When talking about ancient history or archaeological digs, we often need to describe things that happened before another event in the past. To do this, we use the past perfect tense.
Forming the Past Perfect
The past perfect tense (ماضی بعید) is built using the past participle of the main verb, followed by the simple past tense of بودن (to be).
To form it, take the past participle (the past stem + ـه) and add the conjugated past forms of بودن: بودم، بودی، بود، بودیم، بودید، بودند.
| The archaeologist had seen the ruin before the trip. | باستانشناس قبل از سفر، ویرانه را دیده بود.bâstânshenâs qabl az safar, virâne râ dide bud. |
| The king had built this great empire. | پادشاه این امپراتوری بزرگ را ساخته بود.pâdeshâh in emperâturi-ye bozorg râ sâkhte bud. |
| Some of the students had gone to the ruins of that civilization. | بعضی از دانشجوها به ویرانههای آن تمدن رفته بودند.ba'zi az dâneshjuhâ be virâne-hâ-ye ân tamaddon rafte budand. |
Compound Verbs in the Past Perfect
Just like in the present perfect, when using compound verbs, only the "light verb" (such as کردن) changes. The non-verbal part of the compound verb remains unchanged and sits right in front of it.
For example, for کشف کردن (to discover), the light verb changes to کرده بودم، کرده بودی, and so on.
| They had discovered an ancient civilization. | آنها یک تمدن باستانی کشف کرده بودند.ânhâ yek tamaddon bâstâni kashf karde budand |
| Some of the workers had excavated the tomb. | بعضی از کارگرها مقبره را حفاری کرده بودند.ba'zi az kârgarhâ maqbare râ hafâri karde budand |
| Before the rain, we had discovered that statue. | قبل از باران، ما آن مجسمه را کشف کرده بودیم.qabl az bârân, mâ ân mojassame râ kashf karde budim. |