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### The Past Continuous Passive

When talking about historical events, traditional manufacturing, or how things used to be done, you often describe ongoing processes or repeated actions in the past. If the focus is on the object receiving the action, Farsi uses the **Past Continuous Passive**.

To form this, combine the past participle of the main verb (the past stem + **ه**) with the past continuous form of **شدن** (to become/to get). For a singular subject, the auxiliary verb is **می‌شد**.

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### Plural Subjects

You have seen that plural inanimate subjects (like buildings or documents) frequently take a singular verb in Farsi. However, when emphasizing that an action was repeatedly done to multiple individual items—such as weaving multiple carpets or sending stacks of letters—speakers often use the plural auxiliary **می‌شدند**.

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### Compound Verbs

Many verbs used for traditional trades and historical actions are compound verbs. For compound verbs ending in **کردن** (to do), making them passive is straightforward: drop **کردن** entirely and replace it with **می‌شد** or **می‌شدند**.

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If the compound verb is formed with a different auxiliary like **دادن** (to give), you must use its past participle (e.g., **داده**) alongside the passive auxiliary.

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### Setting the Scene in the Past

The past continuous passive is very common in complex sentences to describe the background state of a story. It naturally follows past-tense verbs of knowing, saying, or waiting, describing the ongoing routines that were happening at the time.

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Past continuous passive (mi-shod / mi-shodand)

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-)

Past continuous of to have (dâshtam)

The past progressive tense (dâshtam mi-)

The past participle (-e)

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

Negative present perfect (na-)

Question	Answer
carpet	قالیqâli
method	روشravesh
manual	دستیdasti
to weave	بافتنbâftan
In the past, every carpet used to be woven manually.	در گذشته، هر قالی با روش دستی بافته می‌شد.dar gozashte, har qâli bâ ravesh-e dasti bâfte mishod.
wheat	گندمgandom
carriage	کالسکهkâleske
to transport	حمل کردنhaml kardan
Wheat used to be transported to the city by carriage.	گندم با کالسکه به شهر حمل می‌شد.gandom bâ kâleske be shahr haml mishod.
sword	شمشیرshamshir
to shape	شکل دادنshekl dâdan
Swords used to be shaped in the workshop with this method.	شمشیرها با این روش در کارگاه شکل داده می‌شدند.shamshirhâ bâ in ravesh dar kârgâh shekl dâde mishodand.
messenger	پیکpeyk
Before the internet, every message used to be sent by courier.	قبل از اینترنت، هر پیام با پیک فرستاده می‌شد.qabl az internet, har payâm bâ peyk ferestâde mishod.
He said that carpets used to be woven manually.	او گفت که قالی‌ها با روش دستی بافته می‌شدند.u goft ke qâlihâ bâ ravesh dasti bâfte mishodand.
Every day, they used to wait in the workshop until the swords were shaped.	آنها هر روز در کارگاه صبر می‌کردند تا شمشیرها شکل داده می‌شدند.ânhâ har ruz dar kârgâh sabr mikardand tâ shamshirhâ shekl dâde mishodand.
They knew that wheat used to be transported by carriage.	آنها می‌دانستند که گندم با کالسکه حمل می‌شد.ânhâ midânestand ke gandom bâ kâleske haml mishod.
Letters used to be sent by courier.	نامه‌ها با پیک فرستاده می‌شدند.nâme-hâ bâ peyk ferestâde mishodand.
We knew that cars used to be built by hand.	ما می‌دانستیم که ماشین‌ها با دست ساخته می‌شدند.mâ mi-dânestim ke mâshin-hâ bâ dast sâkhte mi-shodand.
Every sword used to be made for the king.	هر شمشیر برای پادشاه ساخته می‌شد.har shamshir barâye pâdshâh sâkhte mishod.
The carpet used to be woven with wool.	قالی با پشم بافته می‌شد.qâli bâ pashm bâfte mishod.
The messenger always used to wait until the letter was written.	پیک همیشه صبر می‌کرد تا نامه نوشته می‌شد.peyk hamishe sabr mikard tâ nâme neveshte mishod.