.

The constructions differ in meaning. قرار بود points to an arrangement or expectation, می‌خواست to a person's intention or an imminent development, and بنا بود to an established plan in formal prose. None automatically says whether the later event actually occurred; context supplies fulfillment or cancellation.

Three central constructions

Construction	Core viewpoint	Typical register
قرار بود + subjunctive	was arranged, expected, or supposed	neutral in speech and writing
می‌خواست + subjunctive	intended, was going/about to	neutral; strongly conversational too
بنا بود + subjunctive	was planned or stipulated	formal, administrative, literary-neutral

قرار بود قطار ساعت هفت برسد، اما دو ساعت تأخیر داشت.

qarâr bud qatâr sâ'at-e haft be-resad, ammâ do sâ'at ta'khir dâsht.

The train was supposed to arrive at seven, but it was two hours late. (neutral; expectation viewed from the past)

می‌خواستم بعد از کار به تو زنگ بزنم، ولی گوشی‌ام خاموش شد.

mi-khâstam ba'd az kâr be to zang be-zanam, vali gushi-am khâmush shod.

I was going to call you after work, but my phone died. (neutral personal intention)

بنا بود نتایج در پایان نشست اعلام شود.

banâ bud natâyej dar pâyân-e neshast e'lâm shavad.

The results were to be announced at the end of the meeting. (formal institutional plan)

The matrix predicate is past—بود، می‌خواستم—because the plan or intention belongs to the past viewpoint. The projected event uses a present subjunctive—برسد، بزنم، اعلام شود—because it had not yet been realized from that viewpoint.

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Find two times: when the plan existed, and when its event was expected to occur. Mark the first with past بود/می‌خواست and put the later projected event in the subjunctive.

قرار بود: arrangement or expectation

قرار بود has become a highly conventional impersonal planning frame. The person expected to act is expressed inside the subjunctive clause, not as the subject of بود.

قرار بود من کلید را از نگهبان بگیرم و شما داخل منتظر بمانید.

qarâr bud man kelid râ az negahbân be-giram-o shomâ dâkhel montazer be-mânid.

The plan was for me to get the key from the guard and for you to wait inside. (neutral; two projected actors)

قرار بود فروشگاه ساعت نه باز شود و همان موقع هم باز شد.

qarâr bud forushgâh sâ'at-e noh bâz shavad-o hamân mowqe' ham bâz shod.

The shop was scheduled to open at nine, and it did open then. (fulfilled arrangement)

قرار بود آخر هفته سفر کنیم، ولی هوا خراب شد.

qarâr bud âkhar-e hafte safar konim, vali havâ kharâb shod.

We were supposed to travel at the weekend, but the weather turned bad. (unfulfilled arrangement)

The construction itself is neutral about fulfillment. همان موقع هم باز شد confirms success; ولی هوا خراب شد encourages a canceled-plan inference. English was supposed to often suggests failure even without a follow-up, but Persian قرار بود does not grammatically encode failure.

قرار نبود + subjunctive means that something was not planned or was not supposed to happen:

قرار نبود کسی پیش از انتشار گزارش از نتیجه باخبر شود.

qarâr na-bud kasi pish az enteshâr-e gozâresh az natije bâ-khabar shavad.

Nobody was supposed to learn the result before the report was published. (formal-neutral prohibition by prior arrangement)

می‌خواست: intention and imminence

With an animate subject, past imperfective می‌خواست commonly describes an intention that pointed forward from a past moment. The subject of می‌خواست normally also controls the following subjunctive unless another actor is explicitly introduced.

سارا می‌خواست در تابستان به تبریز برود.

sârâ mi-khâst dar tâbestân be tabriz be-ravad.

Sara intended to go to Tabriz in the summer. (neutral past intention; fulfillment unspecified)

می‌خواستیم خانه را بفروشیم، اما بعد نظرمان عوض شد.

mi-khâstim khâne râ be-forushim, ammâ ba'd nazar-emân avaz shod.

We were going to sell the house, but then we changed our minds. (neutral; abandoned intention)

می‌خواست can also suggest that an event was on the verge of happening, particularly in vivid conversation, but Iranian Persian often prefers نزدیک بود + subjunctive or progressive داشت ... می‌... for unambiguous imminence.

لیوان نزدیک بود از لبه‌ی میز بیفتد.

leyvân nazdik bud az labe-ye miz bi-oftad.

The glass was about to fall off the edge of the table. (neutral natural imminence alternative)

This avoids attributing literal desire to an inanimate glass. Context may license می‌خواست بیفتد in informal personifying speech, but it should not be taught as the sole future-in-past pattern.

بنا بود: an established formal plan

بنا بود overlaps with قرار بود but sounds more formal, written, or institutionally framed. It is common in retrospective reports explaining what an organization had planned.

بنا بود ساختمان تازه در بهار افتتاح شود، اما بودجه دیر رسید.

banâ bud sâkhtemân-e tâze dar bahâr eftetâh shavad, ammâ budje dir resid.

