Reported commands

Medical Advice and Commands

When describing a visit to the doctor, you will often need to talk about examinations, prescriptions, and instructions.

To report a command (like "The doctor told me to..."), Farsi doesn't use an infinitive verb. Instead, it uses گفتن (to tell) connected by که (that) to the Present Subjunctive form of the action verb.

Notice that you use the preposition به to indicate who was told.

To report a negative command ("told me not to"), simply make the subjunctive verb negative by adding the نـ prefix.

Reporting Requests with خواستن

If a medical professional asked you to do something, use the verb خواستن (to want).

While به is used with telling, remember that in Farsi, you ask "from" someone using the preposition از. The structure remains exactly the same: از + [person] + خواستن + که + Present Subjunctive.

Expressing Purpose with تا

Health coaching usually comes with a reason! To explain why you were told to do something, use تا (so that / in order to). Just like که, تا is followed by the Present Subjunctive.