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When talking about past possessions—like ancient treasures, valuable antiques, or hidden wealth—you will frequently need the verb **داشتن** (to have). However, this verb behaves differently from others in the past continuous tense.

### The Irregular Past Continuous of "To Have"

For most verbs, we add the prefix **می‌** to the past stem to create the past continuous tense (meaning "was doing" or "used to do"). **داشتن** is a major exception: it *never* takes the **می‌** prefix to show continuous or ongoing past possession. 

Instead, the simple past form is used to express "used to have" or "had". You simply take the base past stem **داشت** and attach the standard personal endings.

| Subject | Past Stem | Ending | Verb | Meaning |
|---------|-----------|--------|------|---------|
| من | داشت | ـم | داشتم | I had / used to have |
| تو | داشت | ـی | داشتی | You had / used to have |
| او / آن | داشت | (none) | داشت | He/She/It had / used to have |
| ما | داشت | ـیم | داشتیم | We had / used to have |
| شما | داشت | ـید | داشتید | You (pl.) had / used to have |
| آنها | داشت | ـند | داشتند | They had / used to have |

Here are some examples of **داشتن** describing ongoing possession in the past:

{{item:776937}}

{{item:776942}}

{{item:776945}}

### Making It Negative

Because **داشتن** skips the continuous prefix **می‌**, making it negative is very straightforward. You do not use the combined negative continuous prefix **نمی‌**. You simply attach the standard negative prefix **نـ** directly to the verb.

- **داشتم** (I had) becomes **نداشتم** (I didn't have / I didn't use to have)
- **داشتند** (They had) becomes **نداشتند** (They didn't have / They didn't use to have)

{{item:776950}}

{{item:776951}}

### Asking Questions

Questions follow the same simple structure. When asking yes/no questions about what someone possessed, you can just change your intonation or start the sentence with **آیا**.

{{item:776947}}

{{item:776953}}

Past continuous of to have (dâshtam)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

phrase

prefix

preposition

pronoun

sentence

suffix

verb

Singular pronouns and copula (man, -am)

Plural pronouns and copula (mâ, -im)

Subject pronoun omission

Singular demonstratives (in, ân)

Plural demonstratives (inhâ, ânhâ)

Independent copula (hastam, hast)

Negative present copula (nistam, nist)

Yes/No questions (âyâ)

Regular plurals (-hâ)

Animate plurals (-ân)

Indefiniteness (yek)

Indefinite marker (-i)

Describing nouns (-e / -ye)

Possession (-e / -ye)

Singular possessives (-am, -at, -ash)

Plural possessives (-emân, -etân, -eshân)

Basic prepositions (dar, be, az, bâ)

Spatial prepositions (ru-ye, zir-e...)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yek, do, se...)

Numbers and singular nouns

Numbers 11 to 20 (yâzdah, davâzdah...)

Counting by tens to 100

Telling time (sâ'at)

The verb to have (dâram)

Negative to have (nadâram)

Basic word order (SOV)

Infinitives and present stems (-an)

Present indicative (mi-)

Negative present indicative (nemi-)

Compound verbs

Question words (che, kojâ)

How many (chand)

The definite object marker (râ)

Object pronouns (man râ, to râ)

Singular commands (be-)

Formal and plural commands (be- ... -id)

Negative commands (na-)

The present subjunctive (be-)

The negative present subjunctive (na-)

Must (bâyad)

Might (shâyad)

Wanting to do something (khâstan)

Being able to do something (tavânestan)

Forming the past stem

The simple past of to be (budan)

The simple past tense

Negative simple past (na-)

Attached object pronouns on verbs (-am, -at, -ash)

Comparative adjectives (-tar)

Basic conjunctions (va, ammâ, yâ)

Giving reasons (chon)

Adverbs of frequency and degree (hamishe, hargez, kheyli, kam)

Everyday actions (kâr kardan, bâz kardan)

Non-human plural subjects

Indefinite pronouns (kasi, chizi, jâyi)

Negative indefinite pronouns (hich-kas, hich-chiz, hich-jâ)

Reciprocal pronouns (hamdigar, yekdigar)

Reflexive pronouns (khod-)

Reflexive direct objects (khod râ)

Emphatic pronouns (khod)

The quantifier every (har)

The quantifier all (hame)

The quantifier some (ba'zi)

Another and other (-i digar)

Which (kodâm)

How much (cheghadr)

Comparisons of equality (mesl-e)

Superlative adjectives (-tarin)

Irregular comparatives and superlatives

Ordinal numbers (-om)

Pre-nominal ordinal numbers (-omin)

Fractions and percentages

Prepositions of theme (dar mored-e)

Prepositions of time (ghabl az, ba'd az)

Preposition of exclusion (bedun-e)

Resultative conjunctions (banâbarin, pas)

Hortative construction (biyâ, biyâyid)

The present progressive tense (dâram mi-)

The past continuous tense (mi-)

Negative past continuous (ne-mi-)

The past progressive tense (dâshtam mi-)

The past participle (-e)

Present perfect tense (-e-am, -e-ast)

Negative present perfect (na-)

Present perfect of compound verbs

Question	Answer
collection	مجموعهmajmu'e
coin	سکهsekke
gold	طلاtalâ
I had a collection of gold coins.	من یک مجموعه از سکه‌های طلا داشتم.man yek majmu'e az sekke-hâ-ye talâ dâshtam.
king	پادشاهpâdeshâh
treasure	گنجganj
secret / hidden (adjective)	مخفیmakhfi
wealth	ثروتservat
The king had a hidden treasure and a lot of wealth.	پادشاه یک گنج مخفی و ثروت زیاد داشت.pâdeshâh yek ganj makhfi va servat ziyâd dâsht.
antique	عتیقهatiqe
valuable	باارزشbâ'arzesh
They had valuable antiques in their house.	آنها در خانه‌ی خود عتیقه‌های باارزش داشتند.ânhâ dar khâne-ye khod atighe-hâye bâ-arzesh dâshtand.
crown	تاجtâj
Did the king have a gold crown on his head?	آیا پادشاه یک تاج طلا روی سر خود داشت؟âyâ pâdshâh yek tâj talâ ruye sar khod dâsht?
Nobody had a hidden treasure like this collection.	هیچ‌کس گنج مخفی مثل این مجموعه نداشت.hich-kas ganj-e makhfi mesl-e in majmu'e nadâsht.
My grandfather had valuable antique coins.	پدربزرگ من سکه‌های عتیقه‌ی باارزش داشت.pedar-bozorg-e man sekke-hâ-ye atighe-ye bâ-arzesh dâsht.
The thief did not have the crown and the wealth.	دزد تاج و ثروت را نداشت.dozd tâj va sarvat râ nadâsht.
We did not have those antiques.	ما آن عتیقه‌ها را نداشتیم.mâ ân atigheh-hâ râ nadâshtim.
jewel	جواهرjavâher
Did you have valuable gold jewelry?	آیا شما جواهر طلای باارزش داشتید؟âyâ shomâ javâher talâ-ye bâ-arzesh dâshtid?
I had a secret collection of jewels.	من یک مجموعه‌ی مخفی از جواهر داشتم.man yek majmu'e-ye makhfi az javâher dâshtam.
The poor man did not have the king's wealth.	مرد فقیر ثروت پادشاه را نداشت.mard-e faqir sarvat-e pâdeshâh râ nadâsht
I am not a king, but I had a jeweled crown.	من پادشاه نیستم، اما یک تاج جواهر داشتم.man pâdeshâh nistam, ammâ yek tâj-e javâher dâshtam.
They had gold coins and a lot of wealth.	آنها سکه‌های طلا و ثروت زیاد داشتند.ânhâ sekke-hâye talâ va servat ziyâd dâshtand.