The Past Perfect Passive
When describing the aftermath of an event—like arriving at a crime scene or an abandoned location—you often need to talk about actions that had been completed before a specific moment in the past. For this, Farsi uses the Past Perfect Passive.
To form it, take the past participle of the main verb and add the past perfect of the auxiliary شدن (to become). For a singular subject, this auxiliary is شده بود.
Many verbs related to crime, investigation, and destruction are compound verbs ending in کردن (to do). To make these passive, simply drop کردن and replace it with شده بود.
| The corpse had been moved before the police arrived. | جسد قبل از رسیدن پلیس جابهجا شده بود.jasad qabl az residan-e polis jâbejâ shode bud |
| The victim's car had been surrounded. | ماشین قربانی محاصره شده بود.mâshin-e qorbâni mohâsere shode bud |
Plural Subjects
When the passive subjects are plural—such as multiple clues, stolen objects, or victims—the plural auxiliary شده بودند is used.
| Both the safes and the museum had been looted. | هم گاوصندوقها و هم موزه غارت شده بودند.ham gâvsandoogh-hâ va ham mooze ghârat shode boodand. |
| The victims had been taken to the forest. | قربانیها به جنگل برده شده بودند.ghorbâniha be jangal borde shode boodand. |
Negative Statements
To state that something had not been done, add the negative prefix نـ directly to the auxiliary. This changes the auxiliary to نشده بود (singular) or نشده بودند (plural).
| The safe had been tampered with, but nothing had been stolen. | گاوصندوق دستکاری شده بود، اما هیچچیز دزدیده نشده بود.gâvsandogh dastkâri shode bud, ammâ hich-chiz dozdide nashode bud. |
| The bank had been surrounded, but it had not been looted. | بانک محاصره شده بود، ولی غارت نشده بود.bânk mohâsere shode bud, vali ghârat nashode bud. |
Sequencing Past Events
The past perfect passive is excellent for storytelling. It is frequently paired with other past-tense verbs (like the past continuous or simple past) to establish what the conditions were by the time a later action occurred.
| When we were arriving, the bridge had been destroyed. | وقتی که ما داشتیم میرسیدیم، پل تخریب شده بود.vaghti ke mâ dâshtim miresidim, pol takhrib shode bud. |
| The murderer had fired a bullet, but the weapon had been tampered with. | قاتل یک گلوله شلیک کرده بود، اما سلاح دستکاری شده بود.qâtel yek golule shalik karde bud, ammâ selâh dastkâri shode bud. |