The new building was due to open in spring, but the funding arrived late. (formal report)

طبق برنامه‌ی اولیه، بنا بود پژوهش در سه مرحله انجام شود.

tebq-e barnâme-ye avvaliyye, banâ bud pazhuhesh dar se marhale anjâm shavad.

Under the initial plan, the research was to be conducted in three stages. (academic/formal)

In everyday conversation, قرار بود is normally less stiff. بنا نبود is possible for a formally excluded plan, but colloquial قرار نبود is far more frequent.

Completion before the projected future point

If the plan concerns something already completed by a later deadline, the complement can be perfect subjunctive: قرار بود تا ظهر کار را تمام کرده باشند. This is not the same as the rare past perfect subjunctive; it contains only lexical participle + باشـ.

قرار بود تا زمان ورود مهمان‌ها میزها را چیده باشیم.

qarâr bud tâ zamân-e vorud-e mehmân-hâ miz-hâ râ chide bâshim.

We were supposed to have set the tables by the time the guests arrived. (neutral; completion before a past projected deadline)

بنا بود پیمانکار تا پایان خرداد سقف را تعمیر کرده باشد.

banâ bud peymânkâr tâ pâyân-e khordâd saqf râ ta'mir karde bâshad.

The contractor was expected to have repaired the roof by the end of Khordad. (formal contractual expectation)

The matrix still establishes the past plan. Perfect کرده باشد adds anteriority to the deadline inside that plan.

Reported plans do not require backshift

Persian often retains the futurate present inside reported speech: سارا گفت که روز بعد می‌آید “Sara said she would come the next day.” This reports her future plan but does not use a special future-in-past form. It simply preserves the tense appropriate to the original plan.

سارا گفت که روز بعد با قطار می‌آید.

sârâ goft ke ruz-e ba'd bâ qatâr mi-âyad.

Sara said that she would come by train the next day. (neutral reported plan; present retained)

سارا گفت که قرار است روز بعد با قطار بیاید.

sârâ goft ke qarâr ast ruz-e ba'd bâ qatâr bi-âyad.

Sara said that she is scheduled to come by train the next day. (reported current arrangement)

Do not replace these automatically with می‌آمد merely because English uses would come. می‌آمد normally describes a past habit, an ongoing past movement, or a counterfactual result unless context supplies another reading. See Reported Speech and Tense Retention.

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English would combines several jobs. First decide whether Persian needs a prior arrangement, personal intention, formal plan, retained reported future, past habit, or counterfactual result; then choose the construction.

Informal Tehran speech

Informal Tehran uses the same structures with contracted subjunctives: قرار بود بیاد، می‌خواستم برم، قرار نبود بفهمن. Do not mix these endings into formal prose.

— قرار نبود زودتر بیای؟ — می‌خواستم بیام، ولی جلسه دیر تموم شد.

— qarâr na-bud zudtar bi-yây? — mi-khâstam bi-yâm, vali jalase dir tamum shod.

— Weren't you supposed to come earlier? — I was going to, but the meeting ended late. (informal, regional: Tehran)

Common Mistakes

1. Using an indicative past after قرار بود

❌ قرار بود ناهید ساعت شش آمد.

Incorrect — the projected event after قرار بود requires subjunctive بیاید.

✅ قرار بود ناهید ساعت شش به کافه بیاید.

qarâr bud nâhid sâ'at-e shesh be kâfe bi-âyad.

Nahid was supposed to come to the café at six.

2. Inserting future خواهـ inside the complement

❌ بنا بود نتیجه را خواهند اعلام کرد.

Incorrect — future-in-past planning uses a subjunctive complement, not future auxiliary خواهـ.

✅ بنا بود مسئولان نتیجه را همان روز اعلام کنند.

banâ bud mas'ulân natije râ hamân ruz e'lâm konand.

The officials were to announce the result that same day. (formal)

3. Conjugating the second verb as simple past

❌ می‌خواستم دیشب به تو زنگ زدم.

Incorrect — the intended call is projected from the past intention and takes subjunctive بزنم.

✅ می‌خواستم دیشب به تو زنگ بزنم.

mi-khâstam dishab be to zang be-zanam.

I was going to call you last night.

4. Mismatching the embedded subject and ending

❌ قرار بود آن‌ها پیش از ظهر برسد.

Incorrect — embedded plural آن‌ها requires برسند.

✅ قرار بود آن‌ها پیش از ظهر به اردوگاه برسند.

qarâr bud ân-hâ pish az zohr be ordugâh be-resand.

They were supposed to reach the camp before noon.

Key Takeaways

قرار بود + subjunctive expresses a past arrangement or expectation; fulfillment comes from context.
می‌خواست + subjunctive presents an animate subject's past intention and sometimes an imminent event.
بنا بود + subjunctive is a formal planning frame.
Perfect subjunctive can mark completion before the projected deadline: قرار بود تمام کرده باشند.
Reported future plans often retain a present form; Persian does not backshift automatically to an English-like would tense.

